Why are impartial insurance coverage companies going backwards with feminine management?

Girls outnumber males in impartial insurance coverage companies, making up virtually 60% of workers, however they continue to be underrepresented in management positions.

Nonetheless, new analysis suggests a regarding pattern: a possible decline in ladies in company management roles.

The State of Girls in Impartial Businesses report by Liberty Mutual and Safeco Insurance coverage has revealed that whereas ladies have made notable strides within the trade, progress appears to have slowed. This 12 months, solely 26% of girls surveyed mentioned they had been company principals or homeowners, in comparison with 29% in 2022.

“This 12 months, the analysis pointed to what could be the begin of a backslide of girls in company management,” mentioned Crista Walker (pictured), vp of agent engagement and applications at Liberty Mutual and Safeco Insurance coverage.

Walker steered the pattern displays broader societal shifts post-pandemic, echoing findings from different industries. She cited the IBM 2023 Girls in Management examine, which confirmed a decline in ladies holding practically each management place between junior positions and the C-suite since 2019.

“Whereas we had been initially stunned to see this, we’ve come to study that it’s a pattern that has been seen throughout different industries and factors to a niche within the pipeline to management post-pandemic,” Walker mentioned.

How ladies are bringing worth amid a difficult insurance coverage market

Liberty Mutual and Safeco Insurance coverage’s annual examine, now in its third 12 months, has tracked the progress in ladies’s illustration within the impartial company system and explored totally different aspects of this persisting difficulty.

Dubbed the 2024 Agent-Buyer Connection Examine, this 12 months’s version targeted on how ladies in companies are assembly buyer wants. It surveyed 1,133 impartial insurance coverage company leaders and crew members (together with 618 ladies) and 1,110 shoppers (together with 552 ladies).

Walker mentioned her crew was not stunned to seek out that the traits that girls already possess are aligned with the traits that clients need in an agent.

When requested in regards to the qualities they worth most in an impartial agent, P&C insurance coverage patrons cited “responsiveness,” an “potential to assist them perceive their insurance coverage choices” and “being proactive in figuring out consumer wants” as key traits that girls company workers mentioned had been amongst their prime strengths.

Amid unpredictable and difficult market circumstances, buyer satisfaction is paramount, and ladies in companies have been stepping as much as the plate.

“One of the vital telling takeaways from our newest analysis was that frontline company workers have already got many qualities that not solely make them nice in customer-facing roles but additionally make nice leaders,” Walker advised Insurance coverage Enterprise.

“Particularly, traits reminiscent of empathy and the power to take care of and join with clients are areas the place ladies are likely to shine, they usually translate effectively to management and administration abilities.”

Fixing the ‘damaged rung’ in company profession ladders

Liberty Mutual and Safeco Insurance coverage’s analysis begs the query: How can insurance coverage companies create extra management alternatives for girls that ship what insurance coverage clients worth? 

For Walker, addressing the “damaged rung” phenomenon that girls face is a wonderful first step.

“From my seat, a management hole can by no means be attributed to at least one factor – it’s at all times going to be a posh mixture of societal, particular person office and broader trade components,” she mentioned.

“The 2023 report particularly checked out illustration and what McKinsey has dubbed the ‘damaged rung,’ the place fewer ladies get promoted out of entry-level jobs, resulting in fewer ladies rising by means of the ranks.

“The ‘damaged rung’ isn’t a matter of lack of ambition, both. Our analysis discovered that 85% of girls in frontline roles can image themselves as an company chief. But, ladies had been much less probably than their male colleagues to say that their supervisor was creating them for management.

“Most of the boundaries ladies face – each systemic and particular person – don’t essentially preclude them from promotion, however they make it a lot tougher to achieve the subsequent degree. When one promotion is delayed, every subsequent step on the ladder takes longer to achieve, and the best rungs turn out to be much less and fewer attainable.”

What can impartial companies do to enhance ladies’s illustration in management roles?

There’s a vital alternative to foster profession development for girls in impartial companies, with company leaders taking part in a pivotal function in unlocking this potential, mentioned Walker.

To facilitate higher pathways to management for girls, insurance coverage company leaders should take three key actions: initiating career-driven conversations, presenting alternatives aligned with workers’ aspirations, and offering strong help all through their journey.

“Girls need to have simply as many career-driven conversations as their male colleagues, if no more, given the boundaries they face,” Walker mentioned.

These conversations should translate into tangible actions, she added, with leaders actively opening doorways to alternatives that align with workers’ future objectives, whether or not by means of stretch tasks, coaching alternatives, or inclusion in decision-making processes.

Leaders are additionally urged to supply tailor-made help to particular person workers as they pursue their aspirations by means of mentorship, eradicating inside or exterior boundaries, or reallocating workload to put the emphasis on their priorities.

Recognizing and celebrating ladies’s accomplishments can also be essential, given their distinctive challenges in self-promotion, balancing considerations round likeability and competency.

Lastly, flexibility in work preparations emerged as one other important facet, permitting ladies to raised stability work and life priorities with out compromising their profession development.

“My recommendation to insurance coverage companies could be to nurture ladies’s distinctive strengths in any respect ranges—from entry-level customer support consultant roles to producers and brokers to the highest ranges of management,” mentioned Walker.

“It’s not a matter of tailoring management alternatives to ladies’s strengths however quite of fostering these strengths over time and supporting ladies to find and embracing their genuine management fashion.”

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