The Hindu Business Line : LIC to recruit 3,000 development officers

AFTER a gap of four years, the Life Insurance Corporation of India, will be recruiting 3,000 development officers shortly, a senior LIC official told Business Line today.

The corporation recently received approval for this major recruitment, which is partly to fill the existing vacancies and for meeting the additional manpower requirement.

The recruitment will be completed in the next three-four months. The new recruits will take the total strength of the LIC's development officers to 22,000 from the current 19,000, the official said.

These officers, who are hired to strengthen the marketing force of the corporation, will be appointed in the Class II cadre.

"The recruitment procedure will be such that 50 per cent of the officers will be recruited for rural areas. This is our strategy to improve the reach of life insurance in these areas," said the official. Each development officer will have 20 agents working under him/her. There will be a training period of 9 months, which will be an apprenticeship before they become permanent employees of the corporation.

"This recruitment will generate around 60,000 jobs if one calculates the development officers and the agents. Advertisements will be published in all the newspapers and the recruitment will be carried out over a period of three to four months," said the official.

While the development officers will earn Rs 13,000-14,000 a month, there will be strict targets to achieve. The officers will have to rake in premium that is at least six times the remuneration they receive. Officers who overshoot the target will also be offered incentives.

Employees of LIC, including development officers, were on strike in March this year demanding appointment of more officers as well as revision in wages across classes.

A LIC employees' union official said the decision was a step in the right direction.