Part of running a successful insurance agency is having the right people on your team. Just like you need to know when to fire an agent, you need to know the best strategies to hire insurance agents. This lets you expand your agency as your community’s demand for your services increases. Or you can use this knowledge when you need to fill a position after someone quits or is fired.
The following tips should make the process of hiring agents much less stressful.
Don’t Solely Rely on Cold Recruitment
One common strategy among insurance agencies is to look for people who recently earned their designations as insurance agents. From there, you would cold call or email them. This can be useful, but it is also very time-consuming and competitive.
It is safe to assume that most other agencies in the area are doing the same thing. This means that you will be fighting with your competitors to attract the new talent.
That doesn’t mean you should completely eliminate this method. After all, it is a great way to find new agents. It does, however, mean that you should also use other strategies, too.
Interact With Local Colleges
One way to avoid cold recruitment but still focus on new insurance agents is to work with local colleges. This can help serve as an introduction to your company and eliminates cold calling. The best place to contact at a college will typically be their career services or career center.
Post Job Listings
Although it should be obvious, it is worth mentioning that your recruitment should always include job postings. List the job on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, ZipRecruiter, Indeed, and other relevant sites. If your local community has its own job listing site, post it there, too.
When crafting your job listings, make them accurate and appealing. You want the listing to accurately convey what you want from insurance agents as well as what it would be like to work with you. This will help ensure a good fit.
Add a Careers Area to Your Website
If you don’t already have one, consider adding a “Careers” section to your website. This will be a great resource for people who have heard about your agency somewhere else. After all, if someone sees your job listing on a recruitment website or social media, they will likely research your agency before applying. Creating a dedicated part of your website for careers makes this easy for them to do.
Use LinkedIn and Other Social Media
LinkedIn is another excellent resource when it comes to finding additional insurance agents for your company. Depending on the niche you want, you may even be able to find new agents on Instagram or Twitter. This is especially true if you want to attract younger agents.
Just remember to adapt your job listing to the social media page. For example, LinkedIn listings should highlight opportunities for career development. By contrast, Instagram posts could showcase team building through images.
Ask Your Team for Recommendations
People who already work at your insurance agency are an excellent resource when it comes to finding new agents. This is true whether the person making the referral is an insurance agent, a receptionist, or has another role.
The benefit of this approach is that your current employees know what it is like to work at your agency. This means that they should have a better idea of who is a good fit. It will also mean the people they refer have a more accurate idea of what to expect.
You can take this to the next level by offering employees incentives of some sort for referrals.
Host In-person Events
Your recruitment strategy can also include hosting events for local insurance agents. This will be an ideal networking opportunity, and it will help you find new candidates for your agency.
You can even combine this with the previous suggestion and encourage your employees to invite people they know to the events.
Market Your Unique Value Proposition
There are numerous other insurance agencies that want to attract the same talent as you. As such, you need to offer candidates something unique to set your agency apart from the crowd. Maybe you use intuitive software like Jenesis. Maybe you have an excellent compensation package.
You can also highlight your story, including the challenges you overcame to get your agency to where you are. Or you can highlight some of the major carriers you work with and why working with them is so important.
Conclusion
Every insurance agency needs to have strategies to recruit agents. This will be crucial as you grow your insurance agency due to increased demand. It will also come in handy if one of your current agents has to leave the agency for some reason. The best recruitment strategies help you connect with potential candidates so you don’t have to rely on cold calling.