Broadening reach and attracting young talent is key – CILA President

Published on Sun, 29/05/2022 - 19:02

In celebration of its 60th anniversary, the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters (CILA) announced that 60 trees were being planted in a symbol of its commitment to attracting and developing future generations of the profession.

Speaking to Airmic News this month Helena Evans, CILA President and Head of Specialist Services at Criterion Adjusters, re-emphasised the importance of creating an environment that is appealing to young professionals and supports their own career progression.

“The aging demographic of loss adjusters is certainly a hot topic, but we are very aware that we do have a pipeline of new talent coming into the profession,” she said.

One of the tangible steps the Institute has taken to support this development is splitting up the examination requirements into stages, rather than requiring new entrants to do them all at once.

An apprenticeships scheme, part of the Government’s Trailblazer Apprenticeships, and an e-mentoring programme, are also adding to these efforts.

A Future Focus Group is made up of members under 35, a different group selected each year, to work on ideas that encompass the views of younger professionals.

“It’s good to have young professionals’ view on what is needed and will be embraced by this next generation,” Helena added.

One of the other themes familiar to Airmic members is the hard insurance market, and the CILA President recognised that the market conditions had impacted their own interactions when it comes to claims.

“Obviously in a hard market insurers will be stricter on issues that crop up on a claim and more prone to be black and white,” Helena said. “While in a soft market, if there’s a grey area, they would maybe look to see how they could include something in a claim settlement.

“However, because on a day-to-day basis we deal with claims from lots of different clients we are already very used to different policy wordings and approaches to claims management.

“The hard market does make for more difficult conversations with people. You have to use your soft skills a bit more.”

For more information on CILA, visit their website.