Actuaries play a critical role in the financial stability and overall success of the insurance industry, making it crucial to be intentional and strategic with your talent acquisition so you don’t risk losing out on top tier actuaries.
Expert Tips For Hiring Remote Actuaries
If you want to attract (and even more importantly – retain) the best actuaries, making positions remote can greatly expand your appeal as an employer as well as your reach to more actuaries. In fact, half of workers surveyed would even willingly accept lower compensation in exchange for remote work, as the flexibility can provide significant value to them through additional work-life balance. If your budget doesn’t leave room to compete salary-wise against other employers, the opportunity to work remotely can make your offer compelling to top talent, even at a lower cost.
Once you are ready to start finding candidates for your remote actuary position, the recruitment and hiring strategy you would have for in person hires will need to be updated for the specifics of remote work. Follow these best practices for hiring remote actuaries:
Set a Clear Definition of Remote Work
Remote work can mean a variety of things, so ensure you and your prospective remote actuaries are on the same page from the start. As you prepare to hire remote staff, specify the details of your logistical expectations for the remote actuary position, such as:
- Is it entirely remote, in which actuaries can work from anywhere? And if so, is there a specific time zone where you mainly do business? Would need to be available during those hours?
- Do they need to be local and available to come to the office as needed?
- Will there be occasional or regular office work needed? For hybrid remote actuary positions, ensure you communicate the details for availability and how their time would be divided.
Write A Remote Actuarial Job Description That Sells
Actuarial talent is in high demand, and your job posting is your most important opportunity to get their attention. Put careful consideration into crafting a job description that is informative enough to attract the most qualified candidates, without having an overwhelming amount of detail:
Write a Clear Job Title – Don’t Get Creative
Make it immediately apparent to both search engine algorithms and human eyes what specific job you are hiring for and use the most commonly known and accepted wording. Otherwise, your job posting may not be found by actuaries who are actively job searching. Using clever job titles in an effort to stand out can backfire since most job seekers will be searching for more industry standard job titles. They may not see your posting – and if they do, they may scroll past it because it isn’t immediately apparent the job is relevant for them.
Describe the Job Accurately
Certainly, you want to highlight the reasons why a remote actuary should want to work for your organization, but it will waste both your time and that of the candidate if you don’t provide a comprehensive view of what the job entails. When hiring a remote team, an accurate job description that gives a clear picture of the job will ensure you attract quality candidates, even if it’s at a lower quantity.
Be Clear About Minimum Requirements
When competing in such a tight labor market to hire remote actuaries, the last thing you want to do is inadvertently put up any barriers that would keep top talent from applying. Don’t have an extensive wish list of qualifications in your job description – communicate the essential requirements only. This will ensure that unqualified candidates will opt out, and the candidates who do have the necessary skills and experience will feel confident applying.
Talk About Benefits and Culture
Make actuaries feel more compelled to pursue you as an employer by being upfront about what their overall professional picture would look like if they worked for you. Discuss what types of benefits and perks you offer that would make your compensation even more appealing (particularly if your salary budget is on the lower end of the market range). Additionally, make it a point to highlight your company culture – even when hiring a remote team, candidates take culture into careful consideration when making their decisions on what offers to accept.
Outline Your Companies Expectations of Remote Work
Be clear about how the day-to-day will look for a remote actuary. Communicate in detail the definition of remote work so candidates will understand the expected location, time zone, availability, and other aspects of the position. Also, discuss how collaboration, progress updates, and other forms of communication typically work for your organization for remote work.
The Remote Hiring Team Should Prioritize All Interviews
With the autonomy that comes with a remote actuary job, your hiring team must be cognizant about being fully present to gain insight during the interview process, in order to make the most informed decisions. Every interview, from initial screenings to more in-depth conversations, should be equally prioritized. Ensure everyone involved in the decision-making process is on the same page when it comes to the criteria that will be used to evaluate candidates. This will allow everyone to make the most objective assessments possible and make the most out of their interactions with the candidates.
Create A Positive Interview Experience for Remote Actuarial Jobs
Your employer brand is significantly influenced by candidate experience, so take steps to provide a quality one. Preparation for virtual interviews is not interchangeable with how your hiring team handles face-to-face interviewing. Ensure your remote hiring team focuses on the candidate experience. It can be a bit more challenging to make a personal connection in a virtual format, so be intentional about putting your candidates at ease. Plan to log in early to account for any tech hiccups, and to be ready immediately when the interview is scheduled to start. You want to demonstrate respect for your candidates’ time and leave a favorable impression as a potential employer.
Ask The Right Remote Interview Questions
Remote work requires different technical and soft skills than in office work. Even if someone is highly talented as an actuary, they also need to demonstrate their aptitude for working remotely. To effectively hire remote staff, it’s crucial to craft your interview questions to learn about the candidate’s prior experience with working remotely (or their potential to do so, if they have not already) and what makes them want to pursue a remote role. This requires inquiring into the logistics of their remote work setup, self-motivation, proactive problem solving, time management, and more.
Examples of remote interview questions to ask include:
- Have you worked remotely in the past?
- What do you feel is the best way to complete projects while working remotely?
- What do you do to maintain your focus while working?
- Which benefit of remote work is the most valuable to you?
- What did you do when your manager was absent, and you had to make a decision?
- What steps have you taken within the last year to improve yourself?
- If you have a problem and can’t find the solution, what do you do? How do you reach out to your colleagues for help?
- How do you prioritize tasks and schedule your day?
- Do you have a designated remote workspace?
If the candidate’s responses do not provide enough detail, be prepared to ask follow-up questions to get them to elaborate, such as requesting them to describe a specific past example to expand on their initial answer.
To Improve Remote Hiring, Partner with an Actuarial Recruiting Firm
It can be time-consuming and overwhelming to handle remote hiring in-house, particularly if you are juggling a heavy workload. In this tight labor market, you don’t want to risk losing out on top talent for your remote actuaries. Actuaries are a niche market with a very specific skill set and partnering with an expert, actuarial search firm can improve your hiring.
Actuarial recruiters constantly network and maintain relationships with the brightest actuarial talent in the marketplace, so they can provide you with thoroughly vetted candidates with a quick turnaround. Their hiring expertise can help prevent bad hires since they know how to assess candidates and look for the subtle indicators of a successful long-term fit. Working with an actuarial recruiting firm can also organically boost your diversity mission, as recruiters have thorough training and knowledge in inclusive recruitment practices, from the right language to use in job postings to steps to prevent unconscious bias.
Ready To Hire Remote Actuaries?
The marketplace for actuaries is highly specialized, so it is important to work with an actuarial recruiting firm who truly understands the field and how to effectively evaluate candidates for long term success. As the largest dedicated actuarial search firm, DW Simpson’s team of actuarial recruiters brings more than 30 years of experience in actuarial recruitment dedicated to a variety of industries, including insurance carriers, healthcare providers and networks, consultancies, insurtech, startups, government agencies, and investment firms.
Additionally, our team has a passion for serving our clients – we are committed to helping achieve long term vision by providing top actuarial talent. Contact us to learn more about how we can be a trusted partner for your actuarial hiring needs.