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Boost employee retention in your insurance agency with wellness, flexibility, and communication strategies. Save money and improve loyalty.

You may be the sole producer at your insurance agency, or you may be one of a team, but either way, if you have employees who support you in your sales, you know how hard it is to find good staff. You likely recognize that getting staff trained and fully functional in your workplace environment is a long and expensive process. Every time a staff member leaves, your insurance agency loses money, and many work hours are devoted to finding a replacement. 

Improving employee retention can help your insurance agency save money and enhance productivity. From focusing on employee wellness to communicating with staff and training them properly, there are many things you can do to improve employee retention. Setting your employees up for success will encourage them to be more loyal to you and your business. They'll enjoy work more and want to leave less. Below are some essential details to know as you staff your insurance agency. 

Focus on Wellness 

Whether those efforts are performed through a wellness committee or wellness-related policies, workplace wellness efforts help create a healthy work environment. Studies show that organizations with effective wellness programs have lower turnover rates than those without. In addition, companies that have invested in wellness committees usually enjoy higher productivity rates, more innovation, and better overall performance. 

Creating a full wellness committee may sound unrealistic if you have a small insurance agency - and many insurance agencies are quite small. However, your agency can still offer the benefits of a wellness committee, even without the committee itself. Here are some small things you can do to promote wellness among staff:

• Offer a generous policy of paid time off
• Keep healthy snacks in the agency break room
• Offer a gym membership or gym membership discount for staff
• Take walking meetings to discuss company issues
• Have friendly exercise competitions between staff members
• Provide information about wellness in the break room

Re-assess your wellness efforts periodically to ensure that you're meeting the needs of staff. You may even ask staff what wellness policies they would benefit from to ensure that your wellness policies are making positive changes around the office. 

Allow for Flexible Schedules

People value work-life balance, and one of the ways that employers can help workers achieve that balance is by being flexible about when and where work happens. Workplace flexibility is vital to many people in the workforce. Online research shows that remote jobs receive seven times more applications than in-person jobs. Job-seekers also report that workplace flexibility is one of the most important variables they consider when deciding whether to apply for a job. Around 80% of workers said they would be loyal to their employer if their employer offered a flexible working arrangement. 

What does it mean to be flexible? Some suggestions:

• Allow for remote work opportunities or hybrid opportunities
• Consider allowing staff to work staggered hours (some work 7 to 4, some work 9 to 6, etc.)
• Allow your team to work four days per week, 10 hours per day

Check In With Employees Regularly

The only way to know if your staff are unhappy in their positions or need more tools to do their job well is by checking in with them regularly. You may have informal check-ins daily, but this is no substitute for more formal check-ins, wherein you discuss job performance, successes in the office, and what can be done differently.

This kind of communication is key to cultivating job satisfaction. The more you communicate this way, the more accessible future communications will get. 

• Put regular check-ins on the schedule
• Have an agenda for your check-ins
• Discuss expectations and goals during check-ins
• Encourage your staff to ask questions and have feedback prepared to facilitate two-way communication

Say Thank You

Your staff needs to know that they're appreciated. Take time to recognize when your team is doing a good job, and tell them "thank you" when warranted. When you give praise or feedback, be specific in your feedback so staff will know that you're not delivering empty praise. Being clear in your praise will also make the behavior repeatable because they'll know when they're doing the work right. 

Build a Healthy Business Where Staff Want to Work

Staff like working for successful businesses. Join an insurance cluster that offers networking opportunities and a variety of large carriers. The more carriers you're affiliated with and the more insurance products you have to offer, the better off your business will be. Work with Volidco to find out more about Voldico's cluster. Contact us today.