Is your office adapting to the flex culture?

Success in a hybrid work culture requires a new structure and a new style of management.

By Sharon Emek

First was the rapid restructuring of business and COVID-19 spreading across the globe. Across all industries, organizations were reshaping how they conduct business. Nearly half of all American workers were working at home during the pandemic, according to a survey conducted by Northeastern University at the beginning of 2022.

More than two years after the onset of the pandemic, business is restructuring once again. However, the reasons why have shifted dramatically. That’s because employees are demanding it: A Prudential Pulse of the American Worker Survey revealed that 87% of workers who have been working remotely during the pandemic want that to continue at least one day a week. A surprising 68% would opt for a hybrid workplace model.

Particularly within the insurance industry, such news could become a competitive advantage when looking to fill open positions. Flexible work culture is a sought-after commodity among job seekers, and a recent McKinsey report stated that the finance and insurance sector has the highest potential for remote success since, as the report states, three-quarters of a worker’s time in that sector is spent on activities that can be done remotely without any disruption to productivity.

The successful flexible culture

With that kind of data as an incentive, agency managers and insurance organizations could well capitalize on the current shakeup brought on by the Great Resignation, which to date has resulted in 33 million people leaving their jobs. The finance and insurance industry needs to fill 313,000 openings, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Those same workers are looking for more meaningful work within a more flexible work model.

Yet “flexible” is not limited to where employees work. Remote and hybrid models are indeed part of the flexible work model, but so too is management of the new hybrid workforce. A complete retooling of how a workforce is managed is essential. Success in a hybrid work culture isn’t measured within the standard 9-to-5 model. Instead, success requires a new structure and a new style of management.

It could be a tough sell for many. But there is a simple solution: By measuring a worker’s performance on outcomes rather than hours worked, agency managers can ensure that benchmarks are met and that performance is not lagging.

By basing productivity measures on performance, your organization can quickly identify issues that individual employees may be having and can just as quickly set up mentoring or additional training or accommodations to help those employees improve results.

The payoff

Making the effort to adopt a better work and management style is a great move for the insurance industry. Flexible work arrangements make employees happy. Owl Labs research found that employees who work remotely at least once a month are 24% more likely to be happy and productive than their in-office counterparts. Likewise, 86% of workers say that working remotely reduces their stress, says FlexJobs data. An Owl Labs survey found that 84% of remote workers say they are happier, 79% say they feel less stressed, and 79% also say they feel more trusted and that their employer cares. That has translated into higher productivity. In fact, a number of studies have shown a significant increase in productivity when workers are working remotely. Stanford University research shows that employee performance increased by 22% when employees were able to work from home. Employees are seeing it too — 90% of them report being at the same productivity level or higher working remotely when compared to in-office work, an Owl Labs study found.

If that’s not enough, here’s the real payoff: Offering flexible work attracts job seekers. A LinkedIn Global Talent Trends report found that organizations received 35% more engagement when a job posting mentioned flexibility. Companies have taken notice of what employees want, as well: Since 2019, there has been an 83% increase in job posts that mention flexibility.

For the insurance industry, that kind of data could help stanch the talent bleed.

Creating a flexible workforce

That makes the job of keeping some of those employees on the job and attracting new hires critical to the agency’s success. Agency managers must shift their thinking away from traditional management styles that are best suited to in-house staff and adopt new strategies that address the unique challenges remote workers face.

Employee management is no longer limited to the workplace. The successful organization attracts and retains employees by focusing on the entire work-life cycle. Issues to consider include establishing truly flexible work models and better productivity measures, as well as prioritizing employee mental well-being, stronger relationships and improved communication.

Ditch the 9-to-5

Do you really believe that requiring your employees to be at work for a set number of hours nets more productivity? When Microsoft Japan tested the idea of a fourday workweek, the company saw employee productivity boosted by 40%. The company’s sales-per-employee figures rose 39.9%. An added bonus: Utility costs and printing costs dropped 23.1% and 58.7%, respectively. Likewise, allowing your employees to work when they are most productive pays off in additional productivity. At WAHVE,

Financial services a good fit for remote work

our employees work at hours that best meet their needs. As long as the work is completed, the employees are free to make their own hours.

