Fishing for the Perfect Employee

Additional costs include any training for the new employee, such as classes or exams, and lost productivity while the new employee learns. Companies can suffer a more severe financial loss if the former employee had strong client contacts because clients often follow the agent, or their primary contact within a company.

The impact on morale of remaining employees when a good worker is lost cannot be measured. High morale equals high productivity. Are you keeping the employees on your current payroll happy? Ask them; theyll tell you how.

In order to find good candidates you must FISH: Find, Interview, Select and Hire.

Find

First, be prepared. Do you have current job descriptions, proper employment applications, and a full understanding of what you need in each position to be filled and in your company culture as a whole?

Dont miss opportunities right under your nose. Do you reward staff for bringing new recruits? Do you fully utilize the talents of your own staff?

Can you streamline the workflow? Be sure to use caution in attempts to streamline work processes, however. Understaffing is a more deadly workplace disease than any other.

If you have multiple redundancies, you can create a more efficient structure. For example, are you scanning documents into your system but still filing paper? When you find such redundancies, however, never let anyone go as a result of streamlining. Find new ways to use that valuable talent to generate new business.

Have you asked the people who work for you now how to solve turnover problems? Are your people promoted to their highest level of competence–to incompetence? Is your staff really learning, or do you send them to the cheapest schools just to meet a quota?

Can staff move to another department without fear of retribution? Use full application and interview procedures for transfers. Test all skills as if they were new. Moving within the company should be a privilege earned. Reject internal candidates carefully, and encourage them to try again. Always find out why they wanted to move in the first place. You may have a problem in their original department that you can fix.

Contact local colleges about career days. Agencies often miss opportunities to hire from colleges. Make presentations at alumni and social clubs, fraternities, sororities, and business clubs.

Business colleges are always happy to work with you to place their students in jobs. Remember, insurance is a hard sell as a career due to public misconception about the industry. Overcome that by letting them get to know you personally.

Dont use a shotgun approach. Recruit sales staff from industries you represent as an insurance specialist. Find administrative staff from your competitor's clients in the areas where you specialize. Networking is critical. You should be as active looking for new employees as you are looking for new clients.

Employment agencies can be useful if youre short on time or have to be very specific in your search. Be sure to check fees; its expensive. If you need sales people, they should have experience hiring sales people, not just insurance people. Sales skills can be transferred with some additional training.

Advertising has limited impact. Always use display ads, not classifieds. Sell them on why you have a great place to work. The radio and Internet sites can be very effective, too.

Agent associations can provide information about graduates from insurance training programs, such as InVEST. These come to you with industry knowledge and basic skills. Local associations may have resume-posting services.

You can hire smart, organized people without an insurance background, and teach them insurance. If you only look for insurance experience, you will continue to be frustrated.

Cover letters should reflect commitment and professionalism. In the resume, along with scholastic and work experience, look for a balance of professional and civic affiliations.

Interview

The interview is as much work for the employer as the candidate. You must be prepared. Read about the applicant in advance and have all paperwork about the applicant and job description with you. Know what you will ask in advance. A checklist is a great way to be consistent in asking all applicants the same core of questions. Test all candidates on appropriate skills.

Allow plenty of uninterrupted time (30-60 minutes) for each candidate. Help the applicant gain an understanding of your staffs personality by having at least three people on your staff interview the candidate. It gives you another perspective, too.

You want to know this candidate well. Set them at ease so they will relax and show their true personality. Ask open-ended questions to hear their story. Allow silence; let them think a moment after you ask a question.

Never ask questions not related to job performance. EEOC laws are tricky; get help with this if you need it from an HR attorney.

Take notes; you need to remember one candidate from the next. Listen, listen, listen!

Do reference and background checks. Never omit this step. You must use consistency among applicants, or you can be accused of discrimination. Do the checks between the first and second interviews. Ask the candidate: "What will your former boss tell me about you when I call?"

Select

Select the right candidate, and always hire to your culture. Personality styles do make a difference in the long run. If employees dont get along, theyll move along–to another job.

Don't be afraid of having to train the "right" person. Plenty of training help is available. Just choose someone with the initiative to learn.

Listen to opinions of others who interviewed, and trust your instincts.

Hire

Once youve decided on someone, make a reasonable and enticing offer. You can only be competitive if you know what the market offers. Your offer should be at or above the market–never under it.

If you are interviewing and selecting well, youll want to offer something that is hard to resist. After all, youve worked hard to find just the right person, so show them you are serious. Build a complete remuneration package, including salary, bonus or commissions, benefits, perks, and opportunity for advancement.

Negotiations follow the verbal offer. Dont forget soft items, like allowing them to have three weeks vacation from the start (if they enjoy that with their current employer). These types of perks are very useful if youve maxed out your direct compensation dollars.

Make a written offer/confirmation of terms accepted once the candidate says yes. Get help for these letters or any employment contracts or non-piracy agreements from your industry association, attorney or human resources specialist.

Ms. Harrington, CPCU, AAM, AAI, AIP (lharrington@faia.com), is vice president of education for the Florida Association of Insurance Agents and is a liaison to Floridas InVEST committee, a business and education partnership that prepares students for careers in the insurance industry.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, March 31, 2003. Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved. Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.