Money Isnt Everything For Young Agents

Money Isnt Everything For Young Agents

Agencies that just think in terms of commission percentages are missing the bigger picture of what attracts and motivates younger producers. Items such as time off for studies and career advancement potential can have equally strong appeal to spur greater premium production, young agents contend.

Paying producers well is not always enough to keep them motivated to perform at peak efficiency, according to Madelyn H. Flannagan, vice president of research and education for the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, based in Alexandria, Va. Indeed, she said, especially for people in their late-20s to mid-30s, monetary compensation is “not the most important thing to them,” basing her observation on studies by various consulting groups that have done surveys on the subject over the years.

“They want time with the family. They want the opportunity to go to school and continue learning. There are other incentives that can keep a really good producer enticed to stay,” she said.

Agencies and brokerage firms are always looking for ways to keep their most valued producers around for the long term, she noted. Some incentives might include stock in the company, paid vacations, club memberships, box seats at a sporting event that the producer can take clients to, or a company car. Even an opportunity to go out and teach can build up a producer's feeling of value to the agency and make him or her feel needed, she said, citing opportunities to mentor fellow employees within a firm or to teach outside the agency at conferences.

“Those are the kinds of things one can do to keep a producer invested in your agency,” Ms. Flannagan observed.

Finding the new blood and keeping it in the agency is a challenge, she noted. Developing that new producer to be an effective sales executive and get to the commission levels that they find satisfying and that also benefit the agency is another challenge, she said.

Kimberly A. Tompinks, president of the Connecticut Young Insurance Professionals and president of the Waterbury Association of the National Association of Insurance Woman, said she tried out the independent retail agency side but came back to working for her current employer, a program manager, because of non-monetary compensation.

“I believe there is more than money involved in compensation for young agents today,” she said.

Ms. Tompinks works for Housing Insurance Services as the program coordinator for department marketing and agency operations. She, like others she has spoken to, is looking for assistance advancing their careers by getting education and professional designations.

“That is a big item for young agents,” she said. “That is where compensation comes in. Unless an employer supports his or her employees with paid time out of the office, then they are unable to do it,” she said, referring to the inability of young employees to pursue their designations.

In her case, Ms. Tompinks' employer allows her the time to pursue her Certified Insurance Counselor designation, giving her the time to work on the required coursework and exam schedule.

“They support me 100 percent and I would not be able to do it without their support,” she said. “Without education, I would not be able to be where I am in both my job and the association.”

Charles J. Caruso, a producer at Jamison Insurance Group in West Orange, N.J., and president of the New Jersey Young Insurance Professionals, said: “Money is a factor, as it always will be, but the push by younger agents looking at the future of their careers is to move up in an agency.”

He added that “many agents move on from their agency because they feel they cannot move up and progress where they are.”

“A level of recognition is also important,” he noted.

IIABA's Elite Force Sales Training Program is aimed at new agents with three years or less experience. The program's purpose is to help improve young agents' sales techniques and, in turn, improve their compensation.

Besides the money, however, an important aspect of the program, Ms. Flannagan points out, is the recognition and support that an agent receives from being mentored by more experienced producers.

“Mentoring means a lot to me,” said Tanya Keyte, an insurance advisor at The Coup Agency in Milton, Pa., and a graduate from the Elite Sales Force program.

Ms. Keyte “stumbled” into insurance about three years ago after leaving a family business she had been a part of for many years. She took a temporary position with a direct writer and discovered she liked working in insurance. Soon after, she decided to get her license.

In talking about her work, she talked about the satisfaction she receives being able to help clients find solutions to their risk needs and the assistance she can give when a customer files a claim. The compensation is nice, she admitted, but the satisfaction she receives in her daily accomplishments with clients is equally important.

“I look at this not as a job, but as a profession,” she said.

Mentoring, she noted, means guidance from R. Jeffery Coup, the agency's principal, that gives her confidence and motivation.

Brendan Lynch, a producer at the Plastridge Insurance Agency, based in Delray Beach with another office in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., came to the agency in a more traditional way. His father, Tom, a second-generation agent, is bringing Brendan and his other son Connor into the business, the third generation.

The Elite Force program, Brendan Lynch noted, does several things. It helps create contacts with other agents who at some time in the future could help one another with questions and finding solutions to coverage and risk problems.

It also helps by giving exposure to different sales techniques and helping a producer to organize and set their goals and objectives for the future.

“The big part of being with an agency is choosing the right person” as a mentor, he said. “When you select the right person, you get the right response.”

Ms. Tompinks had some advice for agents making career choices, especially those who are thinking of moving to another agency, suggesting that they think carefully about what their moves may mean for their futures.

“Young agents should make a list of what they think they should be compensated for,” she observed. Some compensation items agents should consider, she said, include 401(k) retirement, flex hours, time off, vacation time allowance, education reimbursement and even direct deposit.

Ms. Tompinks observed that these additional forms of compensation are things that agents need to ask about or request as part of their compensation package, especially for women who have the added responsibility of family in their lives.

Compensation “is what you make of it. But you can't get it if you don't ask,” she said.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Property & Casualty/Risk & Benefits Management Edition, March 25, 2004. Copyright 2004 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.