I work in Insurance: Vanessa Riboloni, CII

What is your role?

I manage the CII´s Knowledge Services which supports members working in insurance and those who are undertaking their professional qualifications. My team and I like to think of ourselves as ‘fact-finders’ or ‘information brokers’: we are a small department of three, dealing with the CII’s vast collection of resources.

What does an average day look like?

As the service is very much user-driven it all depends on type of enquiries and requests we get both from members and from staff.

A big chunk of time is spent on fact-finding. Enquiries range from simple data-driven questions such as statistics on claims, to the weird and wonderful such as the time when we were asked to find historical records about the British Clayworkers Mutual Insurance Corporation, which existed between 1898 and 1910, for the Museum and Natural History Society in the Isle of Bute.

How is your job linked to insurance?

Although we don’t work on the practical delivery of insurance, we do contribute to the CII’s mission of protecting the public by guiding the profession.

One of our biggest projects at the moment is working towards the digitisation of selected materials from our special collections, which will eventually be accessible via a dedicated website focusing on the history of insurance. The special collections include archival material relating to the CII, insurance policies, rare books and fire-marks - many dating back to the 17th century. This also includes every single issue of Post Magazine since its inception back in July 1840.

What have some of the highlights of the role been?

One of the highlights was working on a timeline for the CII’s Insuring Women’s Future campaign aimed at promoting and enhancing the role of women in the insurance sector. To research and see how the history of women in the profession has unfurled over the last 200 years has been fascinating and being part of the voice to continue to make the profession more open and diverse has been really satisfying.

Beyond this, even the simple every day activities can be incredibly gratifying, knowing that I am helping members pass their exams and push on in their careers.

Over recent years we have moved from a traditional library towards more of an all-encompassing knowledge hub, which includes both print and digital materials. This makes sense given that many of our members are not London-based.  

What response do you get when you say you work in insurance?

Normally the first response is not always very enthusiastic but once I explain a bit more about the role insurance plays in society, people tend to become more interested. I often speak about the social value of insurance as opposed to the operational side of it which definitely perks their interest.