To hire, and keep, quality workers, follow these guidelines.
A consistent trend nationwide is the difficulty in finding people to fill job openings. No matter where I travel, I hear this lament from agency owners and managers. In some parts of the country, the competition for good talent has fueled price wars for good service people. Although many segments of the economy have a surplus of qualified people, the insurance industry has a shortage. To win this battle, agencies must rethink their strategies to recruit, motivate, and retain committed employees effectively.
Today's high-performing employees are looking for more than compensation packages and benefits. Examine your agency's strengths and determine if employees have benefits to sell. Employees are looking for growing, successful companies that provide a friendly environment where they can participate in decision-making and be part of a team. Some agencies have found creative rewards, such as providing breakfast foods or fruit in the kitchen or free soft drinks, instead of just coffee and tea. Others designate employee committees to plan social functions, or they take the office on trips when agency goals are achieved. The key is to have a positive work environment where employees are recognized and rewarded for good performance, where there's good communication, and where everyone shares in the excitement of being part of a successful firm.
RECRUITING THROUGH REFERRALS
Most agencies use a variety of methods to attract job candidates, including newspaper ads, Internet job sites, referrals, and recruiters. I've worked with a few organizations whose turnover is minimal. In fact, they have a waiting list of talented people who'd like to work for their agency. These agencies realize that attraction and retention are both marketing issues. They have developed a positive image in the marketplace and are selling prospective job candidates constantly on the advantages of working for their agency, as well as reminding their employees of these advantages. They've also made a commitment to create a workplace with purpose, excitement, and mutual alignment and re-focused their energy on the needs of their employees. In these organizations, the most effective method for recruitment is employee referrals.
To gain the full benefit from these referrals, have a formal process to identify candidates regularly and to keep the pipeline full. Agency employees should know the story they can tell about the benefits, working environment, perks, or advancement opportunities the agency offers. To help them identify these benefits, ask them to help you make a list of why they like working at the agency and what they appreciate about their jobs and their co-workers. While you're at it, consider whether employees have a good relationship with their managers. Studies have shown that managers play a significant role in influencing the employees commitment to the agency and the agency's likelihood of retaining them.
Some agencies develop a PowerPoint presentation to tell the agency story, introduce its staff, and provide customer testimonials. Knowing what makes the agency unique and communicating this message effectively creates the foundation for building a workforce that's energized and committed to achieving the organizations goals. Applicants form impressions about agencies from various sources. Agencies that are community leaders are more successful in attracting talent. An agency's support of local and civic organizations can attract business prospects and job candidates. Your involvement in the community sends a message about your values and increases the likelihood of attracting quality candidates. Agencies that can align their recruiting strategy with their marketing strategy succeed in developing brand identity and are able to establish a clear picture of what sets them apart. Its also the best way for smaller companies to compete against big ones for talent.
OTHER RECRUITING METHODS
Another effective method of finding new employees is to use recruiters who can find quality people, rather than merely provide resumes. Agency managers should work with the recruiter to provide a profile of the skills and qualities needed. There should also be an agreement that the recruiter wont solicit the agency's employees for other clients. Web sites can be effective for identifying candidates who might be moving into your area.
Newspaper ads are usually the least effective method of recruiting. With critical skills in high demand, top performers who want to make a job change parent looking in the classifieds.
Studies have shown that employees and potential employees rank career development as their No. 1 priority. Feeling valued, having open communication, and a fun workplace are also key factors in their selection criteria.
SELECTING EMPLOYEES
Too many hiring decisions are made because a manager has a 'gut feeling' about the candidate that isn't substantiated. When new employees are hired, agency managers will spend time training and coaching them. An employee who never should've been hired will cost the agency in their salary and benefits and in those of the other employees involved with them. Poor performers drain overall productivity because they force managers to allocate additional resources to get the job done. They also create resentment in good performers.
