An insurance veteran has called for the insurance industry to make itself more attractive to young people and even to recruit young staff from southeast Asia.

John Butselaar, Chairman of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance (ANZIIF), told the Insurance Council of Australia’s Insurance Outlook conference in Melbourne last week that the industry has a issue over its perceived “lack of attractiveness”. And even banks are better than insurers at attracting graduates.

Mr Butselaar says young people want different things from their careers, and are much more selective and demanding about how they want to use their resources. “Graduates these days are much more likely to go snowboarding or trekking in Nepal for a year.”

Noting that some of ANZIIF’s southeast Asian students would be ideal workers in today’s industry, he agrees there can be issues in recruiting new workers from Asia, but the Federal Government is partial to granting work-related visas.

Mr Butselaar says the industry needs to reassess how it attracts new blood, and it may require some industry money to achieve a higher profile in tertiary institutions.

“The companies that do recruit young staff need the sophistication to wait for the return on investment. The brightest people in the business should also apply themselves to helping young people.”