Measuring success

With the right productivity measurements, your organization can easily measure each employee’s performance. We recommend agency managers build a process that includes regular individual meetings with each employee. Those meetings should be used to help the employee set goals, to discuss productivity issues or challenges, and to talk about whatever is on their minds, including personal details such as financial pressures or upcoming milestones.

Keep a shared folder with your employee with notes on your discussions. Employees should be able to refer to the folder, which helps them check their progress. Should they feel they’re falling behind, encourage them to reach out.

The whole employee

That same advice applies to challenges your employee may be having in their personal life. As mentioned previously, your worker may have pressures on them that could disrupt their productivity. For example, an International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans survey found that 76% of employers say an employee’s financial issues have resulted in increased stress, 60% say the issues have contributed to a worker’s inability to focus while at work, and 34% say financial pressures have caused absenteeism or tardiness in their employees.

Working with your employee to get them the resources they need — and giving them support — can help improve their well-being, which in turn will improve their performance at work.

Source: McKinsey & Co.

A culture of relationships

A focus on building collaborative teams is another investment that can improve your employees’ well-being. Start with weekly team meetings. In general, meetings should be short, have a stated purpose, and allow for feedback and issue discussion. Let employees in charge of each department drive the meetings. Invite feedback. Brainstorm to solve problems. Encourage team participation and idea sharing in all discussions across the organization.

A healthy work culture is one in which employees have fun together. Make sure to celebrate milestones, to reward achievements, to call out success. And even if your employees can’t meet in person, they can still meet for happy hour. Hold virtual parties, enjoy a cocktail hour together, and hold game events with prizes to make everyone feel connected.

Communication at the forefront

All of this involves an increased focus on communication. How are your employees getting job feedback? How are you delivering it? Do you require cameras to be turned on in your videoconferences? Build a plan that details how you and your employees will communicate, how often you will check in, how you will measure performance and how you will resolve performance issues.

When you give performance-related feedback, follow up with your employee. Work with them to set goals or give them access to additional training or mentoring. A performance report without the tools for improvement nets nothing. Feedback should help your employees overcome issues.

That feedback should be a two-way communication. Employees should have the ability to alert you to problems, ideas or concerns easily. A clearly defined feedback loop — email, online suggestion box, even in weekly meetings — gives employees the ability to reach out instantly.

All of this additional communication means your agency management team must revamp its approach to employee engagement. Build a regular feedback loop into the workday. Check in with your employees every day in some way. Acknowledge their performance milestones, their birthdays and other events. Be accessible. Ask if they need anything. Set their success as your goal.

Flexing forward

Today’s workforce model continues to evolve to meet employee and job seeker demands. With a heavy emphasis on flexibility and communication, the flex culture is an intentional approach that strengthens and improves your agency’s culture.

Dropping the traditional beliefs of how employees should be managed is fast becoming a necessity in order to compete in a red-hot labor market. Removing the boundaries of where employees work creates new challenges, but savvy organizations that embrace the new business model can build a healthy model for managing remote and hybrid workforces. It’s a move that can help agencies win the talent war, improve productivity and create a successful work culture that retains your best employees.

Sharon Emek, PhD, CIC, is founder and CEO of Work At Home Vintage Experts. Sharon may be contacted at sharon.emek@innfeedback.com.

The key is to make sure your clients understand what the policy is about, and why you’re recommending it.

By Brian Walsh

Alarge part of our job is providing clients tailored product recommendations based on their needs and on market trends. However, the various complexities that go into more specific insurance policies — such as disability, critical illness or long-term care — can deter clients from purchasing them.

Although these policies are just as crucial as life insurance, many consider them an extra expense, which often makes clients reluctant to purchase them. By equipping clients with a personalized, in-depth understanding of the policies early in the purchasing process, you can help to win them over and ultimately set them up for long-term financial security.

Breaking it down

The key is to make sure your clients understand what the policy is about, and why you’re recommending it. When working with clients who have doubts about locking in certain insurance policies, try providing them with a precise, easily digestible definition of the policy first. For example, you could define long-term care insurance as the policy that aids further asset protection, as it is used to protect their other assets from being used up on longterm care costs.

Then share more in-depth background information about the policy they’re unsure about, and why you’re recommending it. Describing the policy in depth will shed light on what benefits and protections they can receive from it. Try making the information you provide engaging and relevant to their lives. The more they can connect the dots between their own lives and the policy you recommend, the more they will understand the basis of your recommendation. Educating clients on the policy that you’re recommending will also reassure them that you’re making this recommendation on behalf of their best interests.

