Crawford’s Bart: Very specific skills needed for future loss adjusters

Crawford & Company is targeting loss adjusting personnel with a very specific skillset as the role has experienced a “rapid evolution”, the firm’s CEO for international operations has told The Insurer TV.

During an interview at the Federation of European Risk Management Associations (Ferma) Forum in Madrid last month, Andrew Bart discussed “how little the loss adjusting sector of claims has evolved” in recent history.

“But I think we're seeing a rapid evolution at the moment,” he said.

Specifically, Bart explained how the firm was currently focusing on recruiting people, who do not necessarily have an insurance background but who have “very specific skills”.

“A recent example is in the UK, [where] we've recruited a cyber expert who we brought out of military intelligence. That's a really specific skill. So what I see us doing is developing people who have base level skills and then augmenting them with insurance training.”

Bart also discussed the firm’s wider digitalisation strategy and cited the launch of Turvi, its in-house insurtech vehicle providing software-as-a-service offerings designed to enhance property and casualty claims in October. Despite the importance of digitalisation, he stressed the importance of human capabilities.

“We see a great need to develop digitally led solutions, but technology and people is one of the themes of our business.

“So we see technology, artificial intelligence (AI) [and] digital capability as an opportunity to augment, but not replace the human capability.”

For example, Bart described how Crawford has developed in-house AI capabilities for use in policy interpretation and said “we don't see that replacing people, but it's an augmentation”.

He warned however of an “increasing talent scarcity in the industry” and that it has become incumbent upon Crawford “to bring people up to speed [and] to get them to a reasonable level of competency as quickly as possible.”

“If I look across the European market, there's an absolute need to increase the level of technical capability,” he said.

“We believe at Crawford, we're one of relatively few claim service providers that makes a very significant investment in the development of people and talent.

“But we know that to be relevant, to make that a sustainable proposition, and to meet the evolving needs of the market, we've got to be better in developing our digital capability.”

Watch the full interview to hear more about: