THE greatest asset of any organisation is its people, it is said. I wish to add to this statement ‘… people with right skills’ because you may have people yet have no relevant skills.
Successful organisations like General Electric were able to succeed because of the emphasis on right skills approach by the ruthless Jack Welch as its chief executive officer.
This is because regardless of how good a strategy or vision of any company may be it requires people to deliver it. We cannot overemphasise this need to specialised service industries like insurance.
If this is neglected results will be telling in the long run.
Training can either be by examination through a professional body or internal by organisations to address specific needs/areas for specific individuals.
Understandably when staff are trained it creates capacity. It also helps them be up to date with latest developments in their field.
This is why all those who belong to professional bodies like the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) are subjected to do a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme as long as they remain members.
The starting point for any meaningful training programme is to know what the particular organization wants to achieve.
For insurers they need to have an underwriting strategy and then assess their present capacity, for example an insurer that focuses on agriculture should assess whether they have sufficient skills to underwrite that business.
Recently at the IAZ insurance conference Aoyomi Oluremi-Judah from Continental Re stressed the need for a detailed training programme for underwriters.
“If we don’t have detailed underwriting training programmes it will result in short comings” he remarked.
As alluded to above such training may mean sending people to school or training them internally or externally.
Zambia State Insurance Corporation then, did well in the later as they used to send people to places like the Lloyds of London and other places for considerable periods.
In the agriculture example, an insurer may wish to send people for attachment to another organization doing well in that area. This could be a reinsurer or another strategic partner.
It is no secret that we lag behind in some technical expertise in our industry, for example, why should we be outsourcing actuaries from Zimbabwe or South Africa?
Going back to Kenya again the regulator identified the gap for actuaries in their industry. They partnered with some school in the UK and the commission sponsors five students every year.
By the end of the programme Kenya will have about thirty qualified actuaries through this initiative.
In our industry we have a lot of trained people in other fields working in the insurance industry. While this is not bad in itself it poses a challenge in that the much needed specialized skills acquired through professional training are missing.
What we need is that those with other qualifications need to enroll for insurance qualifications so that they become qualified in their profession.
Let us look at how many insurance professionals Zimbabwe has produced.
From my little international exposure, many will agree that there are many Zimbabweans working in many countries across the world in insurance.
What can we learn from them?
Zimbabwe has been producing graduates in insurance and risk management and also actuaries from the National University of Science and Technology.
Compared to Zambia, in a long time we have had no degree in insurance until recently when University of Lusaka introduced one.
Our main point of formal training was Zambia Insurance Business College (ZIBCT) which is now Zambia College of Pensions and Insurance (ZCPI).
We also have Insurance Business Academy (IBA) in Lusaka which offers CII programmes.
An industry with well-trained people is a recipe for great success as it increases competence levels.
Let’s take the case of a medical doctor. If you go to a doctor you are confident and assured that he will be professional in dealing with you and you will do almost whatever he tells you as you hold him in high esteem.
Insurance companies need to be run by qualified professionals which I understand is a strict regulatory required for chief executive officers and will extend to other key positions.
Further insurers need to have internal training programmes to ensure that they have right people with right skills.
This evaluation should be the same at industry level as they did it in Kenya.
IAZ president asked during the conference why we should get mining insurance experts from the UK when copper comes from Zambia, it must be the other way round.
Let me end by stating that unless the industry takes training seriously, the underwriting excellence is likely to remain a proverb.
Comments: webster@picz.co.zm or webster_tj@hotmail.com or on face book search for Insurance Talk-Zambia page or call/text 0977 857 055
(The Author is a Chartered Insurer with more than 10 years industry experience)