The Tripartite Advisory on Human Capital Practices for Insurance was released last week, setting out good human resource practices for the insurance industry in the areas of building a talent pipeline, skills-based hiring, and managing retrenchment responsibly, according to a statement issued by the MAS.

The advisory also encourages insurance firms to support their employees in acquiring relevant skills and transitioning to new job roles, as jobs are being transformed by technology.

The advisory will guide firms to better develop their talent pool and equip their employees with skills to cope with the new demands. It calls on insurance firms to:

• build a strong pipeline of local talent across entry, mid-career and leadership levels; 
• adopt inclusive hiring practices which focus on the skills required to perform the job rather than
• setting a strict minimum number of years of experience; and
• assess the impact of technological changes on their workforce, and work with the MAS, Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF), and Workforce Singapore (WSG) to reskill and redeploy their employees into areas of job growth through professional conversion programmes.

Within the financial services sector, the insurance industry forms the next largest employer group after banks. The tripartite advisory is one of the initiatives under the jobs and skills pillar of the Financial Services Industry Transformation Map (ITM). 

The advisory is the result of an extensive collaboration involving 10 tripartite partners from the labour movement, employers, and the government. The scope comprehensively covers different segments of insurance firms across the value chain and various business lines.

Ms Jacqueline Loh, deputy managing director, MAS, and co-chairperson of the Financial Sector Tripartite Committee (FSTC), said, “Business and workforce transformation must go hand-in-hand. As the industry embraces technology to deliver better services to customers, employers need to equip their staff with the right skills to enable them to continue to contribute meaningfully and stay engaged in rewarding jobs. The advisory will guide insurance firms on the desired outcomes for our workforce and facilitate the sharing of best practices.”

The tripartite partners came from: the MAS, Ministry of Manpower, General Insurance Association of Singapore, Life Insurance Association Singapore, National Trades Union Congress, Reinsurance Brokers Association of Singapore, Singapore Insurance Brokers’ Association, Singapore Insurance Employees’ Union, Singapore National Employers Federation and Singapore Reinsurers’ Association.