What does insurance hiring look like right now?

The centre of gravity in insurance recruitment is shifting up the skills ladder. Look at what the government now treats as genuinely scarce: in financial services, recruitment is generally for higher-qualified roles rather than entry-level ones. GOV.UK - Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report The GOV.UK Temporary Shortage List Stage 2 report notes that hiring in the sector was generally for Regulatory Qualification Framework (RQF) 6+ roles, rather than RQF 3 to 5.

That single detail tells you where the demand sits. RQF 6 sits at degree level. The roles employers struggle to fill are the ones that call for judgement, technical depth and the confidence to advise, not the ones built around processing and data entry. As software takes on more of the routine work, that gap only widens.

Which broking roles and skills are changing?

Think about a broking day in two halves. One half is admin: rekeying client details, chasing documents, quoting comparison, renewals processing and compliance logging. The other half is advice: reading a client's real exposure, structuring cover, negotiating with underwriters and explaining trade-offs in plain language. Automation is steadily eating the first half.

When the admin half shrinks, the advice half becomes the whole job. That is consistent with the pattern in the GOV.UK shortage report, where demand concentrates at RQF 6 and above. GOV.UK - Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report The scarce, premium skill is not speed at a keyboard. It is the human ability to advise a client on risk they cannot see themselves.

• Client advisory: translating complex risk into clear recommendations.
• Technical underwriting knowledge: pricing and structuring cover with confidence.
• Relationship and negotiation skills: managing insurers and clients under pressure.
• Regulatory fluency: holding higher qualifications and applying them in real cases.

How do you hire well in insurance broking?

Start by hiring for the half of the job that is growing. If admin is being automated, screening for admin speed is a mistake. Screen instead for advisory judgement: how someone reads a risk, questions an assumption and explains a decision to a client who is not an expert.

Be precise about qualifications. With demand concentrated at RQF 6+ according to the GOV.UK Temporary Shortage List report, you want to know exactly which level a role truly needs, and where you can develop someone toward it. GOV.UK - Temporary Shortage List: Stage 2 report Not every seat needs the top qualification on day one, but every seat needs a plan to get there.

• Write job specs around advice and judgement, not task lists.
• Assess with a real client scenario, not a generic aptitude test.
• Map each role to a clear RQF level and a development path.
• Move fast on strong advisers: scarce skills do not wait.

Speed matters because the people who can advise are the people everyone wants. A slow process loses them. So build a shortlist quickly, then invest your time in deep conversations about how each person thinks.

How can an AI recruitment agent help you hire advisers faster?

This is where we fit. Reed.ai searches a database of 15 million candidates to surface people with the advisory and technical skills insurance broking now rewards, and manages the process end to end so you can focus on the conversations that matter. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost. Tell us the advisory role you need to fill, and start your shortlist today.