A good time to bring this up is when you first meet to discuss a financial plan, or during their annual review. For example, I always speak to my new clients about disability income insurance and longterm care insurance — and the importance of each with regard to their future. Bringing these policies up during initial client meetings can help to showcase the relevance of the policy and why it’s urgent for them to consider it.

Winning over the reluctant prospect

Making it relevant

The likelihood of needing certain policies can seem far off to many clients, especially to younger ones. It’s important to help your clients see that their future selves are more likely than not to need these policies. I like to showcase scenarios where disability insurance may be needed by reminding my clients that anyone who has an income they’re dependent upon is reliant on disability policies. You can help clients better visualize the situation by asking questions like, “Imagine if you had no money coming in — how would you pay for all your expenses?” This will make the gravity of the situation more apparent.

Another way to help clients relate the recommended policies to their needs is to walk them through past client examples. Let’s say you had a client who acquired a disability at an early age but didn’t have the proper policies in place to support them after they could no longer work. Without a consistent stream of income, they potentially could be unable to afford their necessities. They would be reliant on a disability policy to support them, although they don’t have access to one.

Those lived experiences become a reality check for most clients. Offering a real-life example that they can relate to will help them come to terms with what they may need in the future.

Stay up to date

Your clients rely on you to steer them in the right direction and provide them the most accurate recommendations. To give them the most accurate, beneficial advice, it’s important to stay up to date on all aspects of what you’re recommending and how it works. And to best help your clients navigate more complex policies, you should always educate yourself as best as you possibly can or lean on other experts within that area to help you.

One of the best resources I’ve found has been fellow professionals at MDRT. MDRT has connected me with fellow members who I can call and ask questions of to further my own understanding about evolving policies and meeting client needs. When you have a network to support you, and you take the time to learn as much as possible, you will strengthen your financial advice.

Keep in mind, after all is said and done, we provide these recommendations to our clients because we care about them and their financial security. Stand by your recommendations to provide your clients with best-in-class, tailor-made advice — even if they’re initially a little reluctant to pull the trigger on a policy. Reassure them that you know that this is the best plan for them long term, and that they’ll see the value of it later in life. This sense of security can help you cultivate more long-term, trusting relationships — and keep your clients secure for years to come, no matter what life throws at them.

Brian Walsh, CLU, ChFC, RFC, is the co-founder of Walsh & Nicholson Financial Group and has more than 29 years of experience in financial services. Brian is a 28-year MDRT member with nine Top of the Table qualifications. He may be contacted at brian.walsh@innfeedback.com.

Political advocacy doesn’t take a recess

The annual legislative recess is a great time to connect with elected representatives on their home turf.

By Lawrence Holzberg

As insurance and financial professionals, it is important for us to advocate on behalf of our clients and communities. Laws and regulations have a profound impact on the financial success of the families and businesses we serve. Advocating for policies that help us help our clients is a crucial part of working in their best interests, just like recommending the right products and services.

Now that it is August, we have a great opportunity to amplify our profession’s grassroots advocacy voice and help build meaningful relationships with members of Congress. Our senators and representatives will spend much of this month on their annual legislative recess, also known as their “state work period.” It is when they return to their home districts and spend time meeting with local constituents.

Why meet with lawmakers in-district?

The common phrase, “All politics is local,” is true. When you meet your representative in-district, they recognize that you are a constituent, not just someone up on Capitol Hill walking in as a lobbyist. They understand that you are there to discuss matters that impact your clients, friends and neighbors, all of whom are also their local constituents.

Another important factor is that in-district meetings tend to be more relaxed than those on Capitol Hill. Lawmakers won’t be interrupted by committee meetings, legislative votes and other types of Hill business. They are home specifically for the purpose of meeting with people like us — the voters they serve. The district offices are less hectic. You may get more face-to-face time with your senator or representative, which is important for building relationships.

In fact, on two occasions recently I went to meet with a lawmaker in our home district, and he said, “Let’s go grab a cup of coffee.” So we were able to discuss issues important to my clients and his constituents in a comfortable and informal setting. Meetings on that type of personal level are more meaningful and often have a greater impact. That’s when lawmakers start to see you not only as a constituent, but as someone they can rely on for advice and counsel. It becomes a much more personal relationship when you can do these things in-district.

