Experience, mentorship to fix SA’s advice gap
South African financial services providers (FSPs) looking to address the country’s triple challenges of attracting talent, reducing the skills gap and staff retention will find experiential learning, knowledge transfer and mentorship to be effective strategies.
Attracting and retaining talent
These and other key insights on talent development in financial intermediation emerged during a panel discussion at the 2024 FIA Advice Summit, held at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg recently. The Financial Intermediaries Association of Southern Africa turned to Rianet Whitehead, co-Founder of FAnews and founder of the popular The Insurance Apprentice (TIA) series, to explore effective strategies for advice-focused businesses to attract and retain talent, and prepare the industry for the future.
The panel convenor was joined on stage by three past TIA contestants, and a representative from the Insurance Sector Training and Education Authority (INSETA). First up, Jason Mizen, CFP® and director at JVC Insurance Brokers, was asked about his route into the dynamic financial advice profession. “My journey in insurance started off when I was in high school, when I worked at an underwriting manager during the holidays,” Mizen said. It was a formative experience that introduced him to the big, wide world of insurance; but there were still some kinks in the road before he entered the industry full-time.
Mizen left school with a dream of becoming a stockbroker, but despite having studied economics and econometrics at university, he struggled to secure a role in that sector. After teaching high school for a couple of years, he eventually ‘stumbled’ into insurance quite by accident, like most of his peers. “I went for lunch with a couple of brokers, not knowing it was an interview, and they said they wanted me to join them,” Mizen said. The qualifying criteria, according to the brokers: he was young, and someone who might be interested in insurance.
Bridging skills gaps in financial advising
The winner of TIA 2023 and Head: Claims – Liabilities & Salvage at Bryte Insurance, Christopher Appanah, was challenged on bridging the skills gap as a young entrant in the dynamic insurance field. He singled out lifelong learning and mentorship as key inputs for career progress. “Become a lifelong learner by engaging in a continuous cycle of learning, unlearning and re-learning,” Appanah encouraged. To succeed, young insurance professionals must attend courses; proactively seek out opportunities with their firms; and participate in industry initiatives.
A love for the financial services sector helps too. Temwa Nyirenda, Control Lead at Santam and winner of TIA 2024, revealed how participating in TIA had changed his perspective on the South African insurance industry. “After competing in the insurance apprentice, I realised that there is a greater purpose in our industry … we are participating in a dynamic industry in a dynamic and powerful country,” he said. His current passion is to assist with educating new entrants to the industry by sharing his knowledge and experience.
There are few better positioned to comment on education objectives and outcomes than INSETA, represented on the panel by Bonginkosi Mthombeni. The INSETA project manager commented on the importance of work-based experience in learnership programmes. A combination of education and experience is imperative for success in the leadership programme construct, allowing many smaller brokerages to successfully convert INSETA interns into full time employees. “The skills that came through the learnership, and the experience gained in the office environment prove invaluable; experiential learning is by far the best way to go,” Mizen added.
Addressing systemic retention risks
Attracting new talent to financial and risk advice practices is just one part of a complex skills development and retention debate. “In my discussions with industry experts, it has become clear that our FSPs and product providers face serious knowledge and skills gaps; valuable staff members reach retirement and leave the industry without suitable replacements being identified and trained up,” Whitehead said. She challenged the panel on what steps their employers might take to address this systemic issue.
“The biggest difference in my learning journey, in my career, has been having good mentors,” Mizen said. Reading between the lines, his advice to mentors was to go ‘above and beyond’ to ensure that they impart every bit of industry knowledge to their mentees. It is also important to establish clear lines of communication between mentor and mentee: a mentor should walk the road with his or her mentee, and empower that mentee to grow personally, and make the best possible contribution to the industry.
The message to larger firms was to empower staff using a myriad career and personal development tools including coaching, mentorship and training. Appanah was full of praise for his employer for supporting staff who wanted to further their industry knowledge or participate in external programmes offered by the likes of the Insurance Institute of Gauteng (IIG) and TIA. One of Appanah’s concerns was that the broader industry was not committing enough capital to learning and development programmes. He was also critical of firms that gave employees permission to participate in industry programmes, but then immediately disempowered them from attending same.
Can you tackle skills deficits virtually?
Nyirenda was asked whether the industry could improve education and training outcomes by leveraging digital technologies to shift from the physical to virtual world. “There are those who like learning in face-to-face interactions and those who are comfortable learning from a distance,” he said. He added that whether firms offered online or onsite training, care should be taken to ensure that the preferred training methodologies resonated with new hires. “The responsibility lies with all of us to be intentional about training, and to learn from both preceding and incoming generations,” Nyirenda said.
Finally, stakeholders were encouraged to make the industry more attractive. “The career opportunities that are available in the insurance industry are not well advertised; if we can show school and university leavers all the opportunities that are available in this sector, our skills attraction and retention will improve,” Nyirenda said. Whitehead closed the discussion with a plug for the upcoming 11th instalment of the TIA franchise. “Our aim is to uplift the industry by making insurance a profession that school and university leavers choose to work in rather than falling into it by accident, like many of us have,” she concluded.
Writer’s thoughts:
Today’s newsletter considered various ways for financial and risk advice firms to address skills development including coaching, education, experiential training and mentorship. Which, if any, of these methods worked for you in your career or firm? Please comment below, interact with us on X at @fanews_online or email us your thoughts [email protected].
