Need to end HR crisis in ins sector emphasised

Insurers at a discussion Saturday emphasised on having a mandatory benchmark of training and technical knowledge especially for the senior officials to be promoted or appointed in the insurance industry.

They made the opinion, among others, in order to facilitate fulfilling the long vacuum of professionals having proper technical knowhow and training in this sector of the country.

Professional Advancement Bangladesh Ltd (PABL), a subsidiary of Green Delta Insurance Company Ltd (GDIC), in association with Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), UK, arranged the roundtable discussion on "Challenges of Human Resource Management in Insurance Sector" at the GDIC office in the city.

Md. Quddus Khan, member of the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA), and Ahsanul Islam Titu, vice president of Bangladesh Insurance Association (BIA), were special guests while Azizul Huq Chaudhuri FCII (UK), Chartered Insurer and Advisor of Bangladesh General Insurance Company Ltd (BGIC), moderated the discussion.

Nasir A. Choudhury, Advisor of GDIC and Chairman of PABL, Ms. Farzana Chowdhury, Managing Director and CEO of GDIC and Director of PABL, and Sainesh Dar, business head, south Asia region of CII, were the key discussants.

Ms. Zainab Fidai, Project Manager of CII, Syed Moinuddin Ahmed, DMD and Company Secretary of GDIC, and Ms. Papia Rahman ACII, Chartered Insurer and in-charge of PABL, among others, took part in the roundtable discussion.

The discussants said that the insurance sector is highly technical, and accordingly it requires technically qualified persons for the betterment of the industry. But unfortunately, the sector, even after 43 years of independence, still lags behind in technically qualified professionals and experts.

They blamed the absence of proper opportunity and system of imparting formal training, dedicated for the insurance both in the public and private sectors, to the shortage of skilled and qualified manpower in the industry.

Some of the discussants said that many insurance companies too do not encourage their officials to receive training, and are reluctant to recognize the trained officials, as a result of which technically sound professionals are not being developed.

Before taking training, the insurers should think for while on where the sector will be after 10 years, and then design own training requirement to cope with the globalisation and technological advancement.

Citing that job in the insurance sector is seen at the lower part of choices of fresh and talented graduates in the country, they called for profiling the insurance sector and making its attractiveness visible to the people to magnetise the genius job seekers to the industry.

In this connection, they laid stress, if necessary, on changing salary structure, ensuring job security and good working environment etc.

Other recommendations include having of a short English language course at the training, positively branding the insurance industry to the people, and officially rendering support by companies to their employees for training etc.

They requested the insurance regulator to take measures to make a benchmark of training and technical education for promotion and appointment especially of the senior officers, and to change the people's mindset to the sector positively.

Mr Quddus Khan said that a benchmark of qualification for appointment of CEO was already set.

Suggesting the organisers to send the recommendations of the roundtable to the IDRA, he assured of discussing at the regulator's meeting and talking with the government about the issues.

The IDRA member, however, opined that a yardstick of technical education and training can be set as preference, instead of mandatory, for promotion and appointment of officials in the sector.

To work on the recommendations, Mr Khan sought cooperation from the BIA and the insurance sector.

md.ali.du@gmail.com