Most agency employees plan on staying in the insurance business, according to a Vertafore survey.

Seventy-three percent of insurance professionals said they would remain in the industry for at least six years, the data showed, while 18% of respondents said they would remain three to five years and 9% said one to two years.

At the same time, “today’s hard market is making it more difficult to place risk, find coverage options and ease clients’ frustrations,” says Vertafore. “For agency staffers, those factors are taking a toll. More than half of agency workers said they are experiencing increased stress and a heavier workload.”

Hard market impact’s on agency staff:

  • Seventy percent have difficulty placing risk.
  • Sixty-two percent have difficult conversations with clients.
  • Fifty-eight percent have heavier workloads.
  • Fifty-five percent experience increases workplace stress.
  • Forty-nine percent have challenges with existing carrier relationships.
  • Thirty-five percent have spent time finding new carrier relationships.
Meanwhile, agencies have responded to the hard market by establishing relationships with additional carriers and underwriters, increasing one-on-one time advising clients and boosting marketing efforts.

Other agency strategies include increasing the frequency of automated client communications, hiring more employees, getting involved in networks, associations or conferences, spending more time networking with peers and adding new technology to the agency.

According to Vertafore, the best technologies during the hard market are insurance knowledge databases, workflow management tools, carrier data exchange portals, online client portals or apps, personal lines raters, automated client communications and data analytics tools.

Looking ahead for workers in the sector, data compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows employment of insurance sales agents is projected to increase faster than the average for all occupations, jumping 8% from 2023 to 2033.

The slideshow above illustrates the top hiring and retention strategies for independent insurance agencies as selected by Vertafore.

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