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Growing the right team is a crucial part of running a successful insurance organization. When it comes to hiring the right people, there are a lot of options—posting a job online and sorting through a flood of unqualified resumes, internal promotion, employee referral, or working with a recruiter. When it comes to choosing the right solution for your company, you may find yourself asking “what does a recruiter do?” We can’t speak for the other guys, but at The James Allen Companies, we know our recruiting process works. We’ve decided to give you a sneak peek into how we partner with insurance companies to source the best talent out there. 

What We Do

The recruiting process is extensive and, depending on the recruiter, can include up to 30 steps! We’re not going to go into every stage of our process, but want to give you an idea of the amount of dedication we put into every search we do. 

Understand the client and the position

When we receive a search assignment, our first priority is getting to know the client, their business, their goals and what the position entails. To fully understand what candidates we need to find, we need to know what the client’s expectations are, the requirements for the position and how it fits into the goals of the company. We also need to know what the positions offer the candidates we’re sourcing. 

Find the talent

Without giving away all of our secrets, we have quite a few different methods for finding the qualified talent insurance businesses need. Unlike the average talent acquisition manager, we don’t simply post a job online and hope the fish will bite. This often results in too many unqualified applicants wasting your time. Instead, we do the heavy lifting, reaching out directly to individuals who will advance your team, and reviewing their credentials, resumes and successes. We only find and deliver the individuals that meet our incredibly high standards. 

We’ve developed our advanced talent acquisition methods over more than 20 years in the recruiting business. Our team has developed relationships with a network of tens of thousands of insurance professionals from underwriters to claims adjusters. With this network, we are able to identify highly-qualified passive candidates who, while not actively searching for jobs, will be an excellent match for your business. 

Coordinating and conducting interviews

Before you ever see a candidate’s resume, we’ve already vetted them to make sure they meet the requirements you’re looking for. We interview each and every candidate to make sure their skills line up with their resume and experience and that they’ll fit into your company’s culture. Whatever questions you need to be answered about a candidate before an official interview, we will get them answered. 

We only deliver the candidates we know will help your business. Once we find the right one, we coordinate the interview times so you can focus on running your organization. 

Serve as your advocate

Overall, our job is to represent your business to the best of our ability. We serve as a liaison between you and the candidate, selling your company and the position you’re offering. We keep candidates in the loop so they feel connected to you throughout the process. No matter the outcome of an interview, we share the results and provide your feedback. If you choose to extend an offer, we can help negotiate a salary, always keeping your business needs in mind. 

Follow up post-hire

Our job isn’t done when the candidate accepts an offer. After the candidate has started their job with you, we keep in touch making sure they’re living up to your standards. We also make sure the candidate is satisfied with the new opportunity. If for some reason a new employee isn’t impressing you, we will do our best to find another solution. 

Hopefully, you never again have to ask yourself “what does a recruiter do?” With more than 20 years in service, The James Allen Companies recruiters have the expertise, skill and network you need to complete your hiring goals. We make your hiring process easier and faster, dedicating every resource in our inventory to ensure the candidates you see are the best ones for the job. Whether you need an executive, key hire, temporary or temporary-to-full-time search, we can find the best candidates faster. Contact The James Allen Companies today to see how our recruitment team can help strengthen your insurance business. 

The insurance industry is traditionally a reactive industry viewed as a necessary evil to most consumers. Consumers hope they never have to talk to their insurance company because it means they’re having a really bad day. In fact, 10 percent of consumers have never interacted with their insurance company because the only touchpoints insurers create are setting up a policy and renewing the policy unless a claim is filed. 

However, new trends in the industry may better the relationship between insurer and customer. Within the next 10 years, it is possible that a proactive risk management approach may take over the insurance industry. This approach could integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and traditional human methods to prevent non-natural-disaster-related incidents typically covered by insurance policies. A proactive approach to insurance could help consumers view their insurers as partners in asset protection instead of just a necessary evil.

