The holidays seem to arrive earlier every year. Before you know it, your employees will be inundated with out-of-town guests, holiday travel, meal planning and gift shopping. Get ahead of the distractions with these tips to make sure your team stays on task for a productive holiday season.

It’s no secret the actuarial world has been facing a mid-level talent gap. In a white paper last year, “The Actuarial Talent Challenge: Combatting the Mid-Level Gap,” we examined some of the causes for this gap and ways insurers were working to close it. As we near the end of 2019, we’re taking a fresh look at the trends impacting the actuarial world and this still very relevant talent challenge.

Professional development is a vital component of employee engagement, retention and career satisfaction. Training magazine found U.S. companies spent about $87.6 billion on training and development in 2018. Amazon alone recently announced it’s investing an average of $7,000 per employee for voluntary training programs. As companies begin to reinvest in employees’ individual growth, it’s important these initiatives also contribute to larger business goals.

Insurance recruiting can be a delicate balance. On one hand, you’re trying to learn more about your candidate and express interest. On the other, you don’t want to seem as if you are desperate to fill a role, or the position itself is undesirable. As we approach Halloween, it’s time to take a step back and make sure you’re not “spooking” your candidates.

This piece is co-written by Tony Cañas, Client Advisor, and Sandy Zupancic, Vice President.

Insurers are facing a challenging recruiting climate, driven by mass Baby Boomer retirements, a low unemployment rate and continued job growth. There are currently about 250,000 open roles in finance and insurance alone, and not enough qualified individuals to fill them. Insurers that have been operating with lean workforces or tackling unforeseen workloads will likely feel the impact of this candidate-driven market at some point: overworked employees, lack of time for long-term projects and inadequate resources to modernize antiquated systems, to name a few.