Barney & Barney media mention - Leader's Edge: Definition of Success: Constant Recruiting
Feb 2, 2010
by Rob Lieblein, Leader's Edge What a season we’re about to have! You’ve gone through spring training, and you’re ready to field the team. But if you’re in the front office, you can’t just be focused on the next home stand, or even this season’s 81 home games. There’s also the competitive landscape, player development, budget expectations—things with a strategic, long-term element. One of the biggest challenges, in agency and brokerage work as in the ballpark, is figuring out whom to put on the field. Even if the rest of your plans are solid, you’ve built a culture of empowerment and you’re focused on leadership improvement, the firm must have a bench full of players who can step up to the plate and produce everyday and a bullpen with a few aces who will win the tough games. It comes back to the basis of this industry: on both sides of the insurance equation, it’s all about people. One survey estimated that bad hiring decisions are responsible for 75% of all business failures and overall losses of hundreds of billions each year. But if bad hires cost you business, good hires have the opposite effect. Brokerages with lower turnover have consistently higher customer approval ratings. A pro sports manager rarely fields a winning team by simply replacing players who get injured, retire or switch to another team. But in many business situations, such "reactive hiring" is the norm. That’s true for many brokerages, and it’s a dangerous way to run the business. The worst time to start your recruiting process is when you need someone. Recruiting has to be a key business strategy, one that is ongoing and proactive. It’s really no different than prospecting for new clients. You don’t just wake up one day and say, "Well, time to go find a new client." The most successful firms are constantly scouting new talent. In fact, insurance industry research has shown that a high-growth agency typically has such an ongoing recruitment strategy, with one-third of all producers hired within the last three years. Where do you find talent? Most would say from a carrier or a competitor. While the traditional pipelines have been efficient, there are good reasons to think about new strategies. Today an employment agreement rarely exists without a non-solicitation agreement, so luring your new hire away from a competitor could be ludicrous rather than lucrative. You pay a high salary for experience and get a person with a Rolodex they can’t use. Not a good return on investment. Hiring from a carrier has its own risks. You may get a person who was not the top of their class or who is not well trained. Or you get someone who simply knows one way of doing business, so the re-training curve is high. Candidly, most brokerage owners place too much emphasis on looking for industry experience. Personally, I love the model of Barney and Barney, a firm that primarily hires people straight out of college. Yes, there is a learning curve, but you get a person who’s brand new to the business, with no bad habits or traits. Many great baseball teams are built not on the talents of one high-priced free agent, but on the collective skills of home-grown talents who have been nurtured in the minor league system while they learned... Follow link for full article: http://www.leadersedgemagazine.com/managementseries/Recruitment-Hiring_3.htmThe most successful firms constantly scout new talent, making it an ongoing strategy.
Proactive Scouting.
In Search of Excellence
