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STREET WISE Alliance of Insurance Agents of NC
THE HIRING PROCESS – WHY MISTAKES ARE MADE In this edition THE HIRING PROCESS – ........... 1 WHY MISTAKES ARE MADE...... 1 AGENCY HELD HOSTAGE ................ 6 THE REAL REASON INSURANCE AGENTS FAIL TO SELL .................. 12 WAYNE HOOPER REPORTS: THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT COMMERCIAL LINES .......................................... 16 GET A COMPLIMENTARY WEBSITE & M ARKETING ASSESSMENT ............ 22 5 TIPS FOR RECRUITING GREAT PEOPLE ....................................... 24 GRASSROOTS & AGENT POWER ... 25 ARE YOUR INDEPENDENT CONTRACTORS REALLY EMPLOYEES? Q&A ...................... 26
By Al Diamond of Agency Consulting Group We lose a producer or key service employee or are convinced that we need a new person to move our business forward. We put the word out to our employees, to our carriers and to headhunters that we are looking and impatiently await results. We’ve heard that business is still soft and many people are out of work, but our phones and e-mail certainly don’t ring off the hook with candidates. We even try advertisements and on-line postings. Finally, we get a trickle of candidates. Most are neither qualified nor have the personalities to meet the needs of the job. We get frustrated and somewhat desperate when the work starts affecting our other employees and when the lack of production begins to affect our revenue or profit lines. We will address how to find producers and other employees in another venue. The key to locating quality employees for any positions is to identify the right personalities and is not a factor of experience.
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AIANC’s STREET WISE
This article addresses a more insidious problem, poor selection habits. Many of us will lower our standards when stress and pressure builds because of the need of a person in a role in the agency. Page 1
I’ve heard many an agent tell me that they hired the first person that appeared to be an acceptable candidate – the ‘Warm Body Syndrome’. The thought process is that ‘maybe’ the person will work out. At least we have someone manning the desk or willing to be a producer for the agency. We have had the opportunity as consultants to see the results of these habits. They are not pretty. The candidates who are given the “opportunity” based on a single interview because it’s better to have someone than have no one at all usually prove to be mediocre employees at best. Some of us are lucky enough to hire people who are virtually intolerable. I know this sounds strange- but if you make an obvious mistake and the employee either doesn’t understand the job after convincing you that (s)he has had experience in a similar role, it is not difficult to face up to the problem and terminate the employee. Making a terrible mistake in employee selection is better than hiring the mediocre employee who spend his/her 37.5 hours every week to get a paycheck, doing as little as possible and spending more time socializing with the other employees (wasting their time) or playing on the computer. Continued on page 2
March, 2013