The secrets of preserving human capital according to the CEO of Cooperative Insurance
According to the financial news report, “the semi-permeable shell of the insurance industry for the exchange of human capital along with the review of challenges and opportunities” became the topic of the round table that you will read below. The questions are actually:
Basically, what indicators to evaluate the maintenance and improvement of knowledge and skills of human capital in the three areas of headquarters, technology and sales network can help us analyze the situation? Second, based on the scientific criteria, what lessons do they teach us about the state of human capital in insurance companies, and what should be done for the transition from non-permeable shell to semi-permeable shell of the insurance industry for the exchange of human capital? A semi-permeable membrane is a type of membrane that allows specific molecules and ions to pass through. Selective permeability is a feature in cells that membranes have the power of choice to pass molecules and ions in and out. The participants in the round table were Majid Bakhtiari, one of the experienced people in the insurance industry; Yunus Mazloumi, CEO of Cooperative Insurance Company; Mohammad Zahidnia, a member of the board of directors of Sarmad Insurance Company, and Pari Mirzaei, a member of the professional association of the insurance industry.
On this basis, Yunus Mazloumi, CEO of Cooperative Insurance, stated in this round table regarding the issues raised: I always believe that insurance companies have two capitals; One is the financial capital that every company has and operates based on it, and the other is human capital. In insurance companies, the issue of human capital is far more important; Because insurance companies are in the group of service companies, on the other hand, the issue of human capital in service businesses is far more important than human resources in production businesses; On the other hand, among service businesses, the insurance industry is very important; Because it is included in the financial services group, which is very complex; Therefore, the discussion of human capital in insurance companies is very important; When we look at the history of terminology and words that exist in the field of labor force, we realize that the word “manpower” was used in the literature 50 years ago or 100 years ago. Human capital means human capital. This transition shows how much the importance of people and people in organizations has increased.
He added: Based on the explanations provided, we come to the conclusion that this issue is 10 times more important in insurance companies than in a factory that produces matches or cars, because if quality matches are not produced, it can be removed from the production cycle. But this does not happen in insurance; If the manpower of the insurance industry misbehaves with the insured or the injured party or the agent or the broker, it cannot be removed and reproduced from scratch. The difference between the service and the product is that the product can be out of stock or replaced with a higher quality product during the quality control stage; But such a thing is not possible in the service and in the insurance industry this issue is more important; On the other hand, in insurance, as in any other business, what is important is that in the recruitment phase, it is necessary to attract high-quality personnel, to maintain them well, and finally to develop people.
The CEO of Cooperative Insurance added: What is important in the recruitment phase is merit selection and then meritocracy. In every part of insurance companies, naturally, competent people need different backgrounds; In other words, we may need a strong person in the field of accounting in the finance department of the insurance company; But in the reliance department, we need a force that, for example, has good information about reliance contracts; So the skills are different; In general, we in insurance companies need those who first have good insurance knowledge; In fact, in terms of learning the theory of insurance, have quality learning and know insurance well; But knowing insurance is not enough; Because if they know insurance well and are smart too; But if people are not healthy and honest, they will hit the insurance company much more and more severely; Therefore, another indicator is honesty.
Mazloumi also stated: The third indicator is business intelligence; In fact, people should be able to understand their work environment well. Another indicator is the ability to learn. I always consider insurance to be like playing the piano or driving, in fact, playing the piano is not possible with theoretical training, neither is driving. The term that foreigners have is that insurance is learning by doing; Therefore, another indicator is the ability to learn; some do not have the ability to learn; For example, a person may work in an insurance company; But after 10 years, he has not learned much; But some may learn things in the first few months; Of course, this depends on what part of the insurance company they are working in; For example, in the part where they deal with clients, they must have behavioral skills, such as dealing with customers, or if they work in a part of the insurance company where they have to communicate with other colleagues, they must have teamwork skills. All these must be in The stage of recruitment or merit selection should be considered.
In the following, the CEO of Cooperative Insurance answered the question, “Can we say that the genetics of the insurance industry needs a little mutation?” He said: I have invented a word called “knowledge gap”. Where does the knowledge gap come from? Iran had four insurance companies named Iran, Asia, Alborz and Dana until the beginning of 2008, and in the last 19 years, from 2002 to 2001, the number of insurance companies has reached 35 and will soon reach 40. But in the last 19 years, human skills, power and capital have not been developed as much as 10 times; For example, at one time we had four branches in Isfahan city; But today we have 30 branches and we must have a manager for each branch; Lack of cultivation and lack of skill development has caused this gap; In fact, we have a skills and knowledge gap and all the forces that have entered the insurance industry do not have the capabilities, characteristics, competencies and skills necessary to do the job.
In the continuation of this proposition, it was addressed to him that “it is natural that an insurance company is established and the necessary human resources are attracted and during a period of time, they acquire the necessary skills and acquire the necessary knowledge.” And he said: Yes, this issue remains exactly like if the number of doctors in society is low; But if we have a lot of internet that is learning, this process has its own consequences; Let me mention a few points about the current situation of the insurance industry; The first point is that education in the insurance industry is mainly carried out by universities and at the undergraduate level of insurance management.
Mazloumi was also asked to explain about “the structure of university education and after university and before being recruited to an insurance company and while working in an insurance company” and he stated: We have many weaknesses in this field. In the world, insurance education is usually done by a series of institutes that are in charge of professional education. But insurance education in Iran is done in universities; Unfortunately, the output of these universities, especially after the activities of Azad University and a series of other universities, including scientific and applied, is not a quality output; In this way, one of the cases in the study of the current situation of education is that human resources and human capital are not subject to high-quality education. Another challenge is that despite the high unemployment rate and the daily recruitment orders for insurance companies, we are facing a lack of skills.
