What Insurance Agencies Should Anticipate for Summertime Hiring

As we look ahead to summer, your agency should seize the opportunity to ramp up hiring efforts while competitors might be preoccupied. June-August is the perfect time to recruit and be fully staffed to make a strong push toward the end of the year.

There’s a huge demand for marketing people within the insurance agencies. The 2008 recession forced agencies to cut placement roles; account managers absorbed the responsibilities, a trend that continued for many years. In today’s insurance market, this practice is unsustainable. Account managers are overwhelmed, unable to juggle new and renewal marketing alongside their service duties, especially with the added complexities of specialized markets and the diversity of risks.

• The Ideal Candidate Profile Is Rare: If your goal is to recruit this exact person from a competitor, you might be surprised at how limited the talent pool is. Many agencies lack centralized placement teams, and even those that have them may not put pure marketers in every office.
• Explore Alternative Sources: Look at account managers whose current job is 50%. Underwriters and wholesale brokers possess substantial risk analysis and process expertise. Just be sure to ask pointed interview questions to determine if they will be happy long term in a completely different role.
• Flexibility with Qualifications and Location: Most marketers are generalists, so this is likely to be who you’ll find in your natural market. However, if you require large account or vertical expertise, you should expand your search to remote for the best chance to find experienced P&C specialists.

Just like your agency might have “summer hours,” you want to reduce the interview steps between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Time feels like it goes much faster, and there are a lot of distractions that can derail the process.

• Start Recruiting Before June 1: The search process can take several weeks to gain momentum, especially if candidates don’t respond immediately to your ads or outreach. Begin your search in May to protect you from any initial slowdowns in sourcing candidates.
• Prepare for Vacation-Related Delays: Nothing disrupts the hiring process like a hiring manager on vacation for 7-14 days. Waiting for feedback or to schedule another interview feels like an eternity to candidates, who during that time will probably start interviewing with other companies. While you can’t eliminate this issue entirely, steps can be taken to insulate you. Avoid letting a single hiring manager control the entire process. If they are going to be away, introduce other team members who can conduct interviews, make decisions, and present offers.
• Streamline the Interview Process: Conduct panel interviews or eliminate this step entirely if having candidates meet your team has no bearing on your decision. After they’ve accepted your offer, you can schedule lunch or invite them to the office to meet their new colleagues.
• Work Ahead of the School Calendar: Getting kids into a new routine is chaotic, so no one wants their first day at a new job to be during the start of a new school year. It’s always easier to speed up the interview process and slow down the start date then vice versa. Make your goal to race to the offer and acceptance stage as quickly as possible, which gives you the flexibility to finagle the start date a week or two around the start of school.