The wider UK labour market is in an unusual place. The market is currently described as 'low hire, low fire', with weaker recruitment but only slight increases in redundancies, and vacancies have dropped below pre-pandemic levels the Low Pay Commission Report 2025. For insurers, that cooler backdrop can mask a real problem: the people who hold decades of underwriting, claims and actuarial judgement are still reaching the end of their careers, and a quieter market does not slow that clock.
Where hiring does happen in the sector, it is concentrated at the senior and specialist end. In financial services, recruitment was generally for Regulatory Qualification Framework (RQF) 6+ roles, rather than RQF 3-5 the GOV.UK Temporary Shortage List Stage 2 report. In plain terms, firms are competing for degree-level and higher expertise, exactly the roles that carry the hard-won experience insurers most want to keep.
Two forces pull at once. On one side, an ageing specialist workforce means underwriters, claims leaders and actuaries are retiring with knowledge that was never fully written down. On the other, the people who could replace them are more willing to move than ever. Across technical fields, 79% of UK technical professionals plan to change employers in 2026 Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, surveying over 500 employers and 1000 candidates.
That mobility matters for insurers because so much of the work is judgement built over years: how to price an unusual risk, when to challenge a claim, how a portfolio behaves under stress. When a senior specialist leaves, that judgement leaves too unless the firm has deliberately captured and passed it on. The roles most exposed are the ones that are hardest to hire for and slowest to train.
Start with a map. Identify the people whose knowledge would be costly to lose, then pair each of them with a successor early, so there is time for real handover rather than a rushed exit interview. Mentoring, shadowing and documented decision logs turn private expertise into shared knowledge the business owns.
On hiring, be specific. Because demand sits at RQF 6+ roles the GOV.UK Temporary Shortage List Stage 2 report, write job briefs around the qualifications and judgement you actually need, and move quickly once you find the right person. With 79% of technical professionals open to a move in 2026 Rise Technical's 2025/26 Insights Report, the strongest people are reachable, but they will not wait through a slow, uncertain process. Combine external hiring with internal development so you are both buying and building the experience you need.
When you know the experience you need to protect, the next step is finding the right people fast. We search a database of 15 million candidates, rank a shortlist in under 30 seconds, and contact matched people in under a minute, so you can reach specialists before someone else does. Our recruitment agent manages recruitment end to end for 8% on a successful hire, with no monthly fee and no upfront cost, through Reed.ai. If you are planning for the knowledge that could soon leave your business, let's talk about the hires that will carry it forward.
