news

the talent recruitment method of selecting senior executives in a market-oriented way is being used by more and more insurance companies. recently, zheshang insurance posted a general manager recruitment notice on its shareholder's official website. due to business development needs, it is now publicly recruiting a general manager for zheshang insurance from outside the group. zheshang insurance is not an isolated case. on september 10, a beijing business daily reporter found that other companies that have issued "recruitment orders" for general managers this year include huaan insurance and bank of china group insurance co., ltd.

industry insiders said that small and medium-sized insurance companies are in a bottleneck period and hope to introduce fresh blood through open recruitment to find a new development model to achieve greater breakthroughs. through open recruitment, more experienced and capable talents can be attracted to join the company, improving the company's management level and business capabilities.

"recruitment orders" continue to increase

with the advancement of marketization, insurance companies, as traditional financial institutions, have also begun to adopt market-based recruitment to attract talent in recent years.

recently, zheshang insurance released a general manager recruitment notice through its shareholder's official website, announcing the public recruitment of a general manager of zheshang insurance. this is the latest case of an insurance company "selecting" a general manager. in an interview with a beijing business daily reporter, zheshang insurance said that zheshang insurance is a state-controlled insurance company. the company appoints the general manager based on the needs of business development, in accordance with the relevant provisions of the supervision and the "articles of association", and appoints the relevant personnel after approval by the regulatory authorities.

in the past, the general managers of insurance companies were mostly appointed by shareholders or selected internally. but in the past two years, the method of "open selection" for general managers has become more and more popular. just in march of this year, huaan insurance also issued a "recruitment order" for general managers, publicly recruiting general managers and deputy general managers. in august, the official website of bank of china also disclosed a "2024 high-level talent recruitment announcement", which showed that the company's bank of china group insurance co., ltd. was recruiting an executive president. if we look at the long-term trend, beibu gulf insurance, dinghe insurance, guoren property and casualty insurance, china post insurance, etc. have previously publicly recruited general managers or deputy general managers from the society.

in terms of recruitment requirements, the standards of various insurance companies are not much different. to become the general manager of an insurance company, the most basic requirement is to have more than 8 years of financial work experience or more than 10 years of economic work experience (of which the financial work experience must not be less than 5 years). it is also necessary to have served as the general manager of a provincial branch of an insurance company for more than 5 years; or as the head of an insurance company department for more than 5 years, or to have served in a management position equivalent to that of a financial regulatory agency for more than 5 years. beijing business daily reporters learned that this is also the requirement for the general manager of an insurance company in the "regulations on the qualification management of directors, supervisors and senior managers of insurance companies". in addition, insurance companies will also impose restrictions on the applicant's academic qualifications and age during the recruitment process, requiring applicants to have business management capabilities, risk control capabilities, communication and coordination capabilities, industry network resources, etc.

"this is a positive attempt, which is conducive to the introduction of fresh blood into insurance companies and the stimulation of corporate vitality." lin xianping, secretary general of the institute of culture and creativity of zhejiang university city college, said that first of all, senior management positions will affect the daily operations and management of the company, which may lead to the company's strategic planning and subsequent implementation, and directly affect the company's development. through open recruitment, the transparency and fairness of senior management selection can be increased, and the unfairness and disputes that may be caused by internal selection can be avoided. changes in senior management positions may also affect the company's talent attraction and talent reserves. open recruitment broadens the company's talent source, which can attract more experienced and capable talents to join the company and improve the company's management level and business capabilities.

state-owned insurance companies prefer "social recruitment"

beijing business daily reporters noticed that insurance companies that publicly recruit senior executives are mainly small and medium-sized insurance companies, and most of them have state-owned assets and central enterprise shareholders, such as zhejiang merchants insurance, beibu gulf insurance, dinghe insurance, etc.

fu jian, director of henan zejin law firm, believes that insurance companies with state-owned backgrounds are more inclined to publicly recruit general managers, mainly because they can promote market-oriented reforms by introducing fresh blood and respond to the policy direction of deepening state-owned enterprise reforms.

in addition, in order to solve the bottleneck of company development, small and medium-sized insurance companies often have a more urgent need for management talents. fu jian believes that small and medium-sized insurance companies are more inclined to recruit through market-oriented recruitment in order to attract talents with strong capabilities and abundant resources. in the context of intensified industry competition and the need to develop new markets, although only one general manager may be recruited, it is still beneficial to contact more, more comprehensive and more professional talents.

however, compared with the common shareholder dispatch and other general manager selection methods, market-based recruitment has both advantages and disadvantages. fu jian pointed out that open recruitment of senior executives can make them more professional, with richer and more comprehensive market experience, and thus can provide the company with a diversified management team. open recruitment is more in line with the psychological expectations of internal employees and consumers of the company. its selection is transparent and conducive to fair competition. compared with shareholder dispatch, its disadvantages are its uncertainty and the need for time to coordinate with the company, which may require the company to spend a certain amount of time and cost.

or become a "trend"

insurance companies openly recruit general managers with the intention of recruiting high-quality, professional managers. in fact, in the context of the continuous expansion of insurance institutions in recent years, especially during the development of a number of large and medium-sized insurance companies in different cycles, the industry has accumulated a group of professional managers.

industry insiders said that there are differences between shareholders and professional managers in terms of business operations and corporate governance. therefore, state-owned shareholders hire market-oriented managers. however, if the two sides do not agree on the same ideas, the general manager is often constrained and it is difficult to carry out daily work.

talking about the future trend of insurance companies recruiting senior executives, fu jian predicted that market-based recruitment can bring fresh blood to the company, improve the company's innovation and professionalism, meet the continuous development of the industry, and adapt to the constant changes in the market. insurance companies recruiting senior executives through market-based recruitment is likely to become a major trend. however, this method may not be suitable for all insurance companies and needs to be determined based on the company's internal governance and development direction.

beijing business daily reporter li xiumei