Q&A: Joanne Marriott – president of Nottingham Insurance Institute

Q: A recent survey by Ecclesiastical showed brokers are still having issues with insurer service, is this on the agenda for NII?

Whilst it isn’t something the institute has focused on to date, it is something that we are aware of.

The gap between the service levels of different insurers has been huge with some excelling and others failing dismally, and we know this continues to be a frustration for brokers.

We encourage insurers to engage with brokers via conversations and networking events and if our members ask us to get involved, we would offer any assistance we could.

Q: What is your standpoint on the war for talent? How does the council’s offering of career guidance, mentoring and training courses help?

We are conscious that businesses are now facing new challenges in attracting and retaining quality talent. The power in the recruitment process has most definitely shifted from the employer to the employee. Businesses are having to relook at their wish list for a new recruit and be more prepared to support training and education and reconsider the employment packages offered.

The power in the recruitment process has most definitely shifted from the employer to the employee. Businesses are having to relook at their wish list for a new recruit

Joanne Marriott

The vast majority of our members are the employees themselves and as a council, our aim is to always provide guidance for them to help forge a successful and fulfilling career path.

We continue to promote not only education and qualifications, to enhance knowledge, but also life and soft skills to strengthen their overall experience. Our sessions can be anything from improving written communication, technical training, and exam revision to regulatory requirements and everything in between.

We also continue to promote insurance in the education arena to attract new talent to our industry.

Our young and emerging members team are also currently putting together a four-part programme aimed specifically at the less experienced insurance members, as well as those thinking about a career in our industry – the sessions include, financial planning for their future, career development and life skills.

This will be a mixture of webinar and in person sessions in the New Year. We’ve just done our first session on Crypto Currency which had a fantastic turnout.

We also encourage members (individuals and employers) to familiarise themselves with the CII’s new Professional Map, this is a great tool for any insurance professional and provides lots of useful information to help throughout the career path.

Q: How is the Nottingham insurance scene? Has it changed in terms of members and is the membership getting more diverse and younger?

Nottingham and Derby have always had a strong membership base and despite the closure of many city centre insurer offices over the years, this has still remained fairly static. What we have seen is a diversification of roles with more and more members coming from different areas of the industry, such as solicitors, accountants, and property management. This presents new challenges for the Nottingham Insurance Institute and we now have to think outside the box when it comes to sourcing CPD sessions that would cater to such a diverse range of careers.

We are lucky that our Council members come from a variety of roles, general insurance handlers, claims, company directors, personal finance, solicitors and loss adjusters. its means that we are able to hear the opinions and feedback from the different sectors.

Q: What are your plans for your second year running as president?

As president, my main two goals for 2022 and 2023 are to deliver more face-to-face events, as the feeling we’re getting at the moment is that people are becoming webinar fatigued and although sign-up numbers may still be high, the actual attendance rate is reducing.

We know before Covid that face-to-face events were extremely popular so we’re doing all we can to get people back to what we feel is an important part of our industry – networking. With lots to celebrate and a whole host of new faces on the council, we’re excited to all meet in person again.

We’re currently planning for our 2023 InsurED Day, which is a one-day conference that caters to both the needs of the financial services and general insurance members. We did this as a virtual event last year so we’re all thrilled to be back hosting an in-person event again. Next year’s event will take place in September so keep a look out on our website for details nearer the time. The day is open to anyone in the insurance industry with a Nottingham Member or not.

Charity is the second area I would like us to focus on. We are conscious that the past two and a half years have been tough so we’d like to do our bit in raising funds.

I’ve set the Charity Committee a challenge to raise as much money as we can.

We’ve already held an online raffle in July this year which was a great success and the Charity Team are already brainstorming to come up with new ideas for the next event.

Joanne Marriott joined Nottingham based independent insurance broker Russell Scanlan in October 2020 as a commercial manager. In her role, she works alongside the management team to oversee the commercial and SME service departments of the business.

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