Are you finding it even harder to get the right people into your organisation? Is it a struggle to get things done on time, on scope and on budget? Well, you are not alone. We are all suffering from a lack of quality human resources to be able to get the job done.
The Australian economy is booming. We need to build hundreds of thousands of new houses, new cities, and as we emerge from the languish of COVID, the world is ready to implement new ideas and innovation abounds. The problem is locating people to do the work.
The recent article in Insurance News’ The Broker discuss the challenges being faced to find skilled staff in the insurance industry. At the Steadfast conference, BAIS insurance technology asked delegates to tell us what they struggled with in respect to their insurance systems. We heard time and time again comments about having to double entry details into the Steadfast Client Trading Platform (formally SVU) and the desire for automated reports.
It got me thinking. Can we look at the human resource challenges another way to help alleviate some of the problem? If we can automate more of our back-office systems and eliminate double keying, that should free up existing employees to do more valuable work.
With the iBAIS platform, for example, we offer solutions other than to just keep throwing people at the problem. Here are some questions and observations worth considering.
Do more Online
Can your insurance system allow consumers to directly input their own details, get a quote, bind the risk and organise for payment? Is your system handsfree for an underwriting agency, allowing you to spend more time developing product and relationships, thus keeping your costs mostly fixed as you watch your revenue grow and profit margins improve. No need to recruit more people!
Avoid Double Keying of Data
We are constantly amazed at the amount of double keying of data in the insurance industry. We know some operators enter data three times, into different systems, in order to complete a transaction. It adds risk, as the level of accuracy of data entry is normally quite low, and indeed cost, because of the double and triple handling. iBAIS is built on a solid data base that is the “golden record” and it talks to all the major insurance trading platforms. Do it right, do it once.
Bordereau Automation
Insurance has become very data intensive in recent years. Those that are underwritten by Lloyd’s know the pain in reporting back via bordereaux. We hear stories of people having a person spend one week per month just collating their data to be able to report back to London. Your insurance system should let you hit a button and have these reports just churn out.
Labour resources in Australia are scarce and becoming ever more expensive. Some of the tasks we ask people to perform are mind numbingly boring. The answer is quite simple, and not new….. more automation and use of existing technologies.
So, if you are feeling the squeeze to find new employees, try looking at your systems and process and see if there is a way to reduce those and free up existing employees to solve at least part of the problem.