What is proactive risk management?

Proactive risk management is the process of identifying and remedying potential risks before they become legitimate problems. 

Think about this: approximately 14,000 water damage claims are made daily totaling about $123 million in claims damages every day. If insurance carriers introduced preventative measures such as arranging for plumbers to inspect plumbing on a regular basis for their customers, issues could be identified and fixed before they become a disaster. This could also apply for preventing electricity fires, roof leaks and other problems. 

Proactive risk management is a popular idea. In fact, 34 percent of people said they would consider switching insurance companies if a company offered preventative loss and protection services. 

How can AI help?

Integrating AI into the insurance industry could save insurers $390 billion by 2030. Whether you realize it or not, AI has already begun to sneak into the insurance industry in the form of tools to enhance customer service. With chatbots, data is recovered more quickly so questions can be answered efficiently. AI is also able to streamline claims management making those returns that much faster to process. 

With the growth of the Internet of Things and smart devices, AI can help with proactive risk management. Already companies are introducing smart water management that can shut off the water in the event of a problem, and smart smoke detectors that identify types of fires and carbon monoxide. 

Many insurers already offer discounts or prevention monitoring for their customers. A number of insurers have partnered with home security companies and offer discounts for customers that install one. Insurers could use that information when underwriting home-insurance policies. The same can be done for car insurance firms that already offer programs that collect and analyze telemetry data about the driver. 

All of these AI forms can be used to collect and analyze data that prevent hazards and add to the prevention of large payouts. 

Providing a proactive approach to the risk management aspect of insurance might be the future of the industry—and getting ahead of the curve is good for insurance companies. Staying ahead of the game can keep your business at the front of the line of innovation, but to do so, you need a strategy. If your company is interested in growing in the proactive risk management sector by integrating AI or traditional methods, you need a good team of people to lead the way. 

At The James Allen Companies, we know a thing or two about the insurance business, having been in it ourselves. We are committed to finding technology specialists who want to accelerate your business into the future. We recruit the candidates who are knowledgeable in AI, risk management, sales and more to make sure your business stays ahead of the trend and is ready to serve your customers. 

Give us a call today to see how we can help your business join the future of insurance. 

Searching for a new career can feel like participating in the Gold Rush. You’re out in the wilderness with hundreds of other prospectors with the same objective. It can take weeks or months of hard work to find what you’re looking for. Then you find it—the vein of precious, glittering, yellowish rock. Your dreams have come true.

Perhaps as you pack up to leave and prepare to say goodbye, the wilderness offers you something new—not a gold mine, but a sparkly counteroffer. Would you accept the new terms or keep on with your riches?

Think of it this way: If you struck gold, would you ever give it up? Of course not. So why would you ever give up the job of your dreams? When you turn in your notice and your boss presents a counteroffer—a pay raise, better benefits, access to a company car, you name it—you may think about accepting it. Don’t. Counteroffers are fool’s gold, and you may be sacrificing months of hard work for a temporary boon.

Counteroffers, like fool’s gold, can be tempting. They resemble a legitimate opportunity for progress but are just as misleading as a chunk of pyrite. Here are a few things to consider if you’re extended a counteroffer from your employer.

Their motives. While your managers may frame their counteroffer as a benefit for you, it’s likely their generosity doesn’t run as deep as you’d like to believe. Counteroffers are used as retention tools to keep employees on board. The fact of the matter is, it costs more to replace you than to give you a raise. Forty-two percent of companies offer a counteroffer because they don’t want to spend the money replacing the employee. It can also take months to replace you and in that time, productivity will likely slip, damaging the business’ bottom line. Essentially, offering you a counteroffer is simply for convenience, not to benefit you.

Possible consequences. Did you know 80 percent of people who accept a counteroffer will voluntarily resign or be let go within 12 months? When you turn in your resignation, the trust you had with your employer is tarnished. Seventy-one percent of senior executives say accepting a counteroffer could cause your superiors within the company to question your loyalty moving forward. You now have a target on your back. You’ve expressed an interest in leaving the company—well, be careful what you wish for. If layoffs are needed to keep your business afloat, you’re likely to be the first one on the list.

