Modern Insurance Magazine Issue 60

FEATURES
A Final
Word
with Steve White
Just hours after announcing his forthcoming retirement at this
year’s BIBA Conference, Modern Insurance Magazine sat down
with BIBA Chief Executive, Steve White, to discuss Next Gen
talent, industry collaboration, and overcoming present-day
challenges in the broker market.
QHi Steve, thanks so much for
taking time out of your busy
schedule to meet with us today!
The theme of this year’s Annual
Conference is ‘Rising to the Challenge,’
in which speakers and insurance
company representatives analyse how
the industry has continued to positively
respond to evolving political, economic
and environmental headwinds. In light
of this, how would you define the biggest
challenges facing brokers and the wider
broker market at the moment?
AThanks Amelia, it’s great to be
speaking with you today.
We publish an annual manifesto
which covers feedback from our members;
they’re telling us what’s important and
where their biggest challenges lie. Talent
attraction certainly seems to be a key issue
at present – everywhere we go, we’re being
told that attracting talent is proving to be
really difficult. Fifteen or twenty years ago,
most towns had an independent insurance
company on the high street, and brokers
would often recruit through outreach.
Since this changed, the broker market is
really having to really focus on ‘growing
our own’ – from the attraction of talent
right through to the development and
retention of staff, it’s absolutely a priority
for us as a core sector of the insurance
industry.
heard from our members that customer
service across the insurance arena had
deteriorated somewhat post-pandemic;
the hard market, staff shortages, and
issues with trading platforms all seem
to have been contributing factors. We
went to Gracechurch in response to
this, experts in surveying the quality of
insurance service, and asked for help in
both measuring and creating an industry
service delivery standard.
The measurement exercise is underway
at the moment - we’ve had over 500
brokers respond to that – and the survey
is an ongoing, living and breathing project.
With this, we can measure how service
is changing. What does ‘good’ look like?
We’re reverting back to our members to
ask this question, and their responses will
form part of our output.
QFantastic! Reverting back to
your earlier point around talent
acquisition challenges for a
moment; what about Next Gen
talent? How are BIBA helping to drive
Next Gen recruitment in the sector?
AI’ve always been a huge advocate
for getting younger brokers
involved. As we went out and about
on our regional tour recently, we spoke to
many young brokers about the length and
breadth of what we do, and there’s always
something that seems to spark an interest.
from their peers as to why this is a great
career path to take. Our Young Broker
Ambassadors are such a diverse bunch,
not just in the way they look but in the
way they feel, the way they speak. We’re
also looking at outreach in schools
and colleges, looking beyond graduate
programmes to gather more diversity of
thought in our recruitment processes and
leaving no stone unturned in our efforts to
improve our wider diversity in this space.
QAnd finally - in your opening
speech this morning, you
announced that you will be
retiring from your role in the
latter half of 2023. How do think BIBA
will evolve moving forward, and how do
you hope to see your legacy live on?
ASteering the BIBA ship is a 24/7 job,
and 10 years is certainly a long time
to have been doing it! If you ask our
members, I think they’d say we’re doing
most things right. That being said, there’s
always room for incremental improvement,
and my successor will certainly need to
take a helicopter view in order to look at
BIBA’s present strengths and weaknesses.
Social media has really flourished in the
last decade; I identified that we had a
great story to tell, and doubled the size
of our Comms Team to guarantee that we
told that story well. Your members need
to understand and value what you do, and
I’m delighted to see more people renewing
their memberships year after year. We
have firms queuing up to be associate
members, and I’m just so proud of the
team and the effort that they all continue
to put in. Everything we do has to make
our boat go quicker, and I have every faith
that this mindset will continue at BIBA in
the months and years to come.
Steve White,
Chief Executive, British Insurance
Brokers’ Association (BIBA)
Regulation is also a perennial and topical
issue for members, especially this year
where regulators seem to have been
working an awful lot on our space.
There comes a point where it becomes
overwhelming; our members want to be
compliant, but it’s so difficult for them
to keep track of so many rule changes,
especially principle-based rules where
firms are expected to work things out for
themselves. We need prescriptive rules –
tell us what to do, and we will do it!
QDo you have an example of how
BIBA is collaborating with the
wider industry in the face of these
challenges?
AThere’s such a lot of collaboration
going on, which is great to see!
Service is a great example. We
Our regional broker engagement has
become much younger, and we’ve now
got several young regional Chairs. We’re
also looking at how we can promote
a career in insurance brokerage as a
‘destination’ career. Too many young
people stumble into this, but we want
them to actively choose it. We’re utilising
our Young Broker Ambassadors as the
focal point of a social media campaign,
so prospective brokers can hear directly
30 | MODERN INSURANCE