Our con­tri­bu­tion to all areas of life

Education and training are the key to success in business. However, the attainment of qualifications only brings success when companies invest in training and employees accept the principle of lifelong learning. As insurers already invest a lot more on average than other sectors in employee training, regulation and restrictions are not the way to promote motivation and increase the propensity of companies to invest. On the contrary, requirements and conditions can blunt an individual’s inherent motivation to keep learning.

Initial responsibility for communicating basic competencies lies with the school system. Digital know-how can also be learnt after school, but it is more readily acquired during the early years of schooling. It would be wrong to assume young people will automatically have the digital know-how they need for the professional world because they grow up with mobile phones. Just like writing and arithmetic, digital competence must be embedded in the school curriculum.

It takes satisfied, healthy employees to deliver good performance. Hence the insurance sector’s interest in achieving a good work-life balance. Flexible working models and remote working (where possible) are on the rise. At the same time, the debate on the merging of work and private life must also account for the fact that employees deal with personal business when at work at least as much as they allow work to overlap with their private life. That is in the interests of employees, in order to achieve more flexibility for all parties. Obliging staff to keep detailed time sheets or making flexible working models a legal right runs counter to flexibility. A return to the time clock and tiresome workplace controls fails to reflect the reality of modern life and work.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is causing concern in some quarters. Machines are there to serve people, not vice versa. AI is already used responsibly in the field of human resources (HR) management: holiday and shift plans, for example, can be structured in a more user and employee-friendly way through AI systems. This eases the burden of monotonous working processes. Regular system reviews and compliance with ethical principles are integral to the useful and successful application of AI in HR management. Only people can make the decisions.

Heterogeneous workforces offer more creativity and better performance. Insurers need new input and ideas from every nationality, age and gender if they are to keep pace with the times. Insurance is the only sector to have set up a “Frauen in Führung” (women in management) advisory board under the auspices of the employers’ association. We aim to increase the number of women in management through targeted measures. The insurance industry wants to adopt a pioneering role in employee diversification.

What’s true for society as a whole is more than true for the insurance industry: The demographic change in Germany features a decreasing population with a growing number of pensioners. The demand for professionals is therefore rising continually. Immigration is not a panacea but it can alleviate the burden of an ageing workforce. We advocate a Skilled Immigration Act to expand the legal framework for skilled professionals to immigrate to Germany from non-EU countries. The insurance sector sees targeted and organised immigration supported by professional training and social integration as an opportunity and is therefore in favour of it.

When the European Union institutions or parliaments discuss insurance distribution, they sometimes lose sight of the people at the coalface, who assess customers’ insurance needs and identify the right products for them: the insurance advisors. However, were it not for the work done by these committed people, there would be some frighteningly large insurance shortfalls. Some insurance products are not suited to online distribution and that will not change: protection against occupational disability, accident cover, industrial insurance etc. Customers need to be advised when selecting these products. Regardless of the regulatory environment, these people deserve appreciation, fair pay and society’s respect.