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Insurance is one of the most significant financial institutions in the sense that besides covering
losses of individual policy holders for death and accidents or damages of properties, it serves as a
vital national purpose of channeling the savings of the general mass or special group of people to
investment.
The aim of this report is to examine the HR issues & problems, approaches and upcoming
challenges in insurance sector of Bangladesh. Insurance Industry in Bangladesh passed through a
century long history of evolution, yet struggling to attain its mature stage. Considering what is
happening in outside world, especially in other similar or neighboring countries, our insurance
industry still need to go a long way. Human Resource has been considered as one of the most
important factors today in managing all material facts of an organization. Efficiency,
productivity of any organization is dependent on the human capital. But in Insurance Industry the
quality of manpower is quite poor and no major investment or focus was put in for their
development. Majority of Bangladeshi insurance companies dont have separate Human resource
department. Insurance is a very labor intensive industry. There is a need of man power
plans/Human resource approaches to identify the efficient human resources in order to
implement the objectives and gain strategic competitive advantage of insurance industry. HR is
being involved in every area of the organization in 21st century and it has resulted in many
positive developments but also has left many concerns for HR managers. So todays HR is not
based on the traditional functions of HR as like as before. Now HR of insurance sector have to
face lots of challenges such as globalization, diverse workforce etc.
To achieve strategic competitive advantage, organizations in insurance sector ought to lay
greater emphasis on human resource management practices. To bring the competence in
economy, every company in insurance industry needs proper manpower planning, recruitment,
training, proper placement of performance appraisals, cultural change for employees.
especially in other similar or neighboring countries, our insurance industry still need to go a long
way. Governance model is weak, product base is shallow, risk taking ability is low due to low
capital base and premium income is low with low market penetration. There are instances of
major corruption with regard to premium collection, reinsurance, claim settlement and etc. There
are also instances of insider trading, director's manipulation and lack of control. The quality of
manpower is quite poor and no major investment or focus was put in for their development. The
preliminary review by the regulatory agency revealed horrendous pictures. Few company bosses
even tried to harass the regulators under the coverage of few political masters since they were not
dancing according to their tunes. The intelligence agency reports also found massive
irregularities in the major life and non-life insurance companies. A large section of population,
non-resident workers/remittance earners, agriculture are still outside the insurance coverage.
Their asset-liability management is quite poor and there is rampant interference by the board in
day to day affairs of the companies. In terms of Human resource issue-Majority of Bangladeshi
insurance companies dont have separate Human resource department. Some insurance
companies have simply changed their name Administration or personnel department to Human
Resource Department, they dont use Human resource Mechanism fully. Training plans and
module should be planned properly and appropriately and both need the efficient and effective
human resources. Insurance companies also need to help their employees to career development
like job rotation, counseling &guidance etc. Insurance companies in Bangladesh dont follow
any kind of systematic approach for performance appraisals. Similarly performance feedback and
counseling is absent in the industry. Some do it in a limited and scattered way.
i.
Home
ii.
Health
iii.
Disability
iv.
Casualty
v.
Life
vi.
Property
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vii.
viii.
Liability
Credit
ix.
Marriage Endowment
x.
Child Protection
xi.
Pension Policy
xii.
xiii.
xiv.
xv.
Market Share:
Insurance market in Bangladesh remains fragmented and extremely competitive due to existence
and operation of a large number of companies, incommensurate with the size of the market. The
life insurance segment recorded a significant review-period CAGR of 16.4%, driven by the
country's large population, robust economic growth, increased promotional efforts by private
insurance companies, rising disposable income levels and increased awareness of the need for
insurance. Life insurance led the Bangladeshi insurance industry during the review period,
accounting for a 76.9% share of gross written premiums in 2012. The market share of the largest
non-life insurance company is 13.59%. The top 7 private sector insurers collectively account for
a market share of 46.54% in the non-life sector.
