How will agencies train new employees?

Independent agencies are entering a new year with an old — but important — mandate to build growth and profitability, prompting leaders to take a closer look at the inner workings of their businesses. 

Front and center for agents and brokers are five technology and efficiency issues: 

1. Resettlement of staff into hybrid remote/in-person work settings.
2. Onboarding of new employees into all-remote work settings.
3. Dividing of jobs into components that are performed by different individuals.
4. Arrival and deployment of virtual assistants.
5. Continued outflow of experienced workers.

During 2020–'22, pandemic restrictions forced remote work on agencies, resulting in employees and employers alike making significant adjustments to continue operations during times of uncertainty.
The current inflow of workers returning to the office has created a different set of adjustments. Agencies now must find ways to combine their pre-pandemic modes of operations with their pandemic setups — let's call it 'The Great Resettlement.' While some agencies haven't quite realigned their workplaces yet, many have figured out how to effectively integrate in-person, remote, and hybrid arrangements. 

One takeaway for agency leaders: They can hire employees or producers whom they won't look in the eye every day. Quite the sea change from pre-2020, direct-to-remote hiring is a new horizon with new opportunities.

At the same time, jobs are being split into segments that are completed by different individuals, including virtual assistants. This approach raises questions across the IA channels, such as: What changes in workflows, communications and training are necessary for carved-up CSR roles? How is an employee's time reallocated when they are no longer doing an entire job, but only part of it? How can people be retrained to effectively use their freed-up time? 

These shifts can bring opportunities, but they also present challenges, given that most agencies have fewer than 20 employees and no full-time trainer on staff. Meanwhile, the decades-long outflow of boomers continues, driving the imperative for new employees and innovative technology, such as virtual assistants, to fill the gaps.

The independent agency channel is known for its hands-on training and development, which largely consists of a new hire shadowing or looking over the shoulder of an experienced employee. New workers learned the ropes first by watching, then tying knots themselves.

But traditional training methods aren't relevant when a new employee works from a home office with a remote computer setup and a headset. The question becomes: How do agencies train these new employees? 

According to a recent NetVU survey, the number one T&D issue for agencies is onboarding new hires — especially those working remotely — who have no background in insurance or the technology that drives agencies.

This environment demonstrates to me that 2023 offers a fresh start for the independent agency channel when it comes to T&D. There is less of a need to keep up and survive pandemic challenges, and more of an opportunity to establish a new normal. And that leaves just one question for agency leaders: How do I build training and development resources to support my individual agency's new reality?

I believe, and am encouraged, that solutions for some of these issues will come from within the agency system, as leaders continue to learn from each other and an array of industry resources.