A PARADIGM SHIFT IN HR CHALLENGES IN INSURANCE INDUSTRY: INDIAN EXPERIENCE

The financial services sector, of late globally and in India in particular, has witnessed a paradigm shift from a traditional conservative sector into a dynamic professional sector in the new LPG paradigm. As a natural consequence of this process, sudden demand for qualified professionals in the area of Finance, Marketing and HR is witnessed. Today, with the increasing convergence of financial institutions and financial products, an imperative need for an integrated understanding of the financial services sector as a whole has become essential. Banking, Capital Markets and Insurance sectors have become mutually interdependent both in their services and products. Hence, an integrated approach for human resource development and management has become the need of the hour. Secondly, within the insurance sector, understanding the need for coverage for new risks emerging from latest scientific innovations and environmental changes, and need to develop desired academic and training programs for equipping resources is another major challenge. While this sector in India is witnessing phenomenal growth in size as well as in scale on one hand this is also facing large scale attrition of intellectuals from the industry. Hence, identifying and developing the right HR policy with particular emphasis on compensation packages also, for retention of resources is both an opportunity and a challenge from the HR perspective. This paper enquires into the challenges and opportunities for the insurance industry from the HR perspective based on Indian experience, as the need of the hour is the development, utilization and retention of the human resource through proper understanding, planning and management.