Ceylinco Life to employ 1,700 over next five months

Ceylinco Life has announced plans to recruit 1,700 sales consultants and agency supervisors by the end of 2009, a move the life insurance leader says reflects its confidence in the potential of the industry.

A new recruitment campaign launched by the company in July is scheduled to run till September 30, 2009. Ceylinco Life's current sales team numbers around 5000. 'It may seem unusual to recruit on such a scale in the midst of a global economic downturn,' T. Ranasinghe, Ceylinco Life's Deputy Chief Executive Director conceded. 'But we are confident that improved access to the North and East, and our own plans will contribute to an expansion of the market for life insurance.'

Figures published by the Insurance Board of Sri Lanka (IBSL) the sector's regulatory authority, show that Ceylinco Life was the only life insurer to substantially increase its market share in 2008, and that the company ended the year with a market share of 34.9 percent.

The new recruitment campaign endorsed by Ceylinco Life Brand Ambassador and spin bowling legend Muttiah Muralitharan, builds on a similar campaign conducted last year, as a result of which Ceylinco Life recruited more than 1,500 sales consultants and agency supervisors.

'We believe,' Ranasinghe added, 'that there is even more potential to generate employment in the life insurance field.'

He said Ceylinco Life is the acknowledged benchmark in the sector for training and professional development.

'We were the first to produce qualifiers for the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) the world's top forum for elite life insurance salespeople, the first to produce an MDRT Life Member, and the first to produce an MDRT 'Top-of-table' qualifier.

To date Ceylinco Life has the largest number of MDRT qualifiers.

All recruits are provided with comprehensive training in insurance sales, agency management, IT, ethics and grooming and encouraged to acquire international professional qualifications.

Successful recruits qualify for housing and vehicle loans as well as medical and other benefits.

Ceylinco Life recorded a growth of 20.6 percent in the year ending December 31, 2008, a full 6.7 percentage points higher than the industry average and increased its market share by 1.94 percentage points.

In contrast, the second largest life insurer in the country witnessed a decline of 2.56 percent in its market share, which fell to 19.05 percent at the end of 2008, giving Ceylinco Life a lead of nearly 16 percentage points in market share over its closest competitor.