It was the early 1990s. As I looked around at the familiesattending annual meetings for the American Association of Managing General Agents— many of our member businesses were family-ownedoperations back then — I noticed the youngerfolks were increasingly taking on responsibilities within thosebusinesses.

They had joined us to learn and network, but we hadn't yetfigured out a way to cater to their needs as the next generation ofwholesale insurance leadership.

On a trip to England, I was introduced to the Lloyd's Under 30club and had a chance to converse with them. These were bright,intelligent and eager young professionals who were networking withone another and sharing invaluable lessons they were learning asthey progressed within their respective insurance careers. I lovedthe energy. More importantly, I saw a model for addressing thegrowing needs of AAMGA's youngest members: a group that would helpnurture young professionals, speak to their specific concerns andissues, and help them become industry leaders.

I took the idea back to AAMGA. When I presented the concept toour younger members, not only did they like it, they told me theyhad already been meeting informally on their own. We presented theidea to the board and created the Under Forty committee. I'm proudto say that committee we created during my term as AAMGA presidentin 1991 led to AAMGA's current, thriving Under FortyOrganization within AAMGA, which boasts more than 600members.

In the two decades since the Under Forty Organization wasfounded, efforts to advance the recruitment, retention andprofessional development of up-and-coming professionals within ourindustry have only increased. There is no shortage of statisticspointing to a talent gap as boomers retire and Gen X andmillennials move into leadership roles. Thanks to efforts by theUnder Forty Organization and other young professionalsgroups within the industry, the opportunities are greater thanever.

Recruiting challenges facing the industry

The biggest challenge now facing the insurance industry is anold one: recruiting and retaining personnel.

According to the Institutes, the insurance industry will need tofill about 70,000 positions this year and another 70,000 in 2017just to replace the professionals retiring from those positions.Compounding this problem is a general unawareness of themodernization of the insurance industry. The industry is strugglingin its message. Today's high school and college students aren'taware of the scope of the insurance industry beyond health care,auto and homeowners' insurance.

To build this next generation of leaders, we can and should lookoutside the boundaries of traditional insurance recruitment. Weneed to recruit engineers, technologists, information scienceprofessionals, educators and others who will make up the growingexpanse of needed skills within our industry. Many of today's highschool and college students are graduating with a higher degree ofproficiency in digital technology than prior generations, and thatknowledge will help grow the insurance industry.

We have to meet today's young professionals where they are. Byusing social media as one tool in the recruiting and talentdevelopment tool kit, we can better introduce an entire generationto the industry by sharing personal stories, testimonials andhighlighting the young professionals who are already working ininsurance to fundamentally advance the profession.

Mentoring programs, at the high school andcollege level, are central to this recruitment and retentionmission. Many of the trade associations, including AAMGA, haveundertaken serious and focused mentoring programs to identify theseemerging professionals, such as AAMGA's University Foundation thatfunds wholesale insurance graduate study programs. But we need todo more. The sooner we can introduce future generations to thevaried opportunities within insurance, the sooner we can meet ourrecruitment challenges.

Another challenge the industry has yet to overcome iscommunicating the value of what we do and expanding publicperception beyond stereotypes. In order to better recruit studentsand career-switching professionals to the profession, we have to doa better job of educating the public about the real-world impact ofinsurance.

We need to convey to the next generation of insurance leadersthat this profession offers stability, advancement opportunitiesand the chance to make a meaningful difference by providingsecurity and protection — whether that is protection againstage-old perils like hurricanes and fire or modern threats likecyber attacks and drones.

We have to communicate the practical benefits insurance providesfor small business start-ups, independent contractors working inhigh-risk environments, technology entrepreneurs and individualswho, at the worst moments of their lives, are in some way rescuedby those working within the insurance profession. There arecountless stories about the good things happening within insurance,which can introduce a whole new generation to the benefits ofworking in this industry.

Related: 8 insurance sales tips especially for millennialproducers

Mentoring programs at the high school and collegelevel are central to the insurance industry's recruitment andretention mission. (Photo: iStock)

Value proposition

Communicating the value of the insurance industry is vital, notjust to industry recruits, but insureds as well. And that value,like it or not, is under question. Whether the threat is from bignames such as Amazon and Google, or new players such as Lemonadeand Augury, the rise of insurance tech companies is creatingincreased competition as a new generation of insureds looks foroptions online and via various apps. What this means is theinsurance of tomorrow will resemble little of the insurance of yourgrandfather's generation, and those leading the industry today willeither have to adapt or be left behind.

The upshot of all of this is that through recruiting andretaining young professionals, today's industry leaders will alsobetter understand what the millennial generation — the largestgeneration of Americans to-date — are looking to experience whenexploring insurance options either for their businesses or theirpersonal lives.

Culture clash

While we don't have to throw out all that we've learned andinstitutionalized as a profession, we do need to recognize that thenext generation of insurance leadership sees the world through adifferent lens. In particular, millennials have demonstrated awillingness to forgo compensation or perks in exchange for a moregenerous work/life balance as well as the chance to support andparticipate in causes for social good as part of their jobs. Thispresents the industry with opportunities.

One area where the industry has traditionally led — andcontinues to lead — is in training. By providingtomorrow's professionals the opportunity to learn, and subsequentlyadvance, we can improve recruitment. However, we must recognizetoday's young professionals want to understand the industry from aholistic perspective. This means many of them will want theopportunity to shift into various roles and practices, learning thebusiness from different angles.

This upcoming generation is also in search of advancement.Unlike their predecessors, they are unlikely to wait 10 or evenfive years for a promotion. They'll want to move up in three yearsor less. To meet them where they are, we'll have to examine ourorganizational structure and create opportunities for them toadvance while also challenging them to take on greaterresponsibilities. There is a good deal of synergy here in terms ofthis next generation's desire to explore varied professional rolesand their desire for advancement. 

Looking back over several decades of supporting futuregenerations of insurance leadership, much has changed and much hasremained the same. The difference, as I see it, is that there ismore opportunity now than at any time in recent memory. We have thelargest (and some might argue the best-educated) generation ofAmericans in history, primed to meet today's talent gap. If we canexpand our thinking around recruitment and development and bettercommunicate what we do and the value our work offers, there is nolimit to what this next generation of insurance leaders canaccomplish.

Thomas Rogan led MacNeill Group from 1989 to 2001 and waspresident of the American Association of Managing General Agents in 1991 when hefounded the AAMGA's Under Forty Organization. Rogan presently is aninsurance consultant in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Related: Why mentoring is critical