Professionalism at UAL

International President of LIMRA (Life Insurance Marketing Research Association) USA, Robert A Kerzner lauded Union Assurance for setting the benchmark in ‘professionalising’ the Sri Lankan insurance industry with emphasis on quality.

“Union Assurance has the highest number of LIMRA achievers in Sri Lanka, 105 awards in all. Each year, since UAL became a member of LIMRA in 2002, we have seen a steady increase in numbers awarded and the interest shown by the company in developing their HR talent to international standards is indeed commendable,” he said in a media statement issued by UAL.

How would one recognise a true insurance professional? Who measures, quantifies and qualifies the team? According to Suranjith Godagama, Asst General Manager Training and Development of Union Assurance, it is the customers call.

The whole concept behind Union Assurance’s training and development initiate is to create professionals and professionalism within the industry.

He says “the very words are used loosely but our focus is to benchmark our selves against international standards and succeed by winning awards and qualifying internationally.”

Working with five training managers the training and development department of Union Assurance is responsible for ‘professionalizing’ insurance advisors, the sales team and management.

“In the life business we have over 1,500 life insurance advisors and nearly 200 unit leaders, the focus is towards internationally accepted standards of development,” he added.

In 2005, Union Assurance had 29 Life Insurance Advisors who won International Quality Awards (IQA) that measure customer service, retention and customer satisfaction, 67 people winning International Awards for Productivity (IAP).