Finding a good employee-someone who has basic office skills and is willing to learn-can be a frustrating task. Employers today are looking for that perfect employee. But what, really, is a perfect or even a good employee? What skills do businesses require, and what skills do good prospective employees possess? The answer to these questions may be as close as your local high school or college. In 1991 U.S. Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin commissioned a study of businesses across the country to help determine what workplace competencies and basic skills are required for effective job performance. Survey results were reported in the Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) report, which defined and linked the competencies and skills. SCANS focused on one important aspect of schooling, which the report referred to as the “learning a living” system. The initial report was titled “What Work Requires of Schools.” As outlined in that report, a high-performance workplace requires workers who have a solid foundation in the following five key skill areas:

Resources: Manages time, money, material and human resources.
Interpersonal: Participates as a member of a team, teaches others, serves clients and customers, exercises leadership.
Information: Acquires, organizes, interprets and uses communications and computers.
Systems: Understands social, organizational and technological systems.
Technology: Selects, applies and maintains technology.

These competencies are just what insurance agents need in their employees. However, finding an employee who has these qualities is not an easy task.

The SCANS report charged colleges and universities to develop programs to teach these skills and nurture a capable, competitive workforce. In an effort to address this issue, colleges and universities have developed several programs. In one, a college student performs a project for a business in the community. In another, a student The first type of program requires a student to work with a business on a project or help with a particular part of the business. A national study suggests that such programs improve grades and attendance, and develop personal and social responsibility. Work can include developing an ad campaign, Web page, business card, logo, graphic design or other one-time project. The student receives college credit, and the business benefits from free or low-cost expertise.

The internship program involves a long-term commitment from both students and employers. Students receive college credit for work they do on a regular basis for a business. An increasing number of schools include completion of an internship as part of their graduation requirements. Students typically work 40 to 50 hours for every hour of college credit they receive. For a typical three-hour college class, a student would thus work approximately 150 hours. This might be over a period such as eight weeks, based on a part-time schedule of 20 hours per week.

Students may or may not receive pay for the internship. What they do receive is training, real-world business experience and the chance to apply what they have learned in school (plus a salary in some cases). An employer benefits by being able to assign some basic tasks to the intern, freeing a more highly skilled person to sell and service accounts.

Our office has taken advantage of both types of programs in the past three years. Using the first, we had a student develop a newsletter for our office. The newsletter had information about our agency, our agents, the companies we represent and general information on workers comp and computer coverage. It went out to all of our commercial clients, and the Chamber of Commerce allowed us to distribute the newsletter free with its own monthly newsletter. We received a good response from this publication, including several requests for quotes from new clients. It was successful enough that we decided to continue publishing the newsletter on a quarterly basis.

A second project was to have a student develop our Web page. This student was new to such work, so she added to her skills by doing research and finding a more experienced student to help her. The original page was “bare-bones,” and we arranged to have another student jazz it up at the end of last year. Our only cost for the Web page was for the domain name and the purchase of the Microsoft Front Page program, for editing and changing the page. This came to less than $200. Best of all, we didn't have any set-up or labor costs.

The internship program has served us the best. We have worked with three interns in the past three years. Some of their tasks have been to update our filing system, format letters, make a list of prospects, take pictures and run general errands. They also answer the phone and learn how to complete a loss report and homeowners application.

One of these students is currently working for an agency in Colorado. A second is working at a large corporation, and the third is working for us on a full-time basis. She has developed into a real asset and was working toward her insurance license at the time this was written.

We paid these students a salary based on the current minimum wage. Our only responsibility to the school was to fill out a short weekly report, which we sent to the internship office. At the end of the internship, the students wrote a report detailing what they learned and whether they wanted to continue in this type of business.

These are win-win programs for students, colleges and universities, and small businesses. It provides the students with the opportunity to apply what they have learned in the classroom to a real-world business setting. The program enhances the typical college curriculum and builds stronger relationships between higher education institutions and businesses. For the employer, it provides free or inexpensive extra labor for short periods. Additional advantages include the infusion of new ideas, especially with software and computer equipment, from an up-to-date college or university. A possible disadvantage is that a business may spend extra time training a person, only to lose that person to a competitor. Involving students as interns in your agency helps bridge the gap between school and work. It can increase your office's efficiency, provide new ideas and technology and benefit students and an educational institution. The idea has worked well for our agency, and we plan to continue offering these opportunities.

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Employers today are looking for that perfect employee

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