Finding the Needle: Recruiting Success During Times of Scarcity

Finding the Needle: Recruiting Success During Times of Scarcity

Avatar photo Amy Simpson | March 17, 2020

As we sit here watching events unfold across the country and around the world, it is at times hard to believe a lot of this is even happening. March Madness is canceled, the NBA has suspended its season indefinitely and, the strangest one of all, there is a toilet paper shortage. How is this even possible? How did we run out of something we rarely think about other than when we need to get some more? A possible 14-day quarantine period has sent people into a frenzy for two-ply.

Scarcity is a driving force in any industry. It affects how we value almost anything. When the supply is high, the demand is low. Take information. We are living in an age where information is so readily available and produced so often, we don’t place much stock in it. It is expected to be there. We primarily don’t know who created it or if it is even accurate. We just consume it and trust it will be there when we need it. 

Food is a similar case. Never in history has a society had greater access to food than ours. We have restaurants specializing in any variety you can think of. There are different versions, flavors and brands of everything. Do you want a pickle-flavored potato chip? We have that. From gas stations to Monday meetings, food is there.    

Food and information are both vital to our survival yet both, at one time, were highly-priced because of their scarcity and the amount of work that was necessary to produce them. Now, they are just part of going out into the world. Today’s challenge isn’t about the general scarcity of the information or the food itself; it’s the scarcity of quality. Is the information accurate? Is the food nutritious? In a world of abundance, finding the higher caliber needle in an ever-growing haystack is growing increasingly difficult.

It’s why we turn to people who are trained and qualified to help us. We hire them, buy their books, patronize their programming to guide us toward decisions that benefit us in the short and long term. If we’re smart, we realize we can’t do everything. A person doesn’t have the time to achieve the necessary skill levels to properly or professionally tackle every obstacle they face.

We source talent for the insurance industry. We’ve been doing it for a long time and we are very good at our jobs. We chose this field. We stuck with it and through practice, patience and a commitment to our clients; we honed our skills so that we are able to notice that needle others haven’t been properly trained to see—even if that needle is in a stack of other needles. 

Potential candidates can be abundant, active and passive but identifying the one that fits, that’s the trick—a trick that takes commitment to pull off properly. Most companies don’t have the time or resources to achieve recruiting success efficiently. They can often make a poor hiring decision that will ultimately cost them far more than the services a recruiter provides. Working with an experienced recruiter saves time, money and, ultimately, is investing in a relationship that has both immediate and long-term evident benefits.



We at The James Allen Companies believe in a personal approach to recruiting in the insurance industry. We talk to as many people as we can, every day, always learning, always refining our selection to pass the best possible results on to our clients and to facilitate the next step in our candidates’ developing careers.

About the Author

Avatar photo
Amy Simpson
Amy has more than a decade of experience successfully recruiting experienced insurance professionals. Her extensive expertise and network of contacts has allowed her to place highly skilled and nearly impossible to find candidates in underwriting, claims, loss control, sales, premium audit, marketing, human resources, IT and beyond. She loves the challenge of looking for someone who seems impossible to find. Amy is committed to exceeding her clients’ expectations and enjoys helping people to enhance their careers. Amy has two young children, Noah and Jonah, with her husband Marc. They love to travel and look forward to planning their next visit to Disney World.
Contact Us

Landing Page Form

Share our blog with others