Have You Trained Your Employees To Do Their Job?

by Curtis Pearsall

If you're the owner or manager of an agency, take a few minutes and reflect on the structure of your staff. Do you have staff that really doesn't know what they're doing or why they're doing it because they've never been trained? Ask yourself, 'Have I trained them on each aspect of their responsibilities?'

If you're one of those staff people, ask yourself, 'Am I an asset or a liability to my agency?' If you answer 'A liability,' do something about it. Ask your boss for further training.

This issue really hits home with me because when I started in the agency business back in 1976, I was assigned the task of handling Personal Lines, Commercial Lines, and claims for clients whose names beginning with S to Z. Although I knew Personal and Commercial Lines fairly well, I had no idea what I was doing when it came to claims. I simply had never been trained.

There's a common element to many claims: The person who committed the error probably would never have done so if they'd had received further training. This is common with internal staff, but a fair amount of claims concern outside sales producers who have sold a product that they're not really familiar with.

This is especially true with salespeople in Personal and Commercial Lines who have been asked to sell Life insurance. These two industries have different terminology and different ways of operating their business. In the Life industry, the vanishing premium policy is unique and has caused a number of Errors & Omissions (E&O) claims due to an incorrect explanation provided at the onset of coverage. In the Health arena, some Group Health carriers allow changes to be made only on certain days of the month. Without proper training, this information is not going to be communicated properly and will result in an uncovered underlying claim.

Obviously, with Life and Health insurance, the health of the applicant is crucial-and more often than not, claims involve a producer who has made commitments that the company would not honor because of the insured's health. In one case, an agent advised the client that he'd be able to obtain a Credit Life policy to cover his mortgage after refinancing-and then was unable to obtain the policy because of the client's health. When the client died, his wife sued the agent.

What can you as the agent do? Probably a good first step is to ask your staff members how comfortable they feel in knowing their responsibilities. If you don't ask them, you can rest assured that they'd never come to you voluntarily! Next, stress education in your agency. If there's a seminar on some technical issue, ask them to participate. This industry is going through a number of changes. It's important that your staff keep on top of these changes.

Don't restrict your evaluation to the technical part of their job. You'd be surprised how many of your staff may comment that they know their job but need training on their computer or phone skills.

Your customers rely on your agency to advise them on how their policies perform and which additional coverages they should consider. An informed customer is one of the best guards against E&O claims.

But informing your clients properly requires an educated staff. Remember, the keystone to the success of your agency is to possess highly trained, knowledgeable personnel.