Why traditional talent models are breaking—and how a skills-based,AI-enabled workforce strategy can help. Table of Contents A New Workforce Model for a Changing Insurance Landscape A Workforce at a Tipping Point Why Hiring Alone Won’t Solve the Problem Build: Developing Talent from Within The Role of AI in Preserving Institutional Knowledge and Growing Talent Buy: Recruiting for Strategic Fit and Future Skills Meet Candidates Where They Are Borrow: Making Better Use of Contingent Talent Why a Unified Platform MattersWhat Workday VNDLY Brings to the Table Where Skills, Opportunity, and Expertise Come Together A new workforcemodel for a changinginsurance landscape. Solving this challenge requires more than hiring. Insurers need a skills-basedworkforce strategy that incorporates three central components: •Build:The development of internal talent with future-ready skills•Buy:The recruitment of external talent that fits both technical The insurance industry has been grappling with talent shortages foryears—especially in high-demand roles such as data scientists, coreplatform experts, and technologists with deep industry knowledge. As By using skills intelligence and AI-driven insights to guide these decisions,insurers can reduce reliance on costly external resources, protect critical This eBook explores how insurance leaders can turn today’s talent shortageinto a long-term advantage by rethinking how skills are identified, developed, To fill that gap, many insurers have leaned on system integrators and offshoreresources. While these partnerships can help in the short term, they’re oftenexpensive, slow to ramp up, and unfamiliar with highly customized legacy Now, as agentic AI becomes part of everyday operations, that knowledgematters more than ever. AI can’t be effective without being trained on thenuances of legacy applications, underwriting rules, and real-world exceptionsthat have evolved over time. With experienced workers nearing retirement, Why hiring alone won’t solvethe problem. A workforce at atipping point. Even the most effective recruiting strategies cannot fully address today’stalent shortage. The pace of technological change, combined with The insurance industry has long been defined by stability, deep expertise, andinstitutional knowledge built over decades. Yet today, that foundation is underpressure. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. insurers could Meeting these challenges requires a multipronged approach to talent Insurers are navigating an unprecedented convergence of challenges: risingclimate-related losses, regulatory complexity, digital transformation, andgrowing customer expectations—all while facing a persistent shortage ofskilled talent. Roles in IT, data science, actuarial analysis, cybersecurity, 1Build: Develop skills internally. 2Buy: Recruit externally for targeted capabilities.3Borrow: Leverage contingent and partner talent more effectively. A skills-based approach—powered by data, analytics, and AI—gives insurersa more dynamic way to understand their workforce, close gaps faster, and Keep reading to explore how Workday turns skills insight into action, soinsurance organizations are prepared to “build, buy, and borrow” talent more Aglobal Workday studyrevealed thatjust 41% of insurance leaders believe Build: Developingtalent from within. For insurers, building internal capability is one of the most effective—andsustainable—ways to close skills gaps. Many organizations already haveemployees with deep domain knowledge of underwriting, claims, finance, andoperations. The challenge lies in ensuring that HR leaders know which skills are This is where a skills-based approach, powered by AI, changes the equation. Insurers have always understood the value of data. They’ve used it for decadesto assess and price risk. Now, that same mindset can be applied to workforcedata. With Workday, insurers gain a real-time, AI-powered view of skills acrossroles, teams, and functions, transforming fragmented, siloed talent data into •Understand what skills exist across the workforce today•Identify gaps tied to evolving business and technology priorities•Make more informed build, buy, and borrow talent decisions of employers have shifted towardskills-based hiring2 Workday Skills Cloud, included in Workday Human Capital Management (HCM), offers one source of truththat uses AI to infer skills from job history, learning activity, projects, certifications, and day-to-day work,going beyond what employees manually enter. This gives leaders a far more accurate picture of current Embedded across Workday. The role of AI in preserving institutionalknowledge and growing talent. Upskilling the insurance workforcefor the AI era. For decades, customer service has been the cornerstone of insuranceoperations. However, staffing remains a significant challenge and theonboarding process for new employees can take months, or even longer, for As insurers increasi