Two tools that can help managers make better hiring decisions are behavioral interviewing and pre-employment assessment testing. Behavioral interviewing requires the interviewer to spend an adequate amount of time with the candidate. Its difficult to determine a persons suitability for a job if you spend only an hour with them, and if only one person interviews the candidate. Since past experience is a good indication of qualification for the job, direct the interviewing questions at behavior. For example, an interviewer who wants to assess sales skills might ask a candidate to describe a difficult sales situation that resulted in a successful sale. To assess service skills, the interviewer might ask how the CSR handled a difficult client or assisted someone else in the agency. Creating a standard list of questions for all the agency interviewers to use assures good interviews and allows the interviewing team to compare notes.
Pre-employment assessment tools can also help prevent costly hiring mistakes. Insurance tests can identify an individuals level of knowledge. You can also ask an employee to demonstrate their proficiency with the computer system or software. Candidates for CSR positions can be further qualified when their peer CSRs interview them to assess their knowledge and skills. Psychological testing can help assess sales capability and predict the individuals ability to succeed with the agency's sales approach. Since sales skills are necessary, not just for producers and marketers, but also for CSRs, use these assessment tests for various agency employees.
Even with good screening, employees will turn down offers. In some cases, their compensation expectations might be beyond what's realistic or they might just be testing the marketplace. But in other cases, they reject the offer because the agency made a poor impression on the employee. Agencies known for their ability to attract and hire good employees go to great lengths to maintain an upbeat, positive relationship with all applicants, even those that they don't hire. They treat applicants like their customers, provide them with feedback in a timely manner, and are always recruiting (selling), even during the job interview.
REWARD SYSTEMS
Every agency today knows that it needs to manage compensation costs. The challenge is to also make sure that employees receive competitive wages. Finding sources of salary information, conducting your own salary surveys, or sharing information with a group of competitors can help retain employees who might leave because they're underpaid. Without accurate survey data, agency owners risk overpaying or underpaying employees. Many agencies are adapting a pay for performance compensation system, which rewards employees for results related to the agency's business goals. Your compensation plan should connect employee performance to overall business goals.
To reduce the cost of annual merit plans, principals are looking at creative ways to reward employees for contributing to an agency's success. In transitioning from traditional merit and performance-based systems, two viable incentive options are profit sharing and gain sharing. Profit sharing is tied to an agency's increase in profitability. Gain sharing is tied to increases in operational efficiency and might be an interim step to a long-term profit-sharing program. No matter which option best fits your agency's business plan, set goals so that employees can determine what they have to do to achieve the reward.
Employees also value non- monetary rewards. Surveys by the Society of Human Resources Management found that employees ranked interesting work, employer flexibility, feeling valued, having training, and advancement opportunities as key factors influencing their decision to change jobs.
In smaller agencies, promotional opportunities might be fewer, but you should always provide new skills to learn and the opportunity to feel job satisfaction. Setting milestones for education and developing performance-based criteria can enhance the job and help reduce turnover. Higher-level positions, such as the Senior CSR position, can also be used to reward performance beyond normal expectations. Make higher-level skills or additional job duties the criteria for promoting an individual to a senior position. If the CSR is an agency automation expert, for example, or can take on part-time responsibility for conducting quality audits or training, you can create a new career path.
Offering perks can also be a cost-effective way to attract and retain employees. For example, casual dress, flexible starting times, earning time-off (comp days, floating holidays, or summer hours), job sharing, or using part-time positions provide the agency with a powerful advantage in the job market.
COMMUNICATION
The best performers welcome high expectations and want to know that they're on a team with exceptional people. A good method for defining and communicating individual expectations is through performance review. Through periodic feedback, employees can gain a better idea of how they're doing and what training opportunities they should pursue to develop their skills and knowledge. Communication in general is important to modern employees. They want to know how their work fits into the big picture of the agency's vision and mission. They appreciate monthly meetings that provide updates on plans and new developments and address their questions and concerns. They're also motivated by public and personal recognition. And finally, they respect organizations that ask for feedback on management and on the agency overall.
Attracting and retaining employees is as much a marketing issue as a management issue. Developing and promoting a positive organization and reminding employees of the value of being part of it plays a critical role in getting those referral sources and keeping the talent that you have.