When it comes to insurance employment, it's a good news/bad news scenario. The good news: The insurance industry is hiring. The bad news: Despite high unemployment in the past few years, it's still difficult to find skilled workers.

The agency system is one segment of the economy that has a shortage of qualified individuals to fill openings. Not only is it difficult to recruit experienced insurance employees, but it is also difficult to retain them.

Here are some steps to help evaluate your approach to recruitment and retention.

1. Make your agency attractive to candidates. Today's employees are looking for more than compensation and benefits: They want to have a positive work environment where employees are rewarded for good performance and where everyone shares in being part of a successful firm.

Ask yourself if your agency has a positive image in the community. Do you have a modern management approach with good communication and support of employees' needs? Is your office comfortable and attractive, with good automation support and equipment? Do you communicate your goals and reward your employees for achieving them?

2. Utilize recruiters or search firms. In the past, agencies relied on referrals or used newspaper ads to recruit. Today, employment-centric sites and employee referrals can yield candidates, but it is time-consuming to review and screen them.

Because time is limited, most agencies prefer to use recruiters or search firms to fill positions. Search firms use their databases and contacts to find quality people, and they start with a job description and a specific skills profile before making calls and screening the job candidates. They will also arrange interviews, facilitate communication throughout the process and assist with developing a compensation package.

3. Examine how you select employees. Once a candidate is hired, he or she will need to be trained and coached. An employee who should not have been hired will cost the agency not just in salary and benefits but in the valuable time of other employees.

Two tools that can help managers make better hiring decisions are behavioral interviewing and pre-employment assessment tools. Behavioral interviewing presents questions about the candidate's actual job experience. For example, to assess service skills, the interviewer might ask how CSRs handled a difficult account or how they manage their time. Creating a standard list of questions to be used by all the agency interviewers assures good interviewing and enables the interviewing team to compare notes. Pre-employment assessment tools can also avoid costly hiring mistakes. Insurance tests can identify the level of knowledge an individual has, and psychological testing can help assess sales capability and predict the individual's ability to succeed with the agency's sales approach.

4. Update your compensation plans. Compensation plans should be both competitive and rewarding. Periodically, the agency should review salary and benefits information to make sure salaries are truly competitive. It is also important to offer a pay-for-performance compensation system that rewards employees for achieving results related to the agency's business goals.

Employees, however, also value rewards that are not monetary. Surveys conducted by The Society of Human Resources Management indicate employees ranked interesting work, training, employer flexibility, feeling valued and advancement opportunities as top factors influencing their decision to change jobs.

Offering perks can also be a cost-effective way to attract and retain employees. Casual dress, flexible starting times, earning time off (comp days, floating holidays or summer hours), job sharing or using part-time positions provide the agency with a powerful advantage in the job market.

5. Ensure that your communication is effective. A good method for communicating individual expectations is through the performance-review process. Through periodic feedback, employees will understand how they're doing and what training opportunities they should pursue to develop their skills and knowledge.

Communication in general is important to modern employees. They want to know how their work fits into the big picture of the agency's vision and mission. They appreciate monthly meetings that provide updates on plans and new developments and address their questions and concerns. They are also motivated by public and personal recognition. Finally, they respect organizations that ask for feedback on management and on the agency overall.

Finding and retaining good employees begins with a well-managed agency. Developing and promoting a positive organization and rewarding employees for their efforts are essential to performance and maintaining a good reputation for your business, as well as effective recruiting.

Special Reports /

5 Steps to Highly Effective Agency Recruitment

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