Grace Bauer explains how a comprehensive review and revamping of procedures will pay dividends in terms of boosting efficiency and growth.
Do you really know what’s going on inside your agency? If you’re an agency principal, the answer is probably “No.” After all, you’re spending most of your time managing the staff, setting appointments to bring in new business, and maintaining existing accounts.
If you haven’t done so already, now’s the time to check out how things are being done inside the agency. You might be surprised to see that not all activities are being entered in the system; producers aren’t doing complete documentation; the suspense file isn’t updated; no one is keeping an eye of expirations; the list goes on and on. If that’s the case, have employees write down what they’re doing; review what they’ve written, make changes if needed — and increase the overall efficiency, and profitability, of your agency.
THE PROCEDURAL PROCESS
Start either by working with a template or having employees write out each main procedure. I can think of some 70 procedures in a P/C agency.
Then delegate about three procedures per person to complete in about a week’s time. Remember, if you give them a month to complete this task, they probably won’t do the job until the very last day.
Ask them to write down exactly how things are being done now — not how they’d like the procedure to be or how they think it should be. This information will show if there are problems that need solving. For instance, you need to know if employees aren’t using the binder log, failing to use form letters, or using the fax machine instead of faxing through the system.
It always helps to have employees use fill-in-the-blank templates for describing procedures. Having to think of all the areas that might go into a particular procedure can be overwhelming.
Once you have this list of procedures, the agency principals and managers should review them. After this review, go over the procedures with all employees.
Always focus on the goals of your agency. If your goal is to increase efficiency, review each procedure to find ways of saving time. For example, is everyone using form letters? Whenever an employee has to develop a letter on their own it will take time. Form letters for everything will save a tremendous amount of time. Is everyone using headsets? Any time an employee has to pick up the phone, take down information, and then process the transaction, it takes far longer than if they were using a headset to talk with the client. Is everyone using e-mail and voicemail as much as possible? Bear in mind that any interruption can be an E&O claim waiting to happen — and make sure that every staff member uses e-mail even if the other party is sitting right next to them. The list could go on and on.
After doing the review, make sure that all employees become familiar with the new procedures and develop an auditing system to ensure that they don’t go back to their old ways.
CONCLUSION
This process might not sound easy to you. However, if you don’t know what’s really going on inside your agency, a comprehensive review and revamping of procedures will pay dividends in terms of boosting efficiency and growth.