Insurtech Talent Development in Hong Kong – From Insurance to Insurtech: Strategies for Building a Sustainable Talent Pipeline

38 From Insurance to Insurtech: Strategies for Building a Sustainable Talent Pipeline Among the UK insurers, the most pervasive digital and analytical skills used are in the categories of application development skills and data and analytics.77 The former covers programming and front- and back-end development; and the latter includes data science, data engineering, data analysis and data storage. Insurance businesses in the UK need workers with specialized technical skills who can update legacy platforms, raise new infrastructures, and seamlessly integrate novel technologies into the wider IT infrastructure.78 However, the number of potential employees with these skills are in short supply. McKinsey and Company’s research shows there is an urgent need for the insurers in the UK to put more effort into recruiting tech talent, reskilling their current employees, integrating new capabilities, and building a culture to sustain a talent pipeline.79 In summary, while the UK has recognized the key talent needs and major digital skill categories required by the industry, a deeper analysis of the skills gaps in each specific category and role within the insurance sector is still lacking. The lack of a precise skills gap assessment may hamper insurers’ formulation of talent solutions for the focus skills areas. In addition to the intense competition for tech talent with other industries and difficulties in attracting younger talents due to the entrenched public perceptions, the manpower challenge facing the UK can also be attributed to the absence of a central leading agency responsible for driving cross-industry talent development strategies and addressing the pain points identified. Singapore Singapore is one of the leading financial hubs of the world and has lately witnessed more startups and insurtech companies contributing towards the digital transformation of the insurance landscape. This has increased the competition in this space.80 Digital dashboards and apps have been launched by the insurance companies that have compatibility with the mobile devices for continuous real-time engagements with clients.81 77 McKinsey & Company (2020, June). Infusing tech talent into the UK insurance industry . https://www.mckinsey.com/ industries/financial-services/our-insights/insurance-blog/infusing-tech-talent-into-the-uk-insurance-industry 78 Manpower Group (2019, May). The Future of Insurance Recruitment . https://www.manpowergroup.co.uk/wp-content/ uploads/2019/05/MPG-The-Future-of-Insurance-Recruitment-Whitepaper-Web.pdf 79 McKinsey & Company (2020, June). Infusing tech talent into the UK insurance industry . https://www.mckinsey.com/ industries/financial-services/our-insights/insurance-blog/infusing-tech-talent-into-the-uk-insurance-industry 80 Randstad Singapore (2020, November). Insurance Market and Talent Trends 2020 . https://info.randstad.com.sg/ hubfs/04.%20SG/Files/Randstad%20Singapore%20-%20Insurance%20Market%20and%20Talent%20Trends%202020.pdf 81 Ibid.