Your motives. If there is any possibility that you would consider a counteroffer at the time of resignation, you should talk to your managers in advance of interviewing about issues that are causing you concern. It can be a difficult conversation, but it’s necessary. If you’re wanting a raise, a promotion, or a culture change, ask for it before you decide to start your job search. If management denies your request, then you know where you stand. Leaving is now in your best interest. You are free to pursue other career options knowing when you turn in your resignation, any form of counteroffer is hypocritical. Accepting a counteroffer wouldn’t even put a bandage on the wound so don’t fall prey to the fool’s gold. Look forward to the new opportunity with high expectations for career development, advancement and renewed enthusiasm. You accepted the new position for a reason you should remember that reason when presented with a counteroffer.

Do not let the temptation of fool’s gold distract you from an actual gold mine of a fulfilling insurance career. At The James Allen Companies, we believe in prioritizing career and company growth. Candidates’ best interests are served by objectively selecting the best opportunity, and we can help you see past the temptation counteroffers. We offer the guidance you need to make your career transition smooth. Find out more by contacting us today.

We are in the midst of an insurance talent shortage. In 2017, we gave you a glimpse of what was to come: high turnover due to an aging workforce and a lack of interest from younger generations. Over the last two years, we’ve been watching the situation play out and creating strategies to make sure our clients aren’t victims of the declining workforce. Today, we’d like to provide an update and tell you how you can prepare your business for the future.

Fortunately, the insurance industry is doing well. Despite the estimated 400,000 insurance professionals expected to retire by 2020, the insurance industry’s unemployment rate is at 1.7 percent with certain parts of the industry growing while others are shrinking.

The virtually non-existent unemployment rate means filling positions is becoming increasingly difficult. People aren’t looking for jobs because they don’t have to and it can be a race against time to find the candidate you need. Positions in claims, sales, underwriting, marketing, account management and technology are expected to increase over the next year while available talent dwindles. Even when people are applying for these jobs, 21 percent of employers say the applicants they’re receiving aren’t qualified. On average, it can take 50 days to fill a non-exempt position and 97 to fill an executive position.

As you can see, the pressure to hire the right candidate is on and The James Allen Companies is the crew to help you find the talent you need. With over 15 years of experience in insurance recruiting under our belt and access to an expansive network of talent, we find candidates that for others would be unreachable. The candidates we find are top-performers, excelling in their current positions. They may not be currently looking for a career change, but with our help, they’ll be sold on an opportunity with your business.  

If you’re needing a temporary hire, a new executive or something between, we can find the candidate you need. We dedicate every resource at our disposal to your search so you can focus on running your business. By doing so, we expedite the search process so you find your ideal candidate faster. We advocate for your business from day one helping to search, interview and hire.

Don’t let the talent shortage get in the way of you running your business. Contact the team at The James Allen Companies to see how we can help your business win the race for talent today.

As the economy continues to churn, and despite experiencing five of the 15 costliest global catastrophes in the past two years, the outlook for the Property and Casualty Insurance industry has remained positive. With this favorable outlook, many insurance professionals are finding themselves with multiple career advancement opportunities. This candidate-driven market, combined with the newest workplace epidemic (burn-out) could be contributing to the increase in turnover rates

According to the Workplace Institute, one in four employees will quit this year, with one in three voluntarily leaving their jobs by 2020. One of the growing reasons for this exodus is burn-out.

We’ve all felt it. Those days when just the thought of going into work makes you exhausted or turns your good mood into a sour one. You experience a lack of motivation, feel overwhelmed, and make more mistakes than normal. The longer the feeling continues, the worse it gets until it becomes a major problem. You just feel…burned out.

