How McGannon Foundation is approaching talent recruitment

With massive retirements on the horizon for the Canadian P&C insurance industry, one organization is taking a multi-faceted approach to address the ‘talent crisis.’ 

The McGannon Foundation is ‘laser-focused’ on promoting the risk management and insurance profession in Canada through unique and distinct scholarships and student involvement programs, board member Hobby Pardo tells Canadian Underwriter. It’s also looking at the possibility of other initiatives, such as a program of internships and expanding existing college insurance programs. 

McGannon Foundation’s student involvement program involves funding participation in the annual RIMS Canada conference, including flights and accommodations. The expectation is students will register for educational content during the day and engage in networking in the evening, says Pardo, who is also a senior vice president in the Complex Risk Solutions Group at NFP. 

McGannon Foundation awards scholarships and student involvement to loss control engineers, claims adjusters and future company risk managers, for example. “I mean that quite broadly in the sense of whatever risks within those organizations that are really critical to that organization,” Pardo says. “So, we do look at that much broader than just the insurance industry.” 

Both scholarship awards and student involvement programs have seen record-high numbers already this year, Pardo adds. The foundation recently awarded 11 scholarships of $4,000, with students attending schools in B.C., Alberta and Ontario. It also sent 12 students to the RIMS Canada conference in Ottawa last September. 

Related: How industry professionals are tackling talent recruitment  

Pardo says the foundation is looking at three other initiatives in the long-term. The first is a program of internships. This would involve raising money and providing it to companies that would then use those funds to hire students. These students would then have real, on-the-job learning over a three- to six-month period, for example. 

There also needs to be a call to action for donations to the foundation, Pardo adds. “For the McGannon Foundation to be successful and to help our industry, we need donors. We rely on donors.” 

The second initiative the foundation is working on involves having a risk manager on campus, Pardo says. “So, we hire a really experienced industry professional, have her or him guest lecture an entire course or on a regular basis, [and] bring some very practical stories and knowledge to the students to essentially add to all the academic and book knowledge they’re already getting.” 

The third initiative is expanding existing college insurance programs. “Maybe there’s a one-year program that we can convert into a two-year, or a two-year into a three-year,” Pardo says. “So, we would get involved in building new courses, looking at existing syllabuses and expanding on them. 

“We are looking at creating an advisory committee, so we’ll invite industry folks to let us know what sort of skills sets [they are] looking for so that we can make sure that these students are very well-prepared to enter the workforce.” 

Related: Knowledge transfer key as senior leaders retire: Demographic report

McGannon Foundation also wants to give young professionals experiential learning. In that vein, the foundation has modelled a risk management challenge after what its sister organization, Spencer Educational Foundation, does in the U.S.  

It involves a volunteer company that has written a real-life case study, Pardo says. “We’ve invited university teams across Canada to form and to write comprehensive risk management reports that identify the risks of this real-life case study and describe how those students would manage those risks.” 

University teams compete against each other, judged by seasoned industry reps. The top three will be given an opportunity to present their written case studies to a large audience or even prospective future employers, Pardo says. “It’s probably the closest thing you can get to a real-life job while you’re still a full-time undergrad student at university.” 

The industry’s talent crisis worries Pardo, who points to statistics showing mass retirements and lack of interest among young people to enter the industry. There is also normal attrition, like any other industry. 

“There are statistics out there like eight out of 10 Millennials report having very little understanding of what career opportunities look like in this industry,” he says. “I hear things like 44% of Millennials do not find a career in insurance interesting. 

“I see a scenario where there’s going to be this large, disproportionate population leaving risk and insurance. We now need to think about the generation that follows.”  

Feature image by iStock.com/FatCamera