Opinion: Is nepotism inherently bad or an underutilised talent attraction tool?

According to the Cambridge Dictionary, nepotism is defined as “the act of using your power or influence to get good jobs or unfair advantages for members of your own family”.

This is seemingly a concern in the UK job market, with a survey of 2,300 UK workers published by job board CV-Library in 2016 finding that 61% of respondents classed themselves as a victim of nepotism or had seen it occur in the workplace, while 81% believed that nepotism does exist in the UK workforce.

Homing in on financial services, 2019 research from consultancy KPMG UK revealed that around 41% of this sector’s employees had parents working in the same field, compared to a national average of 12% across other industries. In insurance specifically, more than half of staff had followed their parents into the market, KPMG UK added.

Lee Anderson, group deputy chief executive at Specialist Risk Group (SRG), told me in 2024 that there was indeed a “very rich vein of nepotism” in UK general insurance (UKGI).

The main complaint arising from such accusations is, understandably, that providing a boost up the career ladder to your nearest and dearest is a detrimental blocker to greater workplace diversity and social mobility, which in turn can hamper innovation and creativity generated by pooling a broad diversity of thoughts.

However, considering the ongoing challenge UKGI is experiencing when it comes to attracting younger talent into the market, could the perspective be pivoted here to instead see nepotism as a talent attraction tool, raising awareness of the industry as a place for interesting, long-term careers across a broad spectrum of roles, with the family dinner table acting as an educational ‘water cooler’ moment?

Underwriting understanding

This was certainly the case for Aviva’s managing director of SME and delegated authority, Rebecca Gambrell, whose father worked as a risk professional in the insurance market for around 15 years at firms such as Direct Line Group (DLG) and Esure, prior to his retirement in 2014.

With a maths degree from the University of Surrey under her belt, Gambrell did not initially consider insurance as a possible career route, believing it was simply a call centre environment.

However, conversations with her father – who fell into insurance himself after being seconded from the banking sector in 2003 – showed her that “there were opportunities there for the sorts of roles that I might be interested in and the skills that I could apply into that world, which I just don’t think I would have known [about] otherwise”.

She continued: “As an 18, 19, 20-year-old, you don’t really know much about insurance. It doesn’t really cross your path much apart from the fact that you might have car insurance, but your parents probably sorted most [of that out]. So, [my father] gave me much more insight into what insurance is about [and the] variety of roles that were in insurance.”

Gambrell told me that around 10% of her current professional network had relatives or friends that had introduced them to the insurance sector as a career path.

For her, therefore, nepotism is “less around having a leg up or a way in [to a job role] and more around [getting] a wider and broader understanding of the industry, the opportunities and the variety of roles”.

She added: “[My dad’s job] did make me aware that actually they do stuff like pricing, or there’s people that do underwriting, which I just wouldn’t have understood as a concept I don’t think.

“I don’t think [nepotism is] about other people losing out on opportunities because the industry is filled with people whose parents were in it, but I do think it’s actually that base level understanding of the opportunities, which can only be a good thing – particularly if insurance is sometimes viewed in a less than positive light by the general population.”

SRG’s Anderson, who is a very vocal and active advocate of social mobility, agreed that nepotism is not necessarily inherently bad.

He explained: “I don’t think we should discourage people from bringing others into the industry simply because they’re family or friends. In fact, I take it as a positive sign that people are proud enough of what we do to want others they care about to be part of it.

“The important thing is that we’re self-aware in how we hire and that we don’t allow informal networks to become the only route in.”

Opening doors

In many ways, the UKGI market is already doing good work in attracting younger talent, according to Gambrell. When the opportunity arose to do a placement year during her university tenure, she found that accountancy and professional services type roles were thin on the ground as a maths graduate. As a result, she did a “math-based actuarial graduate scheme”, which gave her even greater insight into the world of insurance.

Her experience was that graduate scheme opportunities were aplenty across insurance in comparison to other financial and maths related sectors – she added that this has now broadened to include apprenticeships, which supports social mobility and promotes greater inclusion, considering those who do not want to or cannot afford to attend university.

Despite this breadth of structured pathways into the industry, Gambrell acknowledged that UKGI still needs to do more at a school level to showcase insurance as a career destination, demonstrating to students that they do not need to be maths or technology experts to have fruitful careers in the sector.

Anderson added: “There’s a balance to be struck. We need to celebrate the role models we already have in the industry while also being intentional about opening the door wider.

“That means investing in outreach, creating structured pathways for underrepresented talent and ensuring that opportunity isn’t just limited to who you know.”

Right tool for the job?

It is a truth universally acknowledged that insurance is a people and relationship driven industry.

It therefore makes logical sense that nepotism does exist in the sector, with strong personal relationships underpinning professional recommendations – and even strong professional connections developing into firm personal friendships in return.

It all comes down to how nepotism is actioned.

In no way should recruitment or promotion practices be biased in favour of friendships alone, but if nepotism can raise awareness of the myriad opportunities or progressions in our sector and pinpoint specific fields where younger, talented individuals can fully utilise their skill sets in support of the industry, then maybe not all nepotism should be tarred with the same brush.

The industry’s talent challenges are multifaceted and we need to carefully and considerately use all tools in our arsenal to futureproof a thriving and diverse UKGI market.