Demographics and the workplace evolution

Have you thought about your workplace recently? Have you thought about what you like about your current job? What you don’t like?? Have you thought about the things that are important to you in terms of your job satisfaction? Perhaps you lead a very healthy lifestyle and value the employee gym discount. Maybe you have young children and find flexible work hours important. Or you value the quiet life outside of a big city, hate driving and wouldn’t want to do without your work place’s telecommuting option.

Now did you know that your employer is likely thinking about all those things as well? Industry employers are trying to figure out what makes their employees happy, what makes them enjoy their work and their work environment, and ultimately, what makes them stick around… or even if they leave, what makes them come back. (Because in an industry as intimate as the property & casualty insurance industry, more employers are understanding that people may leave your organization, but that during the lifespan of their career, they are likely to cycle back.)

To help employees weigh in on their career perspectives, and to help employers provide perspective on current and future workforce issues, the Insurance Institute has commissioned the Conference Board of Canada to survey property & casualty industry employees and executives, as part of the third round of demographic research that is currently underway. Your Institute has been spearheading this type of research in our industry for 10 years now. We believe that the findings have helped the industry anticipate and prepare for demographic shifts and have given employers important information about changes in the workforce.

Complete the employee survey to have your say
You have hopefully already received – and ideally already completed –this insurance industry employee survey, which is currently in field. If your own employer was able to participate, you would have received an email from your HR department providing you the survey link. Otherwise, you should have received an email from the Insurance Institute directly on October 24th.

The employee survey really helps you share with us about how you feel working in the insurance industry and what are some of the changes you are experiencing in the industry may be impacting you now and in the future.

If you haven’t completed the survey yet – there’s still time! The survey closes on the 30th of November.

CIP designation – your portable credentials
Having been privy to some of the initial findings coming out of phase one of the research project, I can share that whereas today 91% of employees work in regular full-time roles, HR representatives indicated that two years from now, it is anticipated that 76% of employees will work in regular full-time roles, giving way to an increase in temporary full-time and more part-time roles. Now, we can speculate for the reasons behind this change – one possible and positive reason would be that mature workers could be transitioned to part-time roles before they fully retire.

Anecdotally, we know that the workplace landscape is becoming more freelance, and in this environment, the importance of having your CIP designation becomes quite evident. When we need to make ourselves stand out as proven insurance professionals, there is no doubt that your CIP is a recognized industry-wide standard. The CIP Society continues to promote the designation to ensure that there’s awareness outside of our industry as well with the insurance-buying public. (Check out the Institute’s latest Postmedia campaign.)

Stay tuned for more
I know that I am personally very excited about the research reports, which are scheduled to be published next fall. You can read more about the research in this issue from the project’s lead, Margaret Parent, director of the Professionals’ Division.

While we wait the final reports, the Institute will continue to release highlights from each stage of the research, so I urge you to stay tuned in.

Mike Kosturik, BA, FCIP
Chair, National CIP Society