By connecting to the internet, these devices become smarter. For instance, when your coffee machine runs out of coffee it can send you a text to tell you so; when your washing machine is due a service it can email you the details, when you want to turn the heating on during an unexpectedly cold day, you can do so from your mobile phone before you get home. By wearing an internet-enabled health tracker device, so-called “wearable”, your doctor can track your health remotely. It is estimated that by 2020, 34 billion devices will be connected to the internet.

 

But there is another major use of the internet of things, and that is in the data that they produce. The coffee machine manufacturer now knows all about your coffee consumption, what type and flavour you like the best, and can tailor its offering to you. Your doctor can see when your blood pressure is getting dangerously high, and can intervene.

 

How is this relevant to insurance? The insurance industry has always been about data. Specifically, collecting data in order to calculate an accurate risk premium. The internet of things allows insurance companies to collect vast amounts of data, making the most of increasingly sophisticated computer power to help them in their calculations, and its transforming the way they do business. 

 

Traditionally, calculating a car insurance premium relied upon up-to-date information about the type of car the customer travels in, his or her lifestyle, including their geographical location, and the nature of their business. That information can now be calculated quickly thanks to sophisticated algorithms, and customers get a near instant quote once they have handed these details over.

 

Now there is a new level of data available. Insurers are offering black box-style monitoring systems, that, when fitted to the car, gather a history of speed, distance, turning and braking patterns, time of day and much more. These so-called “telematics” allow the insurance company to offer “usage-based” insurance, in other words, cheaper policies for those that drive more carefully, and vice versa.

 

Similarly, in the health insurance market, wearable technology such as Fitbit can send data on the lifestyles of their wearers back to the insurance company. Consequently, a customer’s health risks can be determined more accurately, giving policyholders the power to adjust their premiums by adopting healthier habits. 

 

It’s the same case in the home. Insurers offer discounts to policyholders who opt to use smart home technology, such as carbon monoxide and smoke detectors. These devices can provide predictive alerts on potentially dangerous conditions in the near future, thus helping to minimise the event of a claim.

 

Increasingly, these devices don’t just provide a more personalised insurance product but a claims model built around prevention rather than reaction.

 

As more and more information gets shared over wireless connections, so the issue of cybersecurity becomes more prevalent. Protecting consumer’s data is of the utmost importance. But this also represents another opportunity for the insurance industry, because the demand for cyber insurance has grown considerably in recent years. Last year, the insurance industry took in $2.5 billion (around £1.9 billion) in premiums on policies to protect companies from losses resulting from hacks. That was up from around $2 billion (around £1.5 billion) a year before, and less than $1 billion (around £750 million) two years before that.

 

To take full advantage of the opportunities presented by the Internet of Things, companies will have to invest heavily in their technological infrastructure, including new hardware platforms, networks, operating systems, types of high-volume data processing, cloud services, endpoint management tools, standards and ecosystems. The skill sets and type of jobs that are required as the result of these include an ever greater demand for Software Engineers, Data Analysts, and Technical Architects. No area within insurance, whether in new business, claims processing, or policy writing, will remain untouched.

                                     

One of our clients is a global investment firm. We have been working with them for several years, sourcing placements across specialist roles, particularly within their technology division. Last year they asked us to help them with a series of placements in a country in which we don’t currently operate - Canada. They had been unsuccessful in their search so far, and wanted to leverage the success we’d already had with them here in the UK.

 

We looked at the issues they were facing – not being able to find people of the right calibre or with the right experience within their local area – and set to work on making this a global project. We knew where the sort of talent they were looking for existed in both Europe and America, so we involved two of our European offices as well as two of our North American offices alongside the UK office. We set about finding three types of candidates: those already based in the area that we knew had the right skills; citizens of Canada currently based abroad but who had a desire to move back home; and citizens of other countries who had the knowledge and skills required, and who would welcome the opportunity for an international relocation.

 

“It was crucial that we secured the investment in terms of time from our client in the first instance,” explains Ashley McCuskey, Client Relationship Manager at London Banking & Finance. “We worked hard to understand our clients’ strict brief, but in the initial stages that requires them to spend some time with us going through their exact needs.”

 

After that all the profiles were sent through one contact, in this case, Ashley, who would then gather specific feedback on each one.

 

“It meant I could make sure that the profiles we were sending consistently aligned with their strict brief,” she explains. “Every time we received feedback we would use that to refine our search further.”

 

Within three weeks, our client had offered the first role to one of our candidates. After that it was a case of replicating the process to find the others.

 

“It was a tricky market,” admits Ashley. “It was a candidate-driven market and finding the right people was certainly not easy, they were few and far between. Those candidates could more or less pick and choose the roles, so we also worked with the company to help them differentiate themselves, for instance, by offering to help with the relocation process.”

 

Despite their current recruitment needs having been met, for both their UK and Canadian offices, the client still meets with us on a regularly basis. “They saw how well we worked, and they want to make sure that they are ready – and we were ready - as soon as the next opportunity arises,” states Ashley.

 

Emily Organ, Client Relationship Manager at London Banking & Finance, is responsible for meeting the recruitment needs of another financial client, this time in the UK. In this instance, it wasn’t just the quality of the candidates that was important, but finding a large number of candidates within a short space of time to meet a surge in requirements. Emily picks up the story:

 

“We’ve had this client for a number of years, but some of our work with them was intermittent, spot business. We felt that we needed to get to grips with the bigger picture, so we arranged meetings with various departments to understand their overall structure and high level strategy going forward.

 

“In the wake of the financial crisis, all financial institutions have had to get to grips with the wave of new regulations imposed upon them. We knew that this firm was going to have to upskill in certain departments as a result, so we put forward our case for helping them. We were pleased to be chosen as a preferred supplier for a project last year – basically, two rounds of hiring around 100 contracts.

 

“They chose us because of our knowledge of their business, but also because we worked like crazy to get the best candidates for them. I was constantly visiting their offices so I knew exactly where they were with the project, what they needed and whether requirements were changing as the project went on. We couldn’t have been more involved in the whole process.

 

“In addition, we did everything we could to make their lives easier. For instance, not by just presenting them with the candidate profiles, but by outlining the case for each candidate in terms of their skills and experience. Highlighting which had worked for the institution previously, for instance.

 

We ended up being the top performing supplier. Not only that, but we had the highest completion rate of those contracts, and the highest number of contractors whose contract was extended. They’ve now appointed us preferred agent.”

 

To discuss this topic further or if you have any questions then please contact Ashley McCuskey (a.mccuskey@huxley.com) or Emily Organ (e.organ@huxley.com) eo���l=�Q