You aren’t alone. The World Health Organization recently declared burn-out an official medical diagnosis. Scientists have been studying burn-out and its effects since the 1970s, and it’s time to start taking it seriously. By recognizing the symptoms and finding ways to prevent burn-out, you can better the mental health of your employees and have a positive impact on your bottom line.

The Symptoms of Burn-out

Burn-out is the result of a lack of balance between personal and work life. While the symptoms of burn-out can apply to other parts of your life, WHO advises burn-out refers “specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.” Symptoms include:

• Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
• Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
• Reduced professional efficacy

These symptoms can result in a lack of production, and increased fatigue, irritability, frustration, and errors. All of these can culminate in a lack of motivation for team members and can have a negative impact on your bottom line.

Treatment for Burn-out

Burn-out in the insurance industry affects more than the person facing it. When one member of your team feels overwhelmingly negative and is failing to succeed, your entire team suffers. Here are a few ways you can prevent burn-out in the insurance industry and keep it from becoming a chronic issue at your company:

• Celebrate successes. No matter how small, every goal met makes a difference. By acknowledging daily accomplishments and recognizing successful team members, you increase team motivation. By counteracting negativity with positivity, you can boost the morale of the employees feeling burn-out.
• Show employees the bigger picture. When setting goals for your team, make sure they see how those goals impact the goals to follow. When moving quickly from one goal to another, team members can feel like they aren’t making any progress. Connecting their performance to the company’s results makes team members feel like they are part of that larger picture.
• Create a plan. If you’re noticing an uptick in unhappy employees, it’s time to find out what those problems are. Pay attention to who works from home, stays late at the office, or skips lunch. Analyze those workloads and find out why they feel the need to work after hours. Create a burn-out prevention plan that enforces work hours, encourages breaks, and sets goals to preserving mental health in the workplace. This plan will make it easier to prevent burn-out and confront it when it occurs.

Burn-out is a problem that plagues every industry and insurance is not immune. Being able to recognize the signs and symptoms of and finding ways to prevent burn-out is crucial to the success of your employees and your insurance business. For more than 15 years, The James Allen Companies have been partnering with insurance companies to identify and hire leaders who help inspire their workforce and keep them engaged. To learn more, contact us today.

A successful insurance business needs a diverse group of people with diverse skills and talents. “Hard skills” are easily measured with proven success and practice, but many skills that make an active and successful team member are not so easy to define. Communication and critical thinking are increasingly important as more and more positions are automated—these skills can set a candidate apart and make them more successful as your employee.

Importance of Soft Skills

Soft skills are the interpersonal attitudes that define an individual’s character in a workplace environment and can help determine how a candidate might fit in with a company’s culture. In a Global Talent Trends survey conducted by LinkedIn, 91 percent of talent professionals said they believe soft skills are important to the future of recruiting. The decision of hiring a candidate or firing an employee can ride on that individual’s ability to leverage soft skills. Additionally, 92 percent of talent professionals believe soft skills are just as important as hard skills, and it was found that up to 89 percent say poor hires often lack soft skills.

Essential Soft Skills

Some soft skills are more desired than others and finding candidates with those skills is like finding a piece of hay in a stack of needles. With so many people focusing on how to develop their hard skills, the development and refinement of soft skills can go by the wayside. Some soft skills are even harder to find and understand than others. LinkedIn identified the following skills as the most in-demand relative to their supply:

Creativity is not limited to the artists and musicians of the world. Creativity is a highly desired skill because it can never be automated, and it allows people to solve problems with relevance and novelty. Without creativity, there is no innovation, and to succeed today, you need to be more innovative than the competition.

Persuasion is less about manipulating others, and more about defending ideas and explaining why they matter. This a skill needed for sales, but also in management. By being able to communicate the benefits of an idea with genuine reasons and thought, a successful leader can influence decisions to push innovation forward.

Collaboration proves a person’s ability to work on a team. How that person communicates with others, how they trust and whether they tolerate new ideas and compromise with others can indicate how much of a team player the individual is. Collaboration is key to a successful team dynamic and one weak link can throw off the entire team.

