Swerma celebrates 20th anniversary at time of heightened risk

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Swedish Risk Management Association (Swerma), during which time the organisation has provided critical support to its members, said current chair Johan Rodert, who is also risk manager at Autoliv. This support has been especially welcome during the last three years, when risk managers and others were often forced to work from home and adapt to different workplace environments. “Sweden has a well-organised association in terms of getting people together and creating an openness,” said Rodert. “I have felt a lot of support from my peers. If I have a problem, there are lots of people I can go to. From a board perspective, we are trying to encourage more networking,” he added. Many risk management departments in the Nordics only contain one individual, said Henrik Paajarvi, group risk manager at the Norway-based packaging and insulation group BEWI, and a Swerma board member. “So if I don’t want to talk to insurers or brokers about a problem, the association allows me to talk to someone at another company and that is always good,” he said. Swerma is very good at spreading knowledge about market trends or new legislation, said Charlotte Herner, risk and insurance manager at Swedish construction firm Svevia. “It is a very important role to fill because there is no-one else. There are no high-level education bodies, or insurers that provide this information, so it is sometimes difficult to find it,” she said. Swerma has held a number of seminars recently for its members on a range of topics. One of these seminars looked at cyber risks and how risk managers should talk to their IT departments. The aim of these seminars is to enable risk managers to develop a common language to talk about risk with different departments. Claims management is an area that could benefit from greater collaboration. This is particularly pertinent given that a number of experienced claims managers are due to retire, creating a potential challenge in resolving more complex losses. “There are due to be lots of experienced claims managers retiring over the next few years, which will leave us with less experienced claims adjusters and this could create challenges in getting certain claims dealt with,” said Herner. “It is up to the insurers to deal with their recruitment issues but what we can do as an association is get claims managers to talk more to risk managers about how you present a claim and what risk managers want from their claims professionals,” said Rodert. Recruitment is affecting the whole of the insurance industry, which faces difficulty in attracting young professionals. “For some reason, everyone thinks insurance is boring,” said Rodert. Swerma has launched a number of initiatives designed to support young risk managers and encourage more to join the profession. This includes the Hamilton scholarship, a prize awarded to the best student essay that is presented at the annual Swerma conference. Swerma is also involved with the development programme established by Lloyd’s and European risk management federation Ferma. And there are plans to set up an industry-wide trainee programme where participants spend time as an insurance broker, underwriter or risk manager during an 18-month period. Swerma is also looking to increase its lobbying and advocacy activity, said Rodert. “Ferma does this on a regular basis and has recently created a group to push insurers to provide more capacity for cyber and to increase the communication between insurers and risk managers. At Swerma we are supporting that, which I think is a really good use of an association,” he said.

Swerma celebrates 20th anniversary at time of heightened risk

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