Q: We have a zillion newbies and plenty 50-plus year old veteran producers. I’ve tried the out-of-industry route. Frankly, my agency isn’t good at training. I want experienced, ‘hit the ground running’ sales talent at other agencies. How do I …
Q: Our executive team wants to start the recruiting process for a chief operating officer. The current leader is within two years of retirement. We prefer to be ahead of the game and have the current COO groom his successor. …
It’s Part of Who We Are “When I first brought up some of these new ideas you would have thought I suggested we all go to the moon,” said Michelle Trueblood, chief human resources officer at The Horton Group. She …
I was so intrigued by McKinsey & Company’s “Women in the Workplace 2018” study that I decided to flip the script for my first column of 2019. From a simple question, “What are opportunities for women in the insurance industry?” …
Q:I’m keenly aware of the talent shortage in our area. As vice president of benefit operations, our agency not only wants to hire more account managers but is battling against the constant solicitation of those employees by our competitors. An …
Getting a picture of who that person is? I’ll never forget that interview experience. In a time such as this, with so much pressure to perpetuate Baby Boomers, I bet you would have hired the 26-year-old me in a second. …
Q:My agency’s 2019 producer recruiting plans are under way and one thing is clear. We are definitely going to make substantial investments. In years past, we’ve relied on newbies and college grads to fill the ranks. We’ve sprinkled in some …
Agency Hiring Stereotypes: True or False Agencies don’t downsize their best account managers. False: Here’s a great example of what can happen in the industry. I worked with a commercial account manager who experienced this during their first 30 days …
The old saying, “Our agency is constantly recruiting,” used to make firms sound very progressive. That barely cuts the mustard these days. Agencies must adopt a new philosophy: “We’re constantly talking to everyone.” Recruiting is worthless if you don’t talk …
1 Make Decisions Driven by Data To know where you’re going, you have to know where you’ve been. Historically, how long has the agency taken to hire, from start to finish, service (account managers, analysts and CSRs), sales and marketing, …