The CEO of Cooperative Insurance continues to the question that “does not exist human resources with the necessary skills or do they exist; But are they weak? He answered like this: We have an education discussion and a skill discussion. Knowledge is acquired in universities and educational institutions and skills are acquired while working. But the skill is not produced as much as needed. I believe; Skill in insurance is produced by doing.
He added: Another point about the current situation, which is a weakness for insurance companies, is that performance evaluation is not done at a quality level; Basically, we don’t have a lot of performance evaluation, or if we do, we don’t have it at the individual level, or it’s based on inferences, not based on performance; For example, a manager gives his employee an evaluation score of 70 or 80 out of 100, and… that is the whole evaluation, while there are 360-degree evaluations that are based on performance or based on the perception of that person.
The CEO of Cooperative Insurance also stated: Another thing that I have had a lot of trouble with in Cooperative Insurance these days is the issue of migration. In fact, every month one of my good employees migrates abroad. Therefore, in the current situation, the migration of elite forces is considered one of the challenges.
Mazloumi clarified: Another issue is the high rate of transfer of human resources in insurance companies. In fact, a workforce goes from one company to another and returns to the same company after two years.
He further said: Another point is the cultural issue, in fact, job satisfaction is not only for the insurance industry. I am on LinkedIn and I know that almost 90% of posts on LinkedIn are insulting to the employer. In fact, an employee has the right to go to another insurance company at the end of the year and after the end of his contract; But if the employer tells him that I am not satisfied with your performance and you do not come from the beginning of Farvardin, it is Shamar bin Dhi al-Jawshan.
The CEO of Cooperative Insurance was also asked, “How much did you try to solve this problem and reach a common understanding?” And how successful were you in this understanding?” And he said: naturally we try hard; Because human power is equivalent to human capital for us, and maintaining them is very important for us. I measure the turnover rate and try to keep it as low as possible; Because we spend a lot of money on our human resources to train them and make all their mistakes in the organization, if they want to go to another insurance company, the organization will suffer.
He added: Even in the best companies in the world, the quit rate never reaches zero, the quit rate always accounts for a percentage even in the best year. Job satisfaction has a detailed discussion that cannot be discussed in this round table. In my opinion, senior managers of insurance companies have not tried to increase the level of job satisfaction of their colleagues. Another challenge is that, unfortunately, due to the economic conditions of the country, the discussion of service compensation or payments in the insurance industry does not match the economic realities of life. Today, insurance companies put their financial statements in Kodal, and we can obtain the average payments to the employees of insurance companies; But the average payouts are very low. Therefore, one of our problems in the human resources sector in the insurance industry is the payments sector.
Mazloumi also stated: Another issue is how many insurance companies are in the private sector? When we don’t have a real private sector, i.e. these are properties or are connected to foundations or institutions or military bodies or state banks; Therefore, for the shareholders and the board of directors, profit and loss are prioritized and the damage to the company is not important. Therefore, since we do not have a real private sector, we do not look at human capital from a long-term perspective.
He emphasized: Another problem is the low rate of human capital productivity in insurance companies; Sometimes, due to weak management, the necessary productivity does not happen for the existing human resources.
The CEO of Cooperative Insurance further said: Another problem is comparing salaries with fees; That is, I, the employee in the branch, may regularly compare my salary with the fee of a representative, and this creates a challenge and causes demotivation. In fact, employees think to themselves that they bear the main burden; But in the end, it is the representative who earns more. This is a detailed issue that should be discussed in its place.
Mazloumi also explained: I would like to add a point to the weaknesses in the field of human capital, and that is that the insurance industry is a part of Iran’s economy, and 23,000 employees of the insurance industry and 100,000 representatives are also part of this society, and by the way, when the insurance industry is compared with the rest We compare sectors, it receives a very high score compared to other industries, it may not rank first; But it ranks high; Because there are centers that measure human resources in terms of job satisfaction, job rotation, job leave and other things and provide you with them; Recently, I received the indicators and numbers related to each of these indicators from the Iran Talent website and compared them with my company and noticed a huge difference between the two. In any case, the insurance industry receives a very good score compared to the average of other businesses.
In the final part of his speech, he concluded as follows: In my opinion, the most important and main work in the field of human resources is to maintain the discussion, I believe that migrations and leaving work and going to other companies cause the greatest damage to organizations; If we can keep the human force that we have trained ourselves in our company, we have done the most important thing.
Mazloumi continued: Another point is learning by doing. There is a section on the website of the largest insurance company in the world, Munich, which means that we accept interns to work in Munich. This is the same medical system in our country, which has a master-apprentice status, and the interns receive training from a professor who is higher than themselves, and… in insurance, there should be a similar process. In fact, people should not get a bachelor’s degree from a university and then look for employment. One of the best and most successful work in our country was done during a period in the Faculty of Economics and Finance, when students worked in an insurance company in the morning until 2 o’clock in the afternoon and attended proper classes from 2 o’clock to 8 o’clock in the evening. The graduates of that course are people who have many skills in insurance and most of them have been placed in senior positions in the insurance industry. This model, in my opinion, was a very successful model that was unfortunately abandoned. In fact, if training happens at the same time as skill acquisition, we get very good results.
Source: Novin insurance monthly