Succession planning: developing the senior manager talent of the future

In these days of talent shortages, bringing on the next generation is more important than ever – succession planning matters, whether that is to ensure competent managers ready to take on more senior roles or to maximise the value of a business in preparation for sale.

The days of the autocrat broker are also long gone. The British Insurance Brokers’ Association recognised this years ago. As a preponderance of suited and booted middle-aged men did not represent a changing sector, it launched an award and dedicated day for younger brokers at its annual conference.

There’s a perception that this is boring work and we’ve no appeal for those who are into vlogging or Love Island. We’re seen as people in suits and not offering a dynamic culture, whereas this is not the case.

Paul Huntley

Likewise, insurers realised that spending a fortune on ‘club’ activities for a senior elite was poor value. It makes more sense to uncover talent at lower levels; those who deal with clients, are in touch with technology and are tomorrow’s leaders.

So, golf days have been replaced by training, including the rise of formally structured insurer ‘academies’ to help brokers tackle succession planning.

Leadership programme

RSA set up its Broker Leadership Programme in 2015. Around 10 to 14 brokers attend over seven months, receiving training a couple of times a month. Each attendee learns new skills from external experts and has an RSA mentor.

Alex Hardy, RSA’s sales and distribution director, says: “The aim is to deliver future leaders via accelerated learning. We try to link it to a live business problem or a new project, developing skills and finding solutions. There’s also a lot of networking.”

The aim is to bring the brokers together and get them away from the day job. We let them see there’s a clear career path all the way to managing director if that’s what they want.

Alex Hardy

Attendees are largely from brokers, although it is also open to managing general agent staff. Paul Huntley was an attendee in 2019 when he was head of private clients with Erskine Murray. This firm was acquired by PIB Insurance Brokers, and Huntley is now managing director of its private clients division – a much bigger role. The course stood him in good stead by helping him transition from a manager into a leader. 

“I run a much larger department now, and gained knowledge in a range of relevant areas like finance, forecasting and human resources, as well as management styles.”

Hybrid management

This has included managing staff who are now likely to be largely hybrid workers, ensuring there is supervision, but “also more trust”. Hardy says while attendees may well be out of their comfort zones, the course is also enjoyable. 

“Although we’ve done remote training, the aim is to bring the brokers together and get them away from the day job. They want to be there and there’s a lot of collaboration.”

Attendees are selected by an RSA panel and can apply directly or be nominated – Hardy emphasises that gaining a place is “not commercially dependent. Overall, we let them see there’s a clear career path all the way to managing director if that’s what they want.”

More broadly, Huntley adds that brokers need to do all they can to attract more young people into the sector.“

There’s a perception that this is boring work and we’ve no appeal for those who are into vlogging or Love Island.

“We’re seen as people in suits and not offering a dynamic culture, whereas this is not the case and hybrid working does now allow more flexibility.”

Ken Wright, head of broker development for Axa Commercial, explains the insurer’s “grow your people, grow your business” proposition has expanded significantly, and its focus is to “specifically, respond to the training needs of regional broker senior leadership teams and the future talent succession requirements, and deliver a range of training for front-line broker teams.

“More than 10 years after we first started on this journey, we have continued to make significant investment into this multitiered professional development training programme to nurture broker employees,” he says.

In addition, a new programme will focus on starters within broking, launching at this year’s Biba conference. The Brokerwise Passport is an induction programme, providing self-learning and invitations to immersive experience events, designed to introduce and build confidence around commercial insurance. 

It has training too for senior leaders and its Axa Together talent programme, which has a 50/50 split of Axa and broker delegates, is specifically aimed at the next generation of sector leaders.

Dip or Dive in

Nick Hobbs, chief distribution and regions officer for Allianz, says its broker training programme “provides a whole array of learning options, and has benefitted too many to count”. 

Hobbs adds: “We like to refer to the ‘dip in’ or ‘dive in’ approach, which means brokers can take short online courses, through Linked In learning, and by attending one of our topical webinars, or commit to a professional qualification via an apprenticeship.

“We’re the only insurer to offer an apprenticeship programme across three levels of Chartered Insurance Institute qualifications: L3, Cert CII, L4 Dip, CII and L6 ACII, developed with Davies Learning Solutions.

“The programme is broader than just professional qualifications and also champions diversity with a personalised complete pathway available at every stage of career, regardless of age or experience.”

Allianz will also shortly be launching a mentoring programme. 

“We have more than 20 experienced leader mentors who are looking forward to providing a new perspective on the insurance profession for those broker mentees who’d like to broaden their knowledge.”

Aviva’s Future Leadership Programme is now in its fifth year. Ryan Birbeck, distribution director – regional brokers, says some 98 brokers have attended, and some 27 are now running their own businesses, along with around six management buyouts taking place. There have also been at least 30 promotions within their own organisations, and 22 have achieved board level positions.

He continues: “Brokers sign up for the CII-accredited programme for two years, and they attend every other month for two days. 

“It’s quite challenging, so they start off with doing a presentation on themselves, which is filmed.

“We find out what their talents are and, apart from leadership, they also cover running a business such as analysing a profit and loss account. We bring in independent experts and also Aviva mentors.”

Online training is also valuable and Ecclesiastical’s series have achieved independently verified broker satisfaction levels of 100%.

Broker distribution director, Chris Withers says: “We target the invitations at those who we feel will value them the most, which will often be at a more junior level – anyone can watch the recordings, you don’t need an agency.”

Topics include improving sales skills and lead generation, presented by Andy Bounds, who was awarded a Britain’s ‘sales trainer of the year’ accolade.

We target the invitations at those who we feel will value them the most, which will often be at a more junior level – anyone can watch the recordings, you don’t need an agency.

Chris Withers

“If someone is looking to move into management, you need all around ability including in communication and presenting. The aim is about being more professional, rather than just selling more,” Withers adds.

Mental health

Ecclesiastical has also focused on mental health, and Withers says: “Stress was a big issue in our broker wellbeing survey, and we found an increasing number of brokers were affected. 

We worked with Mental Health in Business and our webinars address how to recognise and manage stress within yourself, colleagues and clients. It’s helped build resilience and understanding that the need to care for mental health is as important as first aid training.”

Other topics include using social media such as LinkedIn, understanding claims inflation, working towards net zero and regulation.

 “In some ways, this also has a connection to the mental health webinars – brokers have told us that regulation is one of the main reasons they can experience anxiety at work, so we’ve created content on topics like the Financial Conduct Authority’s Consumer Duty.”

Ecclesiastical also runs pop-up events around the UK. “These are aimed at meeting brokers in their communities, and we actively encourage those who are at lower levels to come along. 

“We’re investing a lot of time into supporting these younger brokers, and we’re delighted with what we’ve achieved so far,” Withers concludes.