The truth about overlooking experience for emerging talent

There is a lot to consider when deciding whether to hire for experience or for potential, but as experienced executives remain in hot demand, it’s time you consider the latter.

No doubt you’ve heard about the need for agility in your insurance team of late, and with this comes the need for team members with strong soft skills and digital/tech knowledge – not necessarily experience. We’ve broken down the pro’s and how to’s of hiring Graduates and Junior Executives so you can consider emerging talent for your next hire.

Pro’s of hiring young talent:

1. Get a fresh perspective in your business

Innovation and agility have been popular topics in the insurance industry recently. A fresh perspective can be the point of difference in achieving new goals and may be what you’ve overlooked in your strategy thus far. Hiring graduate talent and listening to their perspectives and ideas can positively impact innovation and your bottom line.

2. Boost your digital presence

Generation Z are undoubtably digital natives, and as graduates they are basically the most affordable tech experts you’ll find. Utilise their fantastic digital knowledge in your business and give your digital strategy a reboot – maybe even your social media as well! Technology is engrained in their day-to-day life and processes, so use this to your advantage.

3. Reduce costs

Although young talent has some additional costs associated with initial training requirements, their salary is much lower in comparison to hiring experienced executives. This greatly outweighs the difference in payroll cost if you have the capacity to provide training. Bonus – graduates have just spent the past 3+ years in a learning environment, they are accustomed to learning and developing their skill set.

4. Positive cultural shift

Hiring young talent can be great for the working environment as they often possess qualities such as positivity, enthusiasm, optimism and ambition. If you want to improve your workplace culture ensure you seek an employee who possesses the qualities that will likely give the morale boost you are seeking.

How to entice these young candidates to join you?

To promote your role successfully to these young candidates who are most likely members of Generation Z, you first need to understand them. Here are some trending topics and needs for members of Gen Z…

1. Offer the use of digital / tech and allow them to be experts in that area – give them responsibility and autonomy here.

2. Have strong focus on corporate social responsibility. Generation Z are highly passionate about issues surrounding climate change and are not prepared to work for companies who do more harm than good.

3. Offer true flexibility allowing for work/life balance. Gen Z have the least experience with traditional 9-5 type work hours, and they don’t particularly care to opt into these traditions. If you have the ability to offer flexible start/end times or days worked, you will put yourself ahead of many competitors and appeal to the best talent

4. They can be risk-averse with a compliance focus, so assign them tasks accordingly – use this to your advantage where needed and don’t scare them off.

Read more recruiting tips and tricks here.

If you have a position you need help recruiting for, let us know on this page and we will contact you directly!