S4 EP3: Winning over senior leaders & creating ‘culture-add’ - with Alisa Sohn, Director, Talent Acquisition, AmTrust Financial

“It's important that we're a part of that bottom line and at the end of the year, meet those business goals” says Alisa as she discusses managing and building an internal recruitment team. Alisa describes her journey in to recruitment and joining the insurance industry, which she initially perceived to be ‘boring, slow and old’. Now managing a team of 13 recruiters and adding over 1800 team members to the AmTrust headcount in 2022, Alisa shares the fast-paced, entrepreneurial spirit and competitive culture at the Forbes-listed ‘Top 100 Private Companies in the US.’ Alisa highlights the key role the internal recruitment function can play in working alongside senior leaders to support the growth of the varied business functions, as well as the characteristics she looks for when recruiting. “You have to be scrappy. You have to be flexible, things are changing all the time. You have to be able to pivot and jump into a different line of business.”Giving her advice to incoming executives coming for interview, Alisa says, “Know our strengths but also know our weaknesses. Know and highlight that one thing that the position or the company might be missing.” Sharing the tools AmTrust use when recruiting, Alisa also encourages those seeking to recruit A-player talent to alter the way they think about and approach talent.   “It's really important to change that mindset from ‘culture fit’ to ‘culture add’. That's when you're going to get a high performing team.”Connect with Alisa Sohn on LinkedIn or find out more about AmTrust FinancialThe Insurance Coffee House Podcast is hosted by Nick Hoadley, CEO, Insurance Search, the Executive Search Consultancy for growing Insurance and Insurtech businesses around the globe.To discuss identifying & attracting the very best talent to your team or being a podcast guest, reach out to Nick via [email protected] Copyright Insurance Search 2023 – All Rights Reserved.