Objectives:
1. HRM problems and issues facing Insurance Industry in Bangladesh.
2. HRM approaches need to be taken to ensure ongoing Strategic Competitive Advantage.
3. HRM challenges will face Insurance Industry in Bangladesh in 21st century
management practices (Ulrich & Lake 1991). Indeed, developing a talented workforce is
essential to sustainable competitive advantage (Kundu&Vora 2004).Human resource
measurement is about valuing the contribution people make to the success of an organization,
and the term human capital describes the contribution made by human skills and knowledge to
the production of goods and services (Becker, 1993). From these definitions, it is clear that
efficient HRM practices are inevitable factor in determining the growth and prospects of any
organization.
Insurance is a knowledge based Industry and this is not needed raw materials and machineries. It is
the Human being; the use of which needs to be needs to be planned, coordinated and financially
controlled. To bring the competence in economy, every organization needs proper manpower
planning, recruitment, training, proper placement of performance appraisals, career development
program for employees. The responsibility, the management of the effective utilization of human
resources lies with the management. In order to perform this responsibility the management of
insurance organization should be proficient using it human resource properly. Human capital
development is important for sales force and desk employees to attain and grind their capabilities.
As an important financial institution under the financial system, Insurance Industry has not yet been
providing full range of financial services to the people because It has a number of limitations, one of
them is low capable of human resources. For this, the insurance sector has not gained much
popularity and yet not developed so much. Some of the important matters like manpower planning,
career planning, job enrichment plans are absent. Very few companies have training departments and
when training is arranged, funds are not enough for the sessions. Training institution are not working
on present need of training and do any kind of research. In universities, Insurance is not taught as
specialized discipline. Senior executives of the insurance companies are not professionally qualified
and not trained enough. After a long age of operations, the insurance sector had not been recognized
as one of the trusted financial institution like bank. The entrepreneur of insurance business has to
take steps to change it by hiring the efficient people and retaining them. People can change its
environment and increase trust to the public.
Problems & Issues Facing Insurance Industry in Bangladesh are given bellow:
i.
Education/Training:
ii.
Manpower:
Lack of effective executives who are needed to make the management effective.
Systematic Job analysis process not utilized.Recruitment is done on pick and choose
basis.
It is most important for organization to recruit right person in right place to perform well. Insurance
Industry is a service industry. A definition given by John. M. Rothwellso seems suitable, Goods are
produced, Services are performed. Customer
when the promise is fulfilled through prompt settlement claims either at maturity or earlier case of
life insurance or on the happening of accidental loss resulting from perils insured in the case of
general insurance. The manpower planning starts by analyzing the companies mission and vision
and that should be rendered into demand of human resource. Recruitment policy of insurance
industry may formulate to recruit young people.
After selecting the right person through competitive examination from pool of candidates, then
employee should
through its training and educational program. These help to mould the employees behavior, develop
skills and knowledge and help new employees to recognize the corporate culture. Lack of efficient
HRM practices reduces employees satisfaction towards their organization and ultimately that affects
their commitment to the organization. Training programs need to be given higher weight than normal
interviews. how well training is held depends on the considerable degree of management perspective
of top administration.
The Question of Value: Firms create value through either decreasing product/service
costs or differentiating the product/service in a way that allows the firm to charge a
premium price. Thus, the ultimate goal of any HR executive is to create value through the
human resource function.
II.
The Question of Rareness: An HR executive must examine how to develop and exploit
rare characteristics of the firm's human resources to gain competitive advantage.
III.
The Question of Imitability: If other firms can imitate these characteristics, then over
time the characteristics will provide no more than competitive parity. Thus, the HR
executive must attempt to develop and nurture characteristics of the firm's human
resources that cannot easily be imitated by competitors.
IV.
The Question of Organization: The firm must be organized to exploit the resource.
Organization requires having in place the systems and practices that allow human
resources characteristics to bear the fruit of their potential advantages.
Understand the value of people in the firm and their role in competitive
advantage
Knowing the economic value of the firms human resources is a necessary precondition before
any HR executive can begin to manage the function strategically. People of any organization are
fundamental assets who transform from material assets to productive resources in order to satisfy
the social needs of the country. They reach the organization into success and do sustainable
development within the organization. Reichheld (1996) notes that people contribute to firms in
terms of efficiency, customer selection, customer retention, customer referral, and employee
referral. Jeffrey Pfeffer (1994) issued sixteen types of practices to gain competitive advantage
through people:
1. Employment Security: Security of employment signals a long-standing commitment by
the organization to its workforce
2. Incentive Pay: People are motivated by more than money -- things like recognition,
security, and fair treatment matter a great deal.
