New Year, New Talent: The Year to Rethink How You Nurture Talent
Growing and retaining talent in 2025 is going to be hard.
I won’t beat around the bush. Deloitte found that workers are emphasising more than ever before their growth, wellbeing and trust in managers and leadership (of which only 59% currently trust their organisation’s senior leadership team) when deciding where to work. Thus, creating an environment where talent thrives evidently isn’t a box-ticking exercise. It requires intentionality, adaptability and an unwavering commitment to seeing your people succeed. So as we welcome a new year, I want to ask: Are you ready to lead in a way that ensures your best people want to stay and grow with your business?
It starts with you
There’s no doubt about it - leadership has a huge influence on the attitude and actions taken towards developing talent in reinsurance. What's more, if you aren’t convinced by the reasons for doing it, you won’t do it properly. Quantum Workplace states that high employee turnover drains resources, causes a loss in institutional knowledge and reduces productivity as teams struggle to fill gaps and onboard new hires effectively.
Evidently, the stakes are quite high. But preventing this brain drain requires more than competitive salaries or flashy perks. In fact, Forbes suggests that retaining talent depends on leadership that prioritises growth and development. Thus, it starts with you.
Talent management isn’t something you can hand off to HR and call it a day - it’s a core part of what great leaders do. And, to do it well, you’ve got to toss out some old habits, like judging people solely by their resumes or obsessing over whether they “fit the culture.” True leadership means breaking out of that box, challenging your own biases and looking for brilliance in places you might not expect.
Here’s what effective talent management can look like in action:
Think long-term - don’t just patch holes in the team. Hire and develop with the big picture in mind. Where do you want your organisation to be in five years, and who can help get you there?
Invest in growth - people don’t thrive on autopilot. Give them real opportunities to learn and clear paths to grow.
Focus on teamwork - forget the lone-wolf mentality. Build teams that balance diverse perspectives and complementary skills for maximum innovation.
When you take talent development seriously, magic happens. Employees feel valued, motivated, and ready to bring their best. That energy ripples through your team, boosting productivity and morale across the board.
Ecosystem vs. hierarchy
What do I mean by ecosystem vs. hierarchy? Think of hierarchy as a straight line; a ladder you climb one rung at a time, hoping nobody above you drops a shoe. An ecosystem, on the other hand, is like a lush forest. It’s interconnected, full of pathways for growth. Instead of everyone scrambling to move up, they’re contributing and evolving together. An ecosystem mindset recognises that even departing employees fuel long-term success.
So, what does this look like in practice? The Association For Talent Development has many ideas about this, which I will summarise below:
Create a network, not just a workforce - not everyone’s going to stay forever, and that’s okay. Instead of seeing departures as losses, think of them as the beginning of a new chapter. Former employees can become your loudest cheerleaders, whether they recommend your company to others or boomerang back later. Build alumni networks that feel more like LinkedIn parties and less like goodbye forever.
Plan like a chess master, not a firefighter - don’t wait for your star performer to drop the talk about moving on. Anticipate their needs, career goals and maybe even their mid-career existential crises.
Align opportunity with motivation - people learn when they’re given the right opportunities and they actually care. It’s the sweet spot of talent management. Give them meaningful pathways to grow, sprinkle in some inspiration and watch them thrive.
Your people grow, your business grows. So, ditch the hierarchy. Build an ecosystem where talent doesn’t just survive… it thrives!
Are you on the right track?
Building a talent ecosystem is an ongoing commitment to growth and adaptability. But how do you know if you’re actually making progress? Here’s the good news: your ecosystem will give you plenty of signs if you’re paying attention.
Start by looking at the skills within your organisation. If your people are stuck in the same roles with the same skill sets, your ecosystem might need a refresh. Next, think about your team’s sense of direction. Can employees see a clear path for growth, and do they feel supported in getting there? When people feel empowered, they’re not just more productive, they’re genuinely invested in the organisation’s success.
Pay attention to collaboration, too. Harvard Business Review suggests that in a healthy ecosystem, there’s a ‘we before I’ attitude. If the vibe feels more individualistic and siloed than synergistic, it’s time to open up those connections and inject some cross-functional collaboration into the mix. And finally, listen. Not to the spreadsheets and dashboards (though they have their place) but to your people. Do they feel valued and challenged? Their engagement is your ecosystem’s pulse, and if it’s not beating strong, that’s your cue to act.
If you’re looking to get your talent strategy in shape before introducing new technology this year, let’s talk. With 27 years leading technology implementation projects in claims, IT and accounting, I can support you in combining people, processes and technology to build efficient operations that deliver great results for clients.
References:
https://www.quantumworkplace.com/future-of-work/why-employee-retention-is-important
https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertamatuson/2024/08/12/retain-talent-develop-your-leaders/
https://hbr.org/2020/01/how-the-best-managers-identify-and-develop-talent
https://www.td.org/content/ctdo-article/8-talent-ecosystem-building-blocks
https://www.deloittedigital.com/us/en/insights/perspective/workforce-experience-by-design.html