Insurance, I was wrong about you.

As a 20-year-old, the idea of working in insurance never really appealed to me. To be honest, the whole idea seemed pretty dull. Before I became familiar with the industry, I saw insurance as this boring, old-school field, which people only got into because they knew someone in the business or just stumbled into it by chance. If you had asked me a few months ago to describe a typical insurance professional, I would have pictured an older man working for a car insurance company, or someone in a call centre.

Insurance misconceptions

I had no idea just how many roles exist within the industry; my knowledge was extremely limited. Looking back on those initial impressions, it’s clear that the insurance industry is significantly under-promoted, particularly to Gen Z. I didn’t know anyone who aspired to have a career in insurance. Among my business studies peers at university, the popular aspirations were marketing, finance, HR, or accounting – nobody mentioned insurance.

When I asked some of my friends what they thought about insurance, they had the same reaction as me. They viewed it as boring, corporate, and imagined the typical insurance character to be a middle-aged man in a suit, who has been in the industry for years and always at the pub. When I asked why they thought this, they pointed out how the insurance industry isn’t marketed or discussed enough with the younger generation. One of them even mentioned how they associated insurance with bad luck, like its only something you have to deal with when things go wrong. 

We aren’t the only ones

When I dug a little deeper into research, I found that this stereotype ‘the boring uncle’ of the financial services world, rings true for a lot of people (Pickup, 2022). Many think of insurance as confusing, lacking transparency, and not very diverse (Davies Talent Solutions). According to AdvantageGo (2024), young people are not exactly rushing towards an insurance career. In fact, if insurance is even on the radar, it’s definitely not in their top 10. As far back as 2015, millennials were already turning their noses up at the industry, perceiving it as ‘boring’ Faw, L. (2015). Unfortunately, this view persists even today, in 2024. 

How insurance can appeal to Gen Z

After a few months of joining Free Partners, I have gained knowledge of the insurance industry that has challenged my preconceived notions. Insurance isn’t dominated solely by middle-aged men in suits; instead, there is a diverse workforce and a huge range of roles. It has made me realise just how much the insurance industry needs to step up its marketing game. It needs to communicate its diversity and array of opportunities in a way that resonates with Gen Z; we’re drawn to eye-catching, trendy content that speaks our language and makes us want to be part of something important and bigger than ourselves. Insurance is all that on the inside. On the outside, there’s work to do.

References:

AdvantageGo. (2024). Coforge AdvantageGo Ltd. [online] Available at: https://www.advantagego.com/content/voi-podcast-on-what-do-teens-think-about-insurance/ [Accessed 04/09/2024].

Davies Talent Solutions. (n.d.). 3 reasons insurance needs to attract younger talent. [online] Available at: https://talent.davies-group.com/insights-and-events/3-reasons-insurance-needs-to-attract-younger-talent/#:~:text=Gen%20Z%2C%20the%20oldest%20of. [Accessed 04/09/2024].

Faw, L. (2015). Millennials Just Don’t Want To Be Insurance Agents. Forbes. [online] 30 Nov. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/larissafaw/2015/11/30/millennials-just-dont-want-to-be-insurance-agents/ [Accessed 04/09/2024].

Pickup, O. and Pickup, O. (2022). Insurance shakes off its ‘boring uncle’ persona. [online] Raconteur. Available at: https://www.raconteur.net/finance/insurance-shakes-off-its-boring-uncle-persona. [Accessed 04/09/2024].