3. Participation and Empowerment: A broader participation by workers and allows
employees influence in controlling their own work process.
4. Symbolic Egalitarianism: One important barrier to decentralizing decision making, using
self-managed teams, and eliciting employee commitment and cooperation is symbols that
separate people from each other. Consequently, it is not surprising that many of the firms
that are known for achieving competitive advantage through people have various forms
of symbolic egalitarianism.
5. Long term Perspective: The time required to implement HRM practices and start seeing
results means that a long-term perspective is needed.
6. Selectivity in recruitment: It means that one must be careful to choose the right people,
in the right way.
7. Employee Ownership: Employees with ownership interests in the organizations for
which they work have less conflict between capital and labor - they are both capital and
labor. Its investment policies, and who are less likely to support hostile takeovers,
leveraged buyouts.
8. Teams and Job redesign: Positive results from group influences are more likely when
there are rewards for group efforts, when groups have some autonomy and control over
the work environment, and when they are taken seriously and become the fabric of the
organization. In Insurance Industry every employee need to act as team player.
9. Wage Compression: Teamwork is fostered by the sense of a common fate, and that sense
is enhanced when people are rewarded comparably.
10. Measurement of Practices: it indicates how well the organization is implementing various
policies.
11. Cross Utilization and Cross Training: The most obvious is that doing more things can
make work more interesting. Variety in jobs permits a change in pace, a change in
activity, and potentially even a change in the people with whom one comes in contact,
and each of these forms of variety can make work life more challenging.
12. High Wage: High wages tend to attract more applicants, permitting the organization to be
more selective in finding people who are trainable and who will be committed to the
organization. Paying more makes turnover less which is important for insurance industry
Bangladesh.
13. Information Sharing: Employees demand and receive more consultation about
operations and much more information about productivity and profitability.
14. Training and Skill Development: An integral part of most new work systems is a greater
commitment to training and skill development.
15. Promotion within:. It facilitates decentralization, participation, and delegation because it
helps promote trust across hierarchical levels--supervisors are responsible for
coordinating the efforts of people whom they probably know quite well.
16. Overarching Philosophy:
practices into a coherent whole and also enables people in the organization to persist and
experiment when things don't work out immediately.
To gain Strategic Competitive Advantage, service organizations ought to lay greater emphasis on
human resource management practices.
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Going Global:
Going global is the HRM challenge for insurance industry Bangladesh. The current
challenges caused by the globalization pressures in the realm of economics behoves work
communities to review their personnel training and management practices (Pitkanen
2007). Companies must develop a customer-oriented workforce to deliver service quality,
which is met through training (Kundu 2000). Training must be viewed as an important
investment for future success (Zeithmal and Bitner 2004).Companies need to provide
comprehensive training to the agents in the ways to narrow the gap between clients and
agents i. e. trust building training (Law, Wong, and Theresa 2005). Long-term basis
training has a systematic influence on the improvement of management techniques (Zadel
2006).
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Workforce Diversity:
Diverse workforce (diversity) refers to the co-existence of people from various sociocultural backgrounds within the company (Kundu 2004). A growing diverse workforce
(Kundu 2003), increased competition for businesses (Jain and Verma 1996), growing
number of mergers and acquisitions, and increased emphasis on globalization (Terrisse
2001) require an understanding and appreciation of a diverse set of cultures for having
the best people for an organization (Lillevik 2007). Dynamic companies look for people
who are different from us because the diverse workforce may bring different talents,
interests, and viewpoints (Simmons 1996). The companies can succeed at diversity with
full support from the top management (Hayes 1999). The work communities as a whole
should be helped to deal with increasing cultural diversity (Pitkanen 2007). Thus, HR of
insurance sector needs to be mindful and may employ a Think Global, Act Local
approach in most circumstances now.
