Recruitment: The big-picture view

Lukens: Our Best Practices agencies and our other clients are well aware of the problem and are proactively addressing the problem.

For these firms, the two most important factors are that they're always ready to hire, and that they're continually letting people know that they're looking for good talent. Even in this economy, if a candidate with outstanding talent comes along, they will find a position for them. And they're always telling their customers, employees and carriers that they're looking for good talent–not just good producers, but any outstanding individual that might have something to offer the agency. And many believe that although times are bad, now is not the time to be timid in hiring because they're optimistic about the future. The better agencies have strong balance sheets and good financial management so they can take advantage of these opportunities. They understand what it takes to remain profitable and are willing to invest in new people–and as the belt gets tighter, invest in good, strong producers that can keep new dollars coming in.

Fowler: We hear every day that our members are struggling to find good talent. Time and again, through anecdotal evidence and via reports from our regional advisory councils, members have told us that this is an issue that is of great concern to them.

At the same time, the faltering economy is causing independent agents to tighten their belts, meaning less money for payroll and potentially fewer hires. Agencies that are looking for new hires will be more discerning than ever before.

AA&B: What actions can the industry take to address the fact that a large percentage of its employees are older?

Pierson: The industry needs to work together to reach out to young people and overcome the negative stereotypes that exist about working in the insurance industry. Selling insurance or adjusting claims does not sound interesting, fun, or much of a career opportunity. A more effective approach is to show how the risk management process is an integral part of almost any business or activity. For example, say a young person loves boats and likes to be around the water. Boat owners and marina owners face risks to their property and potential legal liability. These people value someone who knows their business and can provide solutions to protect their assets. Becoming an inland marine specialist may never have occurred to the young person in our example.

Lukens: As an industry we need to take the necessary steps to ensure that we have a lot of young talent coming in. Agency owners don't do a good job of selling or quantifying the benefits of working in an independent insurance agency, and many agencies often are reluctant to provide incentives and benefits such as ownership or equity that would bring in good people. We have to address these issues if we expect to recruit the best talent.

Fowler: Proactively recruiting to the younger generation is the best way we can tackle the negative image the industry has and encourage jobseekers to consider insurance as a viable and exciting career option. PIA is dedicated to improving our industry's image via letters to the editor, articles, press release, promotional materials and more.

AA&B: How is your association helping members with recruitment and retention?

Pierson: The IIABA supports the InVEST program. InVEST is a local program that works to partner local insurance professionals with local teachers and academics in high schools and colleges across the country. The insurance professionals can serve as resources of information for the instructor, or as a guest speaker, or organize job shadow days or field trips to carriers, agencies, trade shows/conventions, etc. They also offer internships in some cases, and ultimately career job opportunities. What we are trying to achieve is to have students see and hear successful insurance people talk about their industry, and where possible, to get the student out of the classroom and into an insurance environment, even for just a day, so that they can experience it firsthand.

InVEST is growing in popularity with the education community for several reasons. The curriculum is flexible and can be adapted to supplement an existing curriculum. Also, InVEST helps meet the financial literacy requirements that practically all states require. Finally, InVEST awarded $60,000 in scholarships in 2008 to students planning to major in insurance, risk management, actuarial science, or general business.

At the very least, all InVEST students become more knowledgeable about a product they will need to purchase every year for the rest of their lives. An ideally, others will learn about an industry with myriad career opportunities that needs people with various skill sets to replace approximately 1,000,000 plus baby boomers retiring over the next 10 years. Fowler: PIA offers members the agency staffing and assistance program, a one-stop resource where members can find resources on running a successful internship program, sample job ads and brochures, a listing of local college and high school career offices, and more.

For the last two decades, each of our state associations has had an affiliated Young Insurance Professionals organization, dedicated to helping members develop their insurance careers and build a network of industry contacts. In New Jersey, a special joint initiative by PIA and the Young Insurance Professionals, called Project Y, recruits high school and college graduates throughout the state. This is PIANJ's initiative to create a new image of the insurance industry, and features representatives who attend college and job fairs, collecting resumes and adding them to a database accessible to PIANJ members looking for new employees.
Our affiliates in New York and Connecticut have each created a task force to reach out to colleges and get the word out about the benefits on an insurance career.
In New York, we're already working closely with colleges like Utica College, which recently established a major in risk management and insurance. Lukens: The "Big I" has a good step-by-step guide for producer recruitment and training. The workbook is entitled "Top Producers: Discover, Train, Reward." It is a very good roadmap for the whole process.
I think the carriers also are trying to help agencies recruit and retain good employees. Central Insurance offers some help in funding and training personal lines producers. Travelers has a program for training and rewarding CSRs, which I have heard is especially useful for personal lines as well. Many agents have mentioned Hartford and Travelers training programs for in-house employees to help with both sales and service, although a lot of our clients use outside sales training courses or resources for generic selling skills. As far as technical insurance training, the state associations do a good job but there are a lot of resources available from other sources such as National Underwriter or the agency management system vendors.