Creating a successful growth agency starts with having a focus on recruiting and hiring. Building upon that for the long-term, successful agency owners make ongoing training and internal development a priority.
Integrating training and development into an agency’s overall operations can be challenging. The components and resources available will vary from agency-to-agency. Typically, best practice agencies will leverage carrier, vendor, and professional association programs where available. In some cases, agency owners will customize their own programs to best fit their needs. Regardless, there are a few guidelines and ideas that successful agency owners consider for how to best train and develop staff:
- Define Knowledge and Skill Set Required for a Role – Successful owners clearly define agency roles and responsibilities through a written position profile. The position profile can include educational and professional certification needs, along with experience, knowledge, and skill set requirements. This helps to define the underlying characteristics that will allow someone to be more successful in their position. (Ideally, position profiles should be written prior to recruiting and hiring but should also be resourced when considering training and development).
- Evaluate and Assess Current Staff Capabilities – Referencing written position profiles and assessing current staff capabilities will help to identify potential areas for development. As an example, if an experienced client service representative excels at communication but struggles with technology, prioritize training to improve knowledge in various technology platforms. Another case could be an inexperienced producer that is great at prospecting but struggles with closing sales. Identifying a sales skills training program could help with that person’s development.
- Establish Training and Development Objectives – Most owners will have planned annual reviews. During this time professional training and development should be discussed. For employees that have expressed a desire for increasing their professional knowledge, evaluating various professional certifications could be mutually beneficial to the individual as well as the agency.
- Leverage Carrier Programs – Many of the larger insurance carriers (Liberty Mutual, Safeco, Nationwide, Travelers, The Hartford, and State Auto (just to name a few) will offer product training, sales, development, or certification programs for producers, client managers, and marketing staff. Programs may be available for new hires or for experienced staff. Carriers will offer programs to help develop agency staff. This in turn often leads to better new business production and client retention for them. While many of the carrier development programs will have a cost to participate in, a few carriers will offer discounts or reimbursements based on the strength of the relationship or for achieving production milestones.
- Affiliate with Experienced Professional Organizations – Professional industry associations (such as the Ohio Insurance Agents Association and Insurance Board of Northern Ohio) offer year-long educational, training, and development programs for both members and non-members. Many of these courses will also include continuing education certification and foster networking opportunities that allow insurance professionals to collaborate with others.
- Consider the Value of Professional Designations – Professional insurance designation programs allow employees an opportunity to become industry experts. Whether through prestige in recognition or knowledge gained, this will enable them to differentiate the level of service provided to clients. In Ohio, the most respected industry designations include the following: CIC (Certified Insurance Counselor), CPCU (Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter), CRM (Certified Risk Manager), CISR (Certified Insurance Service Representative), and AAI (Accredited Advisor in Insurance). While achieving these designations will take resources of time and cost, for a valued long-term employee, agency owners willing to make that investment demonstrate a commitment in staff development.
For SIAA member agencies, making use of the tools and resources available through SIAA’s Training & Learning Center (TLC) will also contribute to the professional development of an agency owner and staff. The TLC includes agency development, agency operations, personal & professional development, Web CE, and commercial lines training opportunities.
Agency owners that make training and development a priority in their operations. Management will improve their staff’s knowledge and expertise. Thus enabling exceptional service that will improve overall client retention. In addition, quality staff members are more often satisfied working for agency owners that invest in their training and professional development. This results in better staff retention. Achieving above-average agency growth is easier with a high client and staff retention.