Adaptability can go hand-in-hand with collaboration. An individual needs to be flexible and OK with change. They need to be prepared for new people to join the team, receptive to criticism and innovation and stay calm even in stressful situations.

Time Management can mean the difference between managing a workload or drowning in it. Being able to prioritize tasks can result in increased productivity and faster decision making.

A candidate’s soft skills are crucial to their possible success at your organization. The James Allen Companies’ recruiters understand the value of soft skills. With our nearly 30 years of insurance industry recruiting and over 40 years combined overall staffing experience, we are the experts at placing candidates who are able to communicate, think on their feet and influence change. The James Allen Companies is the answer to recruiting the candidates with all of the skills required to help your insurance organization advance. Contact us today to see how our insurance industry-expert recruiters can help your business with your next hiring project.

Money can’t buy you love. We believe that to be true, but we also know when it comes to finding candidates to fit into your business, money might be able to get you the best candidates. When it comes to accepting a position at a new company, 43.2 percent of candidates will be convinced to leave their current company for another if it offers them a better salary. If you aren’t offering the right salary to passive candidates, you might lose them. Here are some quick tips to help you determine a proper salary range for open positions at your company.

Determine the Market Rate

When hiring new employees, you need to sell the candidate on your company. You can’t do that when your company is hiring for lower pay than the company they already work for.

To avoid this, it’s important to find out what other companies will pay for the same candidate for the same position or find out what the candidate is currently making. Audit other companies to find out what other benefits they might offer and what the similar position’s duties are. Also, find out where the position ranks in that company compared to where it ranks in yours.

Analyze the Position

Once you’ve completed an audit of similar companies, ask yourself a few questions about the position you’re hiring for. How does this position add value to your company? What are the requirements you’re looking for? What would you expect to be paid for this position?

Look at the requirements and daily assignments and how this employee interacts with the rest of the team. You need to make sure you can fairly determine a compensation plan that is fair to the position. Make it flexible so you can fit it to match the candidates you might hire.

Don’t Forget the Most Important Factor

You’re not just hiring an employee, you’re hiring a person. You have to focus on the technical skills, practical knowledge, experience and personality. You have to determine the value of the individual you’re interested in hiring. Don’t go in hoping to hire at the lower end of the salary range you’ve established. Go in hoping to hire the best candidate that can help your business grow.

At The James Allen Companies, we know that hiring is an important aspect of your job. To help your company grow, you need the best candidates and we can help you find them. By ensuring your offered salary ranges and compensation plans are fair, you can be sure to find the best candidates in the business.

“Education is the key to success.”

We’ve all heard the phrase and know how true it can be. You’ve taken the time to educate yourself on the insurance industry and have probably earned at least one of the many specialty designations there are to earn—perhaps the CPCU or another certification. Your career has advanced because of education. Are you helping your team do the same?

As generations retire and new ones take their place in the field, talent gaps in the insurance industry begin to widen. Many new hires are straight out of college with a bachelor’s or master’s degree but without the same level of knowledge of those retiring. It is crucial that you invest in the new generation of talent to narrow the talent gap and watch your business become successful.

A Culture of Education

We talk a lot about business culture as part of what makes a business successful; after all, if your employees are happy, they’ll be more efficient and more eager to help the team grow. Making education and additional training part of your company’s culture will make your employer brand that much stronger.

What is a culture of education and how can it benefit your business?

• Improve Motivation: Opportunities to earn new competences show employees you believe in their abilities and align them with the company mission therefore making them feel part of the team and increasing their work ethic.
• Encourage Innovation: Encouraging education and training also emboldens your employees to think critically and come up with innovative ideas to help push the company forward. The culture of education provides confidence to employees and makes your team stronger.
• Maximize Employee Potential. When you encourage employees to earn new designations, you invest in your team. These employees may want to move to upper management levels which means they can promote the same work ethic and values to any future teams.

