NOW IS THE TIME TO CONSIDER AN INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

By Jennifer Jacobs

In February, we celebrated Insurance Careers Month by showcasing online the attributes that make insurance a stable, rewarding and limitless career. Members shared #A Day in the Life and videos explaining why they chose insurance. That’s just one small way that the association can help promote all that insurance has to offer.

Internships are a way that agencies can demonstrate to students and future employees of the industry the nuances that are often overlooked from the outside. Internships can give the future industry employees a first-hand look at how your work directly impacts clients, how you can make a difference in the local community, and how your career involves much more than pushing paper at a desk. Agencies can also increase their profile in the community or with a local school by promoting the availability of an internship program.

Hosting an intern can be rewarding in itself – agency personnel have the opportunity to work with and learn from the next generation of talent. Students today have been raised and educated on technology and will be able to quickly adapt to your email marketing program, update your agency’s online presence, show you a shortcut that can save time, or potentially infuse a new idea into your existing routine. Agency employees could also learn more about what motivates young customers and how to communicate value to them. Agencies can also use internships as an opportunity to experiment with a new position or complete a project without the long-term commitment of a permanent employee.

Internships can be structured and coordinated through schools to enable students to earn credit while gaining valuable experience in an employment setting. These will require some coordination and often paperwork and evaluations coordinated through the school to ensure that the student meets the requirements and that the internship is following any rules set by the institution that might dictate schedule or pay for student interns. Or an internship program can be as simple as hiring a student worker over the summer to focus on projects like social media, building a prospect database, or developing a marketing plan for a new solicitation campaign . Agencies can also utilize interns to perform back office functions such as generating quotes, ID cards, preparing proposals or handling claims data.

James Unland & Co. in Pekin, IL connected with a student at Eureka College who was interested in interning with an agency. The college had a structured program that allowed the student to work part-time at the agency while receiving college credit for the internship during their senior year. The goal set for the internship at Unland was to educate the student on the role of an insurance producer and to prepare them for a future in that role. The sales manager had the responsibility for interacting with and managing the intern on a daily basis.

“One of the biggest challenges is determining what responsibilities and experiences can you give the intern to provide them with adequate exposure to what it is like to be in the producer role without having them licensed,” according to Laura Maas, HR Solutions Manager at Unland.

At Unland, producer interns will go on renewal visits and initial client meetings to observe. They also spend time with different members of the team to see examples of how to round out an account.

Recently, with the help of an employee on the local school board, Unland has begun working with co-op students from the local high school. These students work part-time in the agency answering the phone and handling basic inquiries. The goal for the high school co-op students is to provide administrative assistance to the agency and to gain exposure to some of the responsibilities associated with an account manager.

“Having a structured program for who will be responsible for the intern and how they will spend their time is key,” said Maas.

While some agencies seek out and work with internship programs through local schools, connecting with a formal program isn’t necessary. Ken Samson, President of Dasco Insurance Agency in Northbrook, had thought about bringing in an intern for several years, but wasn’t sure where to start. When a friend called out of the blue to ask if Samson had an opening for an intern, he said, “yes,” and immediately got to work planning the agency’s first internship program.

“It was important to me that this was a win/win situation,” said Samson. “We had some low-level work that we needed help with but I wanted the intern to learn about insurance, how a small business operates, working with other people, and customer service.”

Samson and a coworker put together an outline for the intern which included: reviewing the communications report and attaching policy documents; answering incoming phone calls; and assisting clients with billing issues. Once the basic tasks were complete, the intern at Dasco would then spend time with different agency personnel observing their functions and then later learning processes for mortgagee changes, adding a vehicle, and sending out loss control recommendations. At the end of the day, Samson would find time to meet with the intern to discuss some of the issues he was dealing with or to talk about an insurance concept such as co-insurance or risk transfer.

“I loved having an intern,” Samson said of his first intern. “It felt great to be giving a young adult a real job and she really helped the agency for the entire summer. Plus, I got to talk to her about insurance concepts which was fun and challenging. Most of our clients don’t ask too many questions – maybe they are embarrassed or feel like they should know this stuff so when we talk at them, they just nod their heads. But she would ask, “Why?” or “What does that mean?” which really kept me on my toes! It was interesting to see business, the world, and insurance through a young adult’s eyes.”

Samson keeps in touch with his first intern, who relocated to Bloomington and is still working in the insurance industry. Since that first summer, Samson’s agency has gone on to hire three additional interns, each of whom brought something different to the agency.

Samson said, “I think the biggest challenge was committing to do it.” He closed by encouraging agencies to act now to begin looking for an intern. He said, “College kids who are looking for this kind of summer job start looking in March - if you first start looking for an intern in June, you are too late!”

Jennifer Jacobs is the Human Resources Director for the IIA of IL. She can be reached at jjacobs@iiaofil.org.