Anne Marie Towle, CEO at Hylant, on how captive managers and consultants can engage top talent for long-term success

Growing and engaging talent in the captive insurance industry is a hot topic today, more than ever, because of the increase in opportunities in the job market due to the hard market. The number of open positions within the captive industry has grown significantly over the past three years. How do captive managers and consultants attract top talent and keep them engaged in their organisations and with their clients?

Finding new talents

When Anne Marie Towle, CEO of Hylant Global Captive Solutions, started in September 2019, she focused on building a team that could be engaged and engrained in the culture of Hylant and the captive community. Thus, she began to recruit college student interns majoring in actuarial, risk management and accounting from universities across the country to teach them the captive industry.

The internship programme educates young people about the captive industry and allows Hylant to attract key talent. Developing a process of engagement between senior team employees and college interns was truly critical in the development of the programme. To develop and expand the Hylant internship programme in the captive practice, they wanted to ensure that the college students would embrace and enhance the culture of Hylant.

Hylant has been privately owned since 1935, is on the fourth generation of the Hylant family, and is interested in continued growth planning for the next generations. Culture is a sense of community, and they want every employee to feel part of this community.

Hylant prides itself on having an inclusive culture that provides growth opportunities, treats every individual like family and creates a road map for success. This culture breeds success for employees. It allows the employee to be innovative, share ideas with team members and ask questions of any other employee.

The acceptance of the Hylant culture is essential to the success of each new intern and employee. Retaining talents Engaging with senior team members, prospective clients and clients is a critical component of the internship programme.

For the interns to understand the role of a captive manager or consultant, they need to be immersed in the hands-on, day-today aspects of working with a prospect or a client. This immersion into daily activities allows the interns to quickly determine their interest in pursuing a career in the captive industry.

At the same time, these internships allow Hylant to assess and determine their interest in offering full-time employment to the interns after graduation. This is a win-win situation for both, providing a test drive for a future long-term career path in the captive industry.

Maintaining talents

Hylant believes offering continuous learning for all employees is a factor that attracts potential employees who want to engage, learn and participate at all levels in the industry. Connecting with the wider captive community beyond a company’s state and country is invaluable.

One way that Hylant encourages this is conference attendance which enhances further education, networking and participation in committees, boards and other activities. This is important to many talented professionals, not just younger team members.

Learning about a different state or country’s domicile laws is valuable to the employee. Encouraging employees to identify their stretch goals, meet challenges they may feel they have no interest in, and engage in projects where they may need more experience is an avenue to achieve shortand long-term success.

Hylant cross-trains its team members to work with small, medium and large clients across different industries and includes both property/ casualty and employee benefits in one captive. When thinking about succession planning for any team, ensure people on the team have experience in specific areas such as managing other team members, drafting budgets and analysing outcomes.

Teaching and working with team members on these aspects will help them succeed in leadership roles in the future. The more time spent educating and mentoring employees, the better the culture and success of the organisation. The value driven by the culture and education of the team members is important.

Clients, prospective clients and service provider partners quickly experience the enthusiasm, innovation and passion team members bring to the relationship. When an employee enjoys their job and is focused on a longterm career at an employer, it is usually because they are provided opportunities for learning, growth and success.

Continuous support and being available to nurture and mentor team members are vital for senior leaders at Hylant. By investing time, education and mentoring, Hylant has seen success in the wider captive community, with employees recognised with emerging talent awards.

The recognition of Adam Miholic, Dawn Dinardo and Monica Birchmore makes Hylant proud of everyone on the team and look forward to the next generation of interns and captive leaders.