With projected job growth of 5 percent through 2029, insurance agents are in high demand. Agencies around the country compete to recruit and hire the best talent, so they can get a leg up in the industry. You can gain a competitive edge by incorporating some insurance agency recruiting strategies. Let’s go over the best recruiting strategies to find and retain the top talent in the industry, regardless of how competitive the market is.
Be Proactive
When it comes to recruiting for your insurance agency, you need to take a proactive approach to get the best results. You need ample time to find the right talent and prepare for onboarding. Start the recruitment process approximately three months before you need to bring on the talent. That way, you can take your time to find the right fit for your agency.
Offer the Right Perks
Offering the right perks is a vital component of insurance agency’s recruiting strategy. Benefits provide a competitive edge that allows you to attract the best agents in the business. An excellent compensation package is critical, but don’t stop there. Include additional benefits such as flexible work options, paid family leave, and professional development. You can reach even more people by offering some additional perks, as well! Things like access to a wellness program, onsite snacks, casual dress codes, and the occasional catered lunch can all go a long way. Consider what your competitors offer and find a way to provide even more. Many agents assign more value to perks than compensation packages, so don’t skimp when it comes to benefits.
Create a Careers Page
While some insurance agencies post descriptions with only a bit of information, that’s a mistake. You can attract the right talent by posting detailed job descriptions. You might receive fewer resumes this way, but the ones you get will be from people who are qualified for the position.
Begin by creating a “Careers” page on your website. The page should include some information about your agency’s history and culture. Provide information about the company culture and an overview of the benefits. In addition, add qualifications and requirements for the job. Then, include a link that people can follow to apply for the job.
Advertise the Listing
Next, you need to advertise the listing. Social media is an excellent tool for insurance agency recruiting. Start by adding the job posting to your Facebook page. You can post it for free on your business page and run a paid advertisement to expand the reach. You can also use LinkedIn and Twitter to direct people to your “Careers” page.
Use job posting websites such as Indeed.com to get the word out about the opportunity. While you’ll likely have the most success on Indeed.com, consider adding your posting to CareerBuilder and Monster as well. This will provide some additional exposure.
Reach Out to Talent
Don’t make the mistake of expecting the top talent to come to you. While you’ll likely receive applications from top-notch prospects, you also need to be proactive by searching for and contacting talent.
LinkedIn is the ideal place to start. Use the search tool to find people in your local area with the skillset you need for the position. You can also check job posting sites to find talent.
Finally, ask your current agents to help you find top talent. They might have contacts that they can refer to your insurance agency. Increase the likelihood of referrals by offering a bonus. Simply making a referral shouldn’t be enough to get the bonus, though. Only provide a bonus if you hire the referral. You can even take it a step further by only giving out the bonus after the new hire has completed a set amount of time on the job.
Weed Out Resumes
You will likely receive a large number of resumes when you post a job. Weed through the options, screening out those that aren’t a good fit. This is actually easier than you might think. Start by going through the resumes, looking for misspellings and grammatical errors. That’s a sign that the person ignores details. Then, you can do another round where you look at the qualifications. Next, do a Google search to get more information about the applicants. You can also check on social media to learn more about the candidates.
Schedule Interviews
You can take the next step in the recruitment process by setting up phone calls and interviews.
To start, we recommend emailing your candidates to request a short 15-minute initial interview. The purpose of the email is two-fold – first, it gives you the opportunity to set some expectations regarding the interview process and second, it allows you to gauge how well your candidate is able to communicate via email. With so much of our day-to-day communication taking place via email, good email communication skills are critical.
These short phone calls will help you determine how the person will fits into your insurance agency’s culture and to get a better sense of their personality. You can usually tell if someone’s going to be a good fit within just a few minutes of speaking with them.
Once you’ve completed this initial round of interviews with your candidates, you’ll want to follow up with those who showed the most promise to schedule a longer, more in-depth interview. Make sure to include your current managers or other members of your agency’s leadership team on these interviews, as their input can be very valuable.
Set up Interviews With Your Management Team
Choose the best candidates and have them meet with your management team. You can learn quite a bit about people during interviews. After the meeting, your management team can help you decide which person is the best fit for the job.
Retain Top Talent By Providing The Right Tools
Hiring the best talent is step one. Retaining the new agent is step two. You can retain top talent by providing them with the tools they need to succeed. With a robust and easy to use insurance agency management system like ours, your agents will have everything that they need to succeed – direct carrier downloads, pre-filled ACORD forms, marketing campaigns, images and scanning, and so much more. Our Jenesis Training Certification Program makes onboarding your new hires a breeze!
Put in the Time for the Best Results
Properly recruiting for your insurance agency takes time! However, when you put the time into it, you get the results you want. Go through the process step by step to find the best leads and talent.