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 Daily Independent Online.
* Friday, August 13, 2004.
Insurers plan
bi-annual remuneration survey
By
Bethel Obioma
Insurance
correrspondent,
Lagos
Insurance operators
have moved to revive efforts aimed at undertaking a bi-annual
remuneration survey of workers in the industry in a bid to ensure job
satisfaction and effective service delivery.
Daily Independent gathered that the survey,
first mooted by insurance directors, would serve the purpose of evolving
an industry model to guide insurers in the issue of staff remuneration.
Insurance operators are
hopeful that the survey would come up with results that would reflect
comparative remuneration with other players in the financial services
industry. They said this would check the lackadaisical attitude of
insurance workers that use their present jobs as a stepping stone to
other sectors of the economy.
Besides ensuring that workers
are well remunerated relative to the model that the bi-annual survey
generates, additional measures that would empower staff through exposure
to local and foreign training courses would also be factored into the
survey.
According to the Managing
Director, Continental Reinsurance Plc, Mr. Adeyemo Adejumo, a reviewed
remuneration package would win the loyalty and dedication of staff of
insurance companies, a situation that would impact positively on the
industry’s poorly rated service delivery mechanism.
“In fact, in addition to
giving workers a good remuneration package, the insurance industry has to
vote more funds to human capital development,” he said.
He explained that with rapidly
evolving global trends in insurance, local insurance workers must be
equipped to measure up to new insurance processes and demands by both
local and foreign clients.
He added that adequate
training and exposure of insurance personnel to regular seminars,
workshops and symposia could also help to identify latent abilities in
staff that could be honed to add value, even outside core underwriting
processes.
The survey
would also recommend competence-driven programmes, whose focus would
serve to re-orientate, train and retrain employees to adjust and respond
to new challenges of the market place, as the best option for insurers.
Experts say there is a dearth of technical know-how in specialised areas,
such as IT, oil and gas, aviation, marine, fire, money insurance and life
assurance.
Commissioner for Insurance,
Dr. Oladipo Bailey, said insurance directors have a great role to play in
the empowerment of their staff.
Bailey urged insurers to vote
adequate funds for remuneration, training, motivation and research, being
key aspects in human capital development.
He explained that insurance
must be seen as a dynamic profession, adding that underwriters, brokers,
loss adjusters, agents, risk managers, and those in related disciplines
must update their skills to attain global relevance.
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