The insurance sector in Spain employs more than 48,000 people. If you take an X-ray of the characteristics of the jobs in this field, the diagnosis is conclusive: this is an industry of high quality employment.
Four key features support this claim:
Few temporary jobs, maximum equality
First of all, the temporary jobs rate is one of the lowest in Spain: one in 25 workers in the insurance industry is temporary, compared to the Spanish average of one in four employees.
Second, equality. This is another of the great differentiating characteristics of the sector, given that 78% of insurance companies have an internal equality plan. In fact, the sector currently employs more women than men. The number of women in management jobs in the sector is growing: one in six managerial positions is held by a woman. In 2004, the ratio was just one woman for every 25 management positions.
First class salaries and training
In addition, the insurance sector has been a pioneer in adopting innovative personnel management policies, including many aimed at achieving a work-life balance; in fact, 94% of the companies in the sector apply measures in this regard: flexible hours, telecommuting, reduced hours, special leave, etc.
The third factor: the insurance industry enjoys one of the highest average wages in the entire economic sector. In the list of the seventy leading business sectors in Spain, insurance is among the top ten in this category.
Fourth, training. The figures are revealing: the sector invests more than two million euros a month in training. Some 90% of employees receive training every year, with an average investment of 700 euros per person. This adds up to more than one-and-a-half million hours of training a year, which would be the equivalent of 1,000 workers a year doing nothing but training.
Breaking stereotypes
However, there is still an outstanding issue when it comes to the sector attracting new recruits, and this is the general public’s ignorance about everything that this industry has to offer as an employer.
Much of the problem resides in a deeply ingrained stereotype that relates professionals in this sector exclusively to the sale of insurance. Nothing could be further from the truth: experts in programming and databases, economists, graduates in business administration and management, marketing and communication specialists, mathematicians, statisticians, lawyers, and engineers all have a place in a sector in the process of digitizing and customizing its products.
