Workplaces may provide a new avenue for selling insurance, a top Metlife executive told the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees insurance conference.

Speaking at yesterday's conference in Melbourne, Metlife vice president international sales Tim Mitchell said: "Australia is not utilising the workplace like the rest of the world to distribute financial services products."

With Australia's insurance gap estimated to be worth around $1.3 billion, he said the workplace could be a place to increase awareness and get employees thinking about their insurance needs.

About 44 million financial services products were sold in UK workplaces over 12 months to August 2006, according to Mitchell.

At the same time employers must communicate to their employees about the insurance benefits that are available to them. This could be more effective given the technology now available, he said.

"Forty three per cent of employers have indicated that benefits are not well communicated and 59 per cent of employers indicate that communication of benefits is their biggest challenge, Mitchell said.

Insurance packages could also be linked to wider employee benefits as a way of attracting and retaining staff, particularly as 89 per cent of employers said that staff retention was their biggest concern compared with 64 per cent who identified costs.

"We are now moving into a period where staff retention and the importance of employee benefits are more important than the traditional cost cutting issues," Mitchell said.

Although Australia ranks 13th in the world in terms of market share of insurance, the country ranks 21 in terms of market penetration, according to Mitchell's data.

"The distribution of group insurance products through the workplace will only grow and Australia needs to look at this," he said.