Argo Group centers innovation in talent acquisition

April 24, 2024 5:00 PM

A blurred person with people mingling at a table in the background. — Argo's speed network event in San Antonio

The socioeconomic employee resource group at Argo is working to create more employment opportunities for people by removing barriers like requiring college degrees.

Digital Insurance spoke with Christina Parr, head of talent acquisition at Argo Group, about the insurer's talent-related initiatives.

Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

Would you tell me about recent talent and hiring initiatives at Argo?

Our socioeconomic employee resource group has been advocating for some entry level positions to not necessarily require a degree. We've been very cautious about what we layer into the requirements.

About a third of our jobs now don't require a four-year traditional degree. I think what we're working on is, how do we not be so traditional? We still have to be flexible and agile when we are talking about talent acquisition, it's a very competitive market, but we also want to keep knocking on the door of innovation and connecting with our employee resource groups, and asking them, 'What can we do better to reach the folks that you represent?'

I love that we are really breaking down some of those barriers that might have been in place, maybe in generations before.

For example, an underwriting assistant has the chance to become an underwriter. If one performs well, anyone can gain the skills through certifications with partners like the Institutes, and we support that as a company. That enables people to then move into those underwriting roles, which can be helpful to their future. They're really fantastic opportunities. We also have a claims assistant role that would not require a degree. So it's nice that we basically have mentorship that happens in the company, where we have our experts giving that feedback, that input and expertise, along with education from the Institutes and if they choose to do a two-year or four-year degree, we also have tuition support. So really, they can get anything they want while they're here.

Does having a larger candidate pool make filling these positions easier?

If anything, the bigger challenge is how to manage such a large group. Because in talent acquisition, our obligation is to each candidate, because we value the candidate's experience. Every single candidate. So every candidate needs a response, even if it's not right now. Everyone needs a response. So, you know, if you have hundreds of people applying for a role, and it's only been open a day or two, you know, that's a lot of work. I mean, the good news is that it opens up the opportunities to many who otherwise wouldn't have those opportunities.

We're really looking for skills. So for example, if we're looking for an underwriting assistant, for example, detail orientation will be critical. So I mean, I hate to say it, but if someone has a bunch of typos in their resume, that's not going to make it when you're up against hundreds of others who don't. Do you have any experience where you can demonstrate detailed orientation in your background? We're going to be looking for that. Do you list detail orientation as a skill set? And have you ever done anything that demonstrates that. It's a little bit harder from a recruitment perspective, if we're being really honest, because you can't just look at the name of the degree. But I don't think that it is too cumbersome for us. And I think that we all benefit from it.

Is this an area where artificial intelligence could help identify candidates?

Yes, it's a tricky spot, because I'm sure you know, what we train the AI to do for us can also work against us. We have not fully signed on to a system with AI yet, just because right now, unfortunately, some of the bias exists in AI. And we're still working through that balance, and our legal team is engaged.

I think we're certainly all for innovation and AI, but we are a small to midsize company, we probably shouldn't be the first one to figure out where the bias is. We can learn from some others. There have been some situations where, unfortunately, the AI worked against the very mission that we're trying to support.

As people retire from insurance, could initiatives like this help fill the knowledge gap?

This is a huge opportunity for us as people leave. It's no secret. I mean, the numbers are that our industry tends to be about 90% white.

This is a real opportunity, as folks do retire, that they can mentor others who are underrepresented and have that knowledge share. The idea is that mid-level folks mentor and train those who are entering into the workforce. And it is certainly possible that others move into mid-level roles. It's unfortunately less likely that they go directly from no experience, right up to that mid level. So we're trying to be very thoughtful about how those peer mentoring relationships work. And hopefully, what that will equate to is kind of toppling the statistics a little bit. We should have more underrepresented folks entering the workforce than were represented in the last decades.

It's not just about no degree. We're definitely focusing on how we can remove any barriers. We want to make sure there's a lot of inclusivity. I think our community outreach efforts have been pretty wide. We've definitely had an interest in how we can break through places we've never broken through before. We had a mentorship program with a group out in Virginia that's focused on those with sight and hearing impairments. We had an intern who had a sight impairment, so that was an example where we really didn't know how to manage it. She had systems in her home with her home PC that enabled her to be engaged. So we just said, let's see how we need to accommodate. Let's see what that means for the team. Let's see how we need to alter our behaviors, so that we're more inclusive with someone who has a different disability that we don't understand firsthand from a working relationship.

We learned a lot. We learned about different systems that help people do things that they otherwise couldn't do. We learned how to be more sensitive to others' needs. We learned to partner more, and help more, instead of, you're on your own, you got this, right? We, I think, definitely asked ourselves a lot more questions than maybe we normally would. We expect someone to figure it out and go on.

So we asked that she tell us if she was being expected to do things that she wasn't able to do. So there's a real partnership. I think what we did determine was, it would be more helpful for an intern who needs accommodations to actually have a partner.

Many people with disabilities are underrepresented socioeconomically as well, because, unfortunately, if they're not given opportunities, they can't build wealth.

Talent acquisition is highly competitive, how does Argo deal with that?

We kind of joke that getting hired by Argo can be actually more challenging than getting into an Ivy League institution. The reason for that is the number of applicants versus the number of hires is extremely tiny.

One of the things we want to make sure that we don't do is just accept referrals.

We have about one in five referral rates, which is fantastic. Twenty percent of people will be referred. However, knowing what our statistics are in insurance we can't just keep repeating the same cycle. So we have been very conscientious to respect and appreciate every single referral, we love referrals. But we also want to be very careful to pay attention to our underrepresented talent pools.

So we do partner with a company, they're called Circa. They have nine niche markets that really match up with our employee resource groups. And so they scrape every day, many times a day, our jobs, and they put those out to their sites, they have nearly 20,000 local community organizations that they have outreach organized with. So that's an important partnership for us, because through those sites, those domains, we get a lot more candidates through the door, who, you know, don't look like the insurance industry right now.

Our employee resource groups give us a lot of great insights. We try to be very sensitive in all places, even as we look at our job postings, we want to make sure that we have language that is as inclusive as possible.

What do you see ahead?

The future for talent acquisition is really to connect the dots and get underrepresented folks through the door. I think the future pays attention to a person's whole life, making sure that we're inclusive of all of their needs. I think it's breaking down silos between our personal and professional lives through ERGs. But also breaking down departmental silos. That's a given.