Recruitment News

Experience V Qualifications

Changes by employers in the insurance industry have reduced the capacity of dedicated education departments who would create personal training/development programs linked to qualifications. The likelihood now is that new entrants to claims handler jobs or trainee loss adjuster jobs will receive a reimbursement of the candidate’s costs in sitting the relevant exams with the potential to rise through the ranks upon completion.

But what of the prospects of the highly experienced claims handler or loss adjuster who has no qualifications to support the market knowledge amassed throughout their career? There remains the problem of a nonqualified candidate who has more technical knowledge that any exam could hope to test being overlooked for a candidate with a professional qualification. Here, an impressive qualification weighted CV displaying good theoretical knowledge can disguise the lack of practical market experience leading to the failure to work effectively and efficiently.

Given the recent rise in the push for school leavers in pursuing higher education before seeking employment, how are employers to differentiate between candidates with only qualification results as a guide? In addition, just because someone has had a career span of a number of years, does that automatically mean that they are capable of performing their role to the expected standard?

Clearly, the question has more emphasis depending upon on the vacancy; individuals applying for a junior claims handler job or trainee loss adjuster job obviously wouldn’t be expected to have the same knowledge of a claims manager/claims technician or established loss adjuster. Here qualification success maybe the only yardstick available. More senior roles will generally involve a mixture of both qualifications and experience in equal measure, with specialist roles having more on an emphasis on experience over education.

So how is this conundrum to be solved? The role of a good recruiter is to aid the employer with invaluable information of each candidate by highlighting their strengths /weaknesses from both an educational and experience perspective, providing a particularly close match between the individual and the vacancy. This is not always possible by reviewing a CV alone and is the biggest ‘value-adding’ aspect a recruiter can play in the process.

Trust is an integral part of this and a company has to truly value the opinion of the recruiter which is why choosing a partner in this process is so important, particularly at a time when competition for loss adjuster jobs and claims handler jobs is as fierce as ever.

• More News Articles