Insurance companies slowed down personnel
In the context of increasing the costs of doing business and the rates of recruiting agencies in insurance companies, they slowed down the pace of hiring of new personnel. The insurers moved to the salary increase model with a simultaneous increase in the load on already working employees.
In 2024, the growth rate of the opening of new vacancies in the insurance market slowly slowed down. According to hh.ru, employers from the industry « Insurance and reinsurance » opened 48.3 thousand vacancies, which is only 4%above the 2023 indicator. In the previous two years, growth was more than 20% annually. According to experts, at least 0.5 million people work in the insurance industry, taking into account agents, which is comparable to the banking segment.
According to hh.ru experts, « the slowdown in activity occurs against the background of the general stabilization of the personnel situation. »
In addition, according to them, a “high key rate and expensive money” can limit business growth, which affects the needs of companies in personnel. The slowdown in the hiring is due to the achievement of the optimal state size after active hiring in previous years, says Nikita Evseenko, director of the Revata Insurance Department. Active hiring was not least “was associated with the outflow of staff in 2022 and 2023 against the background of its beginning, and this staff had to be replaced,” he explains.
According to insurers, the situation was influenced by the new policy of recruiting companies. A decrease in the number of vacancies on the market is associated with an increase in the commission by recruiting portals to their services, as well as with a decrease in the percentage of response from applicants, says Dmitry Rykov, head of the Ingosstrakh personnel selection department. “During 2024–2025, tariffs increased by 20%, but at the same time we gave employers expanded packages of services, for example, a larger number of vacancies and resume contacts,” Superjob said. Given the fact that the personnel capacity of the insurer is sufficient – at least 20-30 open vacancies – the costs of employers increased by 30-50%, the independent expert Andrei Barhota evaluates. In Hh.ru, they did not answer the question “Kommersant” about the increase in commissions.
Companies try to hire fewer staff, but at the same time prefer to increase the salary of employees and load them with additional tasks, Mr. Barhota points out.
In particular, this allows you to open new units with a small staff. “Giving additional financial motivation to an already prepared and involved, loyal company to an employee is often easier and more profitable than finding the right specialist from the labor market,” Rosgosstrakh said. This approach allows “reducing the costs of hiring and training new employees, while increasing the motivation and loyalty of already working specialists,” explain in the VSK.
At the same time, insurance companies most often searched for sales managers and customers (23%vacancies), insurance agents (7%), sales department managers and call centers (4%each). Given the reorientation of the market for sales through intermediaries, the search for strong sellers becomes the most relevant personnel task, says Arthur Kolomets, general director of the Intsmart service. The share of own sales of insurers decreased in 2024 to a critical value of 18%, he indicates.
According to insurers and experts, this is primarily due to changes in market conditions in previous years. “Changing the supply channels from abroad affected the cost of spare parts for equipment, CASCO and other car insurance products changed greatly. Changing the possibilities of investment – the closure of foreign markets and the fall of the ruble course – led to the fact that the products of storage and investment life insurance were significantly reviewed, ”Mr. Evseenko notes. Since these complex products and their essence changed a lot, the role of personal sales increased, and therefore the importance of selling personnel, he notes.
At the same time, according to experts, in 2025, the demand for staff will grow stronger.
“You can expect a vacancy increase in insurance companies by 12-15%, but this does not cancel the local optimization of regular units within the insurers themselves by 10–20%,” says Mr. Barhota.
