Insurance Institute of India: Preparing and upskilling talent for now and the future
The Insurance Institute of India (III) continues to be at the forefront in training and developing skills for the insurance industry in India. We spoke to III’s Secretary General Mr P Jaipuria on the how the institute plans to contribute to achieving vision 2047.
By Jimmy John
There is an urgent need to impart insurance knowledge and develop capacity in the Indian market and to achieve this collaboration with insurers is critical. Mr Jaipuria believes that training sessions on product knowledge, process of operations, customers and grievance redressal are essential as world class servicing can only be the panacea to satisfy the customers.
“The essence of digitalisation through InsurTech companies is not to be avoided and the curriculum of training needs to be curated as per the need of the hour. The role of data analytics, digitalisation, AI, machine learning, blockchain is been given priority in order to cope up with the changing times,” he said.
Mr Jaipuria believes that the industry must partner with the government and NGOs to implement the decision to insure every Indian by 2047 and create awareness among youngsters to highlight career and growth opportunities in the insurance industry.
Preparing skilled manpower for the industry
Mr Jaipuria is of the strong opinion that the role of training on different core areas of insurance business like underwriting, risk management, claims settlement , policy servicing is the foundation to create strong and stable manpower and to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in the process.
He said that the moment people get empowered with requisite knowledge and skill, the process will get refined and resilient. “Simulation based training along with technology-led drives must be undertaken to fulfil the gaps at the entire operational level and for this e-learning and LMS have to be upgraded to all desired levels.”
III provides support to distribution channel partners by arranging training programmes as per need analysis and helping them to scale up their existing level of expertise. “Helping customers in their time of need and providing them with a requisite solution will definitely boost the trust level of the customer and also win their hearts and loyalty.”
AI and digitalisation to aid industry growth
Mr Jaipuri said that AI and digitalisation will bring in revolutionary changes in the operations of the insurance business in India. “The insurance industry professionals have to be trained to move ahead with adaptive learning, undergo simulation-based training and learn through gamification and unless the skill gaps are removed, no growth can be realised.”
He believes that the technology will reshape the entire insurance business landscape and help build a future-ready organisation.
Drawing youngsters to the insurance profession
Highlighting the need to draw youngsters into the insurance industry, Mr Jaipuria emphasised the need to create awareness in the market on the nature of the insurance business. “The insurance business is promoted through people and here knowledge and skills are required to close a sale,” he said.
He said that field forces must be trained properly on need-based selling and in finding well matched solutions. “There is no shortcut to success and hard work always pays well. Objection handling and rejection at the level of canvassing have to be understood properly as failure to close a sale is an opportunity to learn from the episode and this will only pave the way for a progressive realisation of the goal and attain success,” he said.
Insurance education needs an upgrade
Mr Jaipuria believes that insurance education has a bright future, provided all educational institutes become adaptive and sustainable. He said that there needs to be an all-out effort to make insurance professionals ready to face the demands of customers and online certification courses are the need of the hour which must be given due thrust.
“Apart from education in digital and AI enabled learning, there must be visible work on simulation and gamification. Modules have to be designed on upcoming subjects like parametric insurance, cyber insurance, digital insurance and training need analysis should be an important aspect to cater to the needs of the professionals,” he said.
He said that today’s insurance education segment aims at creating a space amongst all its stakeholders that will result in the optimisation of results.