Insurance employees feature highly in terms of emotional and intellectual commitment to their jobs and to their organisations’ success, a new study shows.

The survey of 5330 Australian employees by career consultancy Right Management measures job and organisation “engagement” – reflected by employees’ emotional and intellectual involvement and their contribution to the success of their organisation.

The insurance industry, including reinsurance and broking, scored 49.1% for “overall engagement”. Only the armed forces topped this at 50.4%.

Accountancy featured third, at 48.5%, while vocational sectors like not-for-profit and social work were further down at 40.6% and 37.6% respectively.

Right Management GM Bridget Beattie told insuranceNEWS.com.au insurance industry employees’ score has increased substantially since the survey was last done in 2009, placing it well above the average in terms of job engagement.

She says this may be because people are “pleased to have a job” and enjoy the work, even if they do not necessarily feel particularly loyal to the organisation.

Ms Beattie says people might enjoy insurance because they have a “calling” for it.

“I could only speculate as to the reasons, but perhaps [people in the insurance industry] are solving problems for clients and making a difference due to the large number of natural disasters that have befallen Australia in the last couple of years,” she said.