How to Create a Culture of Education

You can begin to create a culture of education the moment someone new joins the team:

• Hire curious people. People who want to learn will learn and they’ll encourage others to do the same. Encourage people who want to ask questions to do so. They may find solutions to problems you never knew you had.
• Focus on skills, define behaviors. Allowing employees to refine old competencies and earn new ones will help them succeed at the technical aspects of their jobs. However, by focusing on new behaviors you want your employees to develop, you can greatly improve the success of your business’ culture.
• Communicate goals. To get everyone on board with your new goals and culture, you must first tell your employees what those goals are. Encourage management on all levels to keep employees updated on company progress and allow them to communicate their successes.
• Lead by example. To encourage your employees to learn, you should be learning too. As a manager, you should be showing them you’re actively finding ways to improve your skills and earn new designations or competencies. Share new knowledge with your team and send them ideas for trainings they can do with you. Let them know you value your continued education as well.

At The James Allen Companies, we specialize in finding you new talent who appreciate the chance to learn and grow. We identify candidates with a thirst for knowledge not satisfied by their current position. Filling one open position with one knowledge-hungry candidate can drastically change the culture of your business and help kickstart a culture of education in your office.

Contact us to learn more.

In our last blog, we talked about how to perfect your candidate pitch by writing the perfect job description. The job description is a key factor in getting candidates interested in your company’s position, but during the hiring process, every pitch matters and serves as an opportunity to sell your business to candidates.

With the US employment rate at its lowest in 18 years, we are facing a candidate-driven market with more jobs than candidates to fill them. For you, this means more competition for those star players.

Unfortunately, many companies haven’t adapted to this new market and still hire like candidates are desperate for employment. They’re not! Even after a candidate expresses interest in your company (based on that initial job description) it can be really easy to strike out and lose that candidate’s attention.

Strike One: Wasting the Candidate’s Time

There are a lot of ways to waste a candidate’s time and in this market, is that a risk you can afford?  A lengthy application and interviewing process are common ways to lose your candidates’ interest fast. Only 40 percent of candidates are willing to complete an application, especially if you are requiring them to include education and past experience while also asking for a resume.

Another way to waste your candidates’ time is to put them through the ringer of too many interviews. One, two, maybe even three interviews depending on the position could be appropriate, but the more you add, the more time you’re wasting. It’s also exhausting for candidates to take the time to attend so many interviews and potentially lose money or productivity from their current career to do so.

Strike Two: Failure to Sell the Opportunity

Don’t ask a candidate “Why do you want to work here?” Tell them why they should.

Candidates want to be sold on your businesses’ culture. They want to see that employees are staying for long periods of time and they want to know why. They want to know they’ll be listened to and understood by management. Allow candidates to meet current employees who can share their experiences at the company. Your current employees are your best testimonials and your biggest asset in the hiring process. Also, when evaluating passive candidates, realize they will have expectations for a fair and reasonable increase in their current salary.

Strike Three: Not Making A Decision

Hiring candidates can be difficult, but you eventually have to make a decision—and sooner is better than later. Candidates can tell when you’re not confident in your hiring decision. The more interviews you schedule, the longer it takes, the easier it is for them to lose interest in your opportunity.

You may have to get a little creative in regard to the type of candidate you will consider. Comparing your candidate pool to the perfect vision in your head is opening yourself up for disappointment. It’s important to remember candidates must have a reason for change. Passive applicants are open to exploring opportunities that will allow them to progress and grow their career. If the position they are evaluating is exactly the same as they have, then it will be difficult to secure their services.

Just like in baseball, hiring can be “one, two, three strikes you’re out.” Just like you are judging whether or not a candidate is right for your business, they are evaluating whether or not you are right for them. You sold them on the initial pitch, but you have to keep the momentum moving forward throughout the hiring process to make sure you don’t strike out.

The James Allen Companies works with you diligently to identify, evaluate and secure passive, qualified insurance talent. Call us to discuss your staffing needs.