Relationship-building is key

Meeting in-district is vital to building relationships, which in turn is important for increasing our influence. If you have met with a lawmaker in Washington, such as during NAIFA’s Congressional Conference or National Leadership Conference, meeting again during the recess shows you’re not just there for one day and that you’re building a relationship based on an ongoing concern for what we do for their constituents.

And building that relationship is vital. It’s sort of like building a relationship with a client. They may not get the message the first time or the second time. But the third or fourth time you communicate with a lawmaker in a friendly way, they start to appreciate what you’re talking about. I am a firm believer in driving our advocacy message home through repetition. Also, like working with our clients, it may take some time and repeated encounters to build up trust and comfort.

Take advantage of this opportunity

Meeting with your lawmaker in the district is easy. It might require just a short drive to the district office. NAIFA is helping agents and advisors set up in-district meetings during this recess and we have a goal of scheduling more than 300 in August. You can find more details on the NAIFA website, www.naifa.org.

For the sake of your business and for the sake of your clients, I encourage every financial professional to take advantage of this once-a-year opportunity. Our influence is crucial to the financial success of the families and businesses we serve, and there is no time like now to make our voices heard.

Lawrence Holzberg, LUTCF, LACP, is NAIFA’s national president. He may be contacted at lawrence. holzberg@innfeedback.com.

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Automated underwriting eases the pain of applying for coverage

Some life insurers are looking to speed up the accelerated underwriting process even more.

By Kevin Tewksbury

It’s no surprise that traditional life insurance underwriting historically has been an unpleasant process for applicants. After filling out a life insurance application, prospective insurers often would require blood or urine testing, a step that many consumers might find invasive. After applicants put time and effort into the application process, it would often take a matter of weeks to render a decision on their policies. New advancements in automated and accelerated underwriting represent a golden opportunity for life insurers to flip the script and make their newest customers extremely happy.

In its most basic definition, “automated underwriting” is a tool or system that reduces underwriter involvement in the approval of insurance applications. On one end of the spectrum, it can simply support the traditional full underwriting process. On the other end of the spectrum, it can be the foundation of an accelerated underwriting process.

“Accelerated underwriting” refers to programs that can either replace certain medical requirements (such as blood or urine testing) with alternative data sources, or just remove those requirements altogether. One of the biggest benefits that comes with an automated or accelerated underwriting program is decreased turnaround time, the time between policy application and issue.

A recent LIMRA survey of life insurance found that the vast majority of insurers with automated underwriting programs were specifically aiming to reduce the amount of time it takes to issue a policy. A total of 82% of companies surveyed said they were able rather than on a calendar. One out of every three companies already have a fully electronic process that requires no human touch, and more than half of life insurance companies are planning to implement straight-through processing sometime in the future.

Consumers are accustomed to receiving products on demand. Conveniences such as streaming services, two-day delivery and curbside pickup are the norm. In an industry where customers have historically waited days and weeks to determine whether a policy is right for them, some companies are differentiating themselves by offering products that can be sold within minutes. Shoppers are noticing the change and seem to appreciate the update. It will be interesting to follow the next great innovations in life insurance underwriting.

Goals of Accelerated/Automated Underwriting

Source: Automated and Accelerated Underwriting: Life Insurance Company Practices in 2021, LIMRA, 2022

to reduce turnaround time using automated or accelerated underwriting.

Life insurance companies often have the consumer in mind while developing their automated underwriting programs. Four out of every five companies with automated systems have specific goals related to the purchasing experience of their applicants. They have seen quite a bit of success in meeting consumer expectations and increasing applicant satisfaction. Interestingly, those accomplishments have not necessarily guaranteed short-term success in meeting sales goals. That said, it is possible that the goodwill generated by increased customer satisfaction will have longer-term positive effects on sales growth.

Looking to the future, some life insurance writers are interested in implementing fully electronic processes. The goal of straight-through processing is to take up a policy application, aggregate all the relevant data, and issue the policy without any human intervention at all.

The speed of these types of applications can be dramatic. Some applicants can measure turnaround time on a stopwatch

Kevin Tewksbury is assistant research actuary, LIMRA Research Data Services. Kevin may be contacted at kevin.tewksbury@innfeedback.com.

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