The insurance industry is powered by expertise. From underwriters and brokers to claims specialists. Yet, retaining this talent has never been more challenging. Attrition costs not only impact the bottom line but also erode institutional knowledge and client trust. While many firms focus on perks and benefits to improve retention, a hidden factor is often overlooked: the role of IT in shaping employee experience.
In an industry where talent directly drives profitability, employee experience is a strategic advantage. These days it’s more than perks like cycle-to-work schemes or parking discounts that will sway candidates and retain employees.
In today’s digital workplace, outdated systems and fragmented workflows create frustration that could drives top performers away. By rethinking IT as a driver of employee satisfaction rather than a back-office function, insurers can build environments where talent thrives, productivity accelerates, and long-term loyalty grows.
The hidden link between the state of IT and attrition
Employee experience is often viewed through the lens of engagement surveys, office culture, and benefits packages but in today’s digital workplace, technology defines the experience more than many leaders realise.
Across the UK and Ireland, nearly half of employees say their employer lags behind in adopting workplace technology, and only 68% feel they’re equipped with the tools they need to perform effectively 1. This will drive their decision to stay or leave an organisation.
In insurance specifically, 27% say legacy systems remain a major challenge to successfully implementing their digitisation strategy, according to CGI's 2025 Voice of our Clients research 2. These legacy systems and disconnected workflows are a complexity that directly increases employee frustration and impacts productivity.
The latest Earnix report on insurance industry trends revealed that 50% of insurers are behind schedule on modernisation, while 70% of teams rarely collaborate, which is a perfect storm for disengagement 3. If underwriters are spending much of their time navigating outdated policy admin systems, or brokers are switching between 6 or more platforms to close a single deal, these inefficiencies will drive frustration and disengagement.
Forward-thinking insurance C-suite executives (CxOs) are focusing on proactive, data-driven internal IT and HR strategies. By integrating employee experience into IT operations, insurers can create a digital ecosystem where employees feel supported, productive, and empowered.
How integrated IT systems reshape employee experience
Technology doesn’t just enable work; it defines the quality of work. Insurers leading the way are adopting integrated tooling and experience-driven frameworks to provide seamless, personalised IT support.
Here are three critical enablers:
- Persona-driven IT support – Every employee interacts with technology differently. Mapping user personas from high-touch underwriters to fast-moving claims adjusters ensures that IT services align with individual working styles. This means fewer irrelevant scripts, faster resolutions, and more productive employees.
- Proactive experience monitoring – Using analytics platforms like Nexthink, insurers are moving from reactive firefighting to predictive support. Device-level monitoring through Digital Workplace solutions identifies potential performance issues before they impact employees. Incidents can be resolved proactively, reducing downtime and boosting employee satisfaction scores significantly.
- Integrated feedback loops – Employee sentiment data is already a key driver for strategy. By combining real-time employee feedback with operational analytics, insurers can bridge the gap between perception and reality, fixing problems employees care about, not just those IT have identified.
At CGI, we help insurers apply these principles through secure, scalable managed services and experience-driven IT frameworks.
The ROI of better employee experience
A data-driven approach to IT-enabled employee experience delivers measurable returns:
- Streamlined IT processes accelerate productivity and processing, reduce errors and improve turnaround times.
- Fewer support calls, faster onboarding, and lower turnover reduce operational costs while boosting business agility.
- Proactive monitoring minimises outages and downtime, directly benefitting continuity levels.
What’s next for insurance leaders in the digital workplace?
Since 2007’s iPhone debut, consumer-grade digital experiences have elevated expectations at work. Top-tier professionals now evaluate employers based on the quality of workplace tech. Those who don’t modernise risk losing their best people to competitors who prioritise employee experience as seriously as customer experience.
In a softening market, investing in integrated IT frameworks, persona-centric support, and experience analytics helps the industry to:
- Retain their most valuable talent
- Operate with improved efficiency
- Protect profitability and financial resilience
- Adapt swiftly to emerging challenges and technology.
Profitability follows people. Technology drives experience. Insurers who connect the two, collaborating with partners like CGI, will lead.
If you’re ready to reassess your IT strategy to reduce attrition and strengthen employee experience, let’s start the conversation. Get in touch to explore how our experience-driven IT frameworks can help you retain top talent and boost performance.
References
About this author
Tom Infante
Director Consulting Services – Technology and IT Managed Services
With over 15 years of experience in IT operations, service delivery, and innovation, Tom brings deep expertise in the Financial Services sector. He specialises in driving operational resilience, leading AI-driven transformation initiatives, and providing strategic managed services consultancy