Talent Acquisition:
The biggest challenge for HR managers of insurance industry today is talent acquisition
and employee engagement. The new knowledge and competency requirements that HR
people will need to embrace. There is lack of standardization in education, especially in a
global context. As businesses expand and hire beyond borders, the need for HR to
scrutinize job qualifications carefully becomes ever more important. Talent Acquisition'
describes identifying the sources of talent pool by assigning job to HR consultant,
headhunters, process of selection through newspaper advertisement, online selection and
through conference recruitment. It involves all these processes and also includes finding
attractive and highly talented experienced individual into the organization. The employee
of insurance industry have to experienced at structural design, process management and
project management as well as a range of skills with respect to facilitating learning and
change.
quicker, then they can create a sustainable competitive advantage. The insurance
companies need to create the ability to continually figure out ways to use the technology
more successfully. .Therefore, upgrading the computer technology can help the local
insurers more sound and sustainable. So, as the technology changes, people continually
figure out ways to take advantage.
of selling
insurance
products requires assessing the profile of the customer and designing the right
policy. The process is facilitated by data base and data warehousing. The emergence of
information and communication technology can capture and disseminate large
quantities of data and information for managerial judgment in insurance and
learning about customer needs and behavior.
Conclusions
Insurance is a vast Industry and very labor intensive. People are the actual resources of an
organization. There is needed to man power plans to identify the needed human resources in
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Recommendation
Insurance Related education should be included in academic syllabus
Ensure training timely, planned and appropriately structured and evaluated.
Number of qualified professionals should be increased.
Need to improve Job Structure, Design and Environment
Need bring change in the corporate culture and values
Different Kind of motivational tools should be introduced.
Implementations
Insurance related education should be included in academic syllabus
Insurance Industry in Bangladesh
insurance act
2010 is implemented. The Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority hasbeen formed.
Approximately 60000 desk employees supported by 1million field force are working in the
industry . The ultimate need is train the existing employees and field force to bring the functional
and cultural changes to match the changing dimension of working in a competitive environment.
With the increased competition in the insurance sector, there is a need for more different kind
of insurance education and training in Bangladesh. It is a fact that Insurance education , training
and research is the part of business school all over the world. But in Bangladesh only few
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universities have started Insurance and Risk Management course recently. There are no
specific specialized insurance degree and courses for the Bangladeshi students. It is mandatory
to start insurance issues related courses in Universities. Field Studies
on Insurance policies
Extension training
It is noticed that Insurance Company Only Focus on Sales and Marketing Skills. Underwriting
and claims are also focused for some cases. There are many issues insurance companies dont
focus at all. More accentuate should be given to training and professional development of agents
and employer agents.The agents and marketing employees need proper training and orientation
with the companys code of conduct so that they can avoid miscommunication with the clients
regarding policy benefits and claim realization.Bangladesh Insurance Academy only one public
Institution hardly
insurance companies have full pledge training Institutions, The curriculum and training program
should be set in accordance to the present need of the industry such as including premium
forecasting, policy innovations, loss assessment techniques, underwriting skills and management
acumen. There should be more Training institutions in private and public sectors. Insurance
Companies need to ensure training timely, planned and appropriately structured and evaluated.
Providing formal and informal training experiences, such as basic skills training, on-the-job
experience, coaching, mentoring, and management development, can further influence
employees' development.
opportunities ,Incentive scheme whatever the forms and content ought to be required edifice
expertise professionals. The insurance industry need to start internal training system as
continuous process to carry out skill improvement, adaptability and cultural Change. If the
workforce in the industry is more knowledgeable, has specialized education on insurance and can
rightly communicate the business benefits to customers.
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employees in full extent and increasing their performances. So they need to create an
environment where dissatisfies factors should be improved and satisfying factors should be
further developed. Insurance company should ensure an environment where executives of all
levels can play their role and utilize full potentials, it is possible by participative decision
making. Modernization of information and communication technology should be given high
priority to improve the productivity of employees. Equity and fairness in recruitment, promotion
and other types incentives always maintained.
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