EFFECT OF HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT ON THE PERFORMANCE OF INSURANCE COMPANIES IN NIGERIA

This paper will analyse how human capital development has impacted the performance of the insurance companies in Nigeria. The development of human capital has been conceptualized as the training, education, skills acquisition and career advancement and has been considered to be the key to the success of the knowledge-based industries like insurance. Of particular interest in the investigation were the human capital development that increases the productivity of the employees, manpower development that increases the level of customer satisfaction and the relationship of investment in human capital with overall performance of the firm. Using comparative survey design, structured questionnaires were used to administer the surveys to staff of the selected Nigerian insurance companies. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Chi-square and the results showed that human capital development has a strong positive impact on employee productivity whereas manpower development has a positive impact on customer satisfaction. Moreover, the research found that the correlation between the investment in human capital and organizational performance is strong, and organizations that give more focus to the development of human capital attain a competitive edge and enhance their operational effectiveness. Therefore, the research study suggests that more resources should be directed to staff training, support of professional competencies, career planning, and implementation of modern training technologies to improve the workforce capacity.