Like several companies, getting the right kind of talent was a major headache for Mumbai-based ICICI Prudential Life Insurance.
As there weren’t many youngsters trained and mentored to take on the rigours of the insurance industry, the company had to make do with people from other sectors like telecom, consumer durables, etc to market their policies.
This ate into the problem of attrition, as people who weren’t well-acquainted with the wherewithal of the insurance world would find it a Herculean task to meet the sales targets and thus, be compelled to quit. Furthermore, the incompetence also led to a decline in productivity of the employees.
Thus, the need took credence to create a pool of talent specially for the insurance sector, in a manner beneficial to both the company, as well as job seekers looking for a profile in the insurance industry.
A team was set up under Judhajit Das, chief, human resources. It innovated and came up with a 6-month programme for graduates from any stream, which would not only provide them with classroom training and on the job sales training (of three months each), but also guarantee them a job in the sales team at ICICI Pru on average starting salaries between Rs1.75-3 lakh per annum, on successful completion of the programme.
This programme helped reduce attrition and increase productivity of workforce considerably.
Says Das, “Often, students do a two year MBA with a tier III college coughing up Rs 3-4 lakh and manage to get sales jobs on completion. The post graduate programme in management & insurance or PGPMI would guarantee the same sales job, but would require only six months and about Rs 40,000.”
As a result of the programme, which was started in 2007, the company — which has over 20,000 sales personnel, constituting nearly 85% of its total people strength — has tied up with about 13 institutes in Bhubaneshwar, Kolkata, Jamshedpur, Jaipur, etc and taken in about 1,500 people after their successful completion of the course.
The attrition rate in the company has reduced by 25%, while productivity has increased by about 15-20% as a result of the course.
Thus, the course worked out to be a win-win formula for both freshers, who look for job guarantees, and ICIC Pru, which was looking for insurance-ready talent.
“With lower attrition, and higher productivity, our recruitment costs also fell substantially,” says Das.
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