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Editors and Contributors
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Andrea WellsAgency Compensation Playbook: 2013 Agency Salary Survey -
Andrew G. SimpsonHow Process Improvement Drives Agency Profitability -
Stephanie JonesThe Acquisition Cycle -
Don JerglerIndustry Predictions -
Chris BurandReasonable Compensation -
Andrea WellsPersonal Lines: How Technology is Changing the Way Agents Do Business
No mey no washee.
When pay sucks, morale sucks. When morale sucks, the team doesnt’t work togther well, and most of them have one foot out the door.
Is it just me or doesn’t peer reviewed compensation mean MONEY? I’ll always suck up to the person responsible for determining my compensation. It’s Pavlovian.
What this article says is people that work well together are more productive and will self manage within their team. Money is not the motivator as much as being a productive member of the team. When people do not get along within a team, they need another means of motivation (ie money.) It would behoove management and team leaders to assure that all members are happy and supportive of each other in order to be more productive.
When people work well together, that’s great, but that doesn’t stop gasoline prices from rising. The price of everything goes up, so people still need a raise to keep up. We all still have bills to pay. Regardless of how happy we are, we can’t avoid that reality.
I think the article is talking about motivation and productivity, but not in lieu of compensation. The point is, what self-motivates people and makes them more productive? It is working well within a team. When people don’t work well together, they tend not to be as self-motivated or productive. They are only going through the motions in order to get a paycheck.
I think it is all in the management. I just had a superior who retired. She would interrupt me and correct me while I was conducting a quote or filling out an application. The sad part was that she hardly ever knew what she was talking about. She just wanted to show that she was in charge. It wasn’t even in her area. We specialize in crop insurance and that is what she was suppose to be doing. I handle all of the other areas of insurance that comes through the door. (We are a small agency in a small town.)
My productivity has tripled since she has retired from the simple fact that I don’t have the interruptions and have better time management because of it. Money is always a good motivator in my opinion. I work toward a bonus every year. And even in a bad economy, in a small town with an insurance agency on every corner, I have gotten a bonus every year for 6 years. It is management and the quality of people that you hire. I love my job. I love my customers. I love making sales. I love my bonuses.
Maybe under-motivated (forget underpaid) workers are also challenged because they work for unhappy bosses or supervisors?
That’s the part which is invisible to corporate – they tend to focus on worker productivity in the trenches, and not necessarily what it takes to be a leader.
Many poor leaders look at their positions like being president-elect-for-life. And there aren’t opportunities to get that point across to the folks a few rungs higher up the food chain.
I worked somewhere where I respected and admired my leaders and fellow team members. I worked 55-60 hours a week and loved it. We kicked butt in town and had a 98% retention rate to boot. I am now in a job where I have constant criticism and there is no comraderie amongst the staff. I hate my job, constantly watch the clock, and get nauseous on Monday morning. The only thing that keeps me here is my paycheck. Sad…
This was my life for so long. It is hard to go from being on top to being shoved down on a daily basis. Focus on the part of your job that does help you through the day. For so long I would grasp at the smallest thing. Like a customer saying how grateful they were for someone like me. I would come home exhausted every day. Some days I would be in tears. But that once in a blue moon person who smiled and was grateful that someone actually cared that they understood what they were paying for in their insurance instead of treating them with disrespect made a bad week a better one.
Thanks, Sherinae. You just made this day (which started with me crying at my desk) that much brighter!