Exploring the Talent Gap: Insight and Solutions
This discussion covers the talent gap in the insurance industry, exploring its origins and current state, as well as the industry's efforts to address it, such as adopting new technologies and AI. It examines the limitations of applicant tracking systems in recruitment and how COVID-19, along with the shift to remote work, has reshaped worker expectations and work culture across different generations. The conversation also highlights strategies for retaining talent, fostering employee loyalty, and offering advice for hiring managers in a competitive market. Additionally, it looks at how companies can adjust workforce management strategies and improve collaboration between younger and older workers, with WAHVE offering solutions to address the hiring crisis.
Guest Speaker: Sharon Emek, WAHVE
Sharon is the founder and CEO of WAHVE LLC, a talent solution provider to the insurance industry – Work At Home Vintage Experts, a contract staffing solution that augments a company’s staff with retiring insurance industry professionals on a long-term basis and Talent Acquisition Outsourcing, a bias-free, end-to-end sourcing and qualifying AI driven platform for direct hire talent. She has more than 30 years of insurance industry experience, having been a partner at a regional full-service insurance brokerage. She began her career as a professor at Rutgers University and as a management consultant for insurance businesses.
Sharon has received numerous awards for her contributions to the insurance industry and her innovative solution to help retirees continue to work including the Next Avenue Influencers in Aging (2019); AARP Innovation Award Finalist (2019); the Leadership Longevity Award: Women in Innovation and Entrepreneurship (2018); SmartCEO Brava Award (2016); Vistage Leadership Legacy Award (2016); Insurance Business America’s “Elite Women in Insurance” (2014, 2015, 2016); IIABNY 1882 Fellow Award (2014); IIABNY Outstanding Committee Chairperson Award (2008); IIABA Sidney O. Smith Government Affairs Award (2007); IIABNY Distinguished Service Award from (2006); NAIW Helen Garvin Outstanding Achiever Award (1999); and National Promising Research Award for her doctoral research (1978).
Sharon is frequently sought out by the media as an expert on the workforce and aging, management and insurance issues. She has appeared on CNN, CNBC, CBS, Fox and Lifetime; has authored numerous articles; and is often quoted in national news periodicals, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, National Underwriter and Business Insurance. Sharon has testified before the New York State Assembly Insurance Committee and the U.S. House of Representatives’ Financial Services Subcommittee.
Sharon has served on numerous boards. She received her doctoral degree from Rutgers University.