Increase Insurance Agency Productivity

One of the primary factors influencing any agency’s bottom line is employee productivity. It means better results from the same amount of work. It means making more sales, closing more deals, and earning higher profits without hiring another worker. So how can you increase insurance agency productivity? Here are four proven strategies.

1. Make employee training a priority.

Letting a new hire spend his first week in training might seem like a waste of time. He could be out there making sales and serving clients. But a 2013 study published in the International Journal of Science and Research found that training improves employee efficiency and productivity. This is true for both entry-level workers and more experienced employees. When your staff is well-trained, your agency should see less wasting of time, money and resources. So the time and money you invest in employee training is well-spent. (Hint: The producer training program in Broker Briefcase can help!)

2. Manage less for better results.

When managers hover–micromanaging how their employees spend their time and perform their duties, productivity suffers. But when your team feels like they are free to make their own choices about time-management and strategies, they feel accountable. This autonomy leads workers to feel happier and to be more productive.

3. Give your team convenient access to content.

Insurance agencies have to keep track of so many pieces of content. Data, sales and marketing collateral, content for clients: the list goes on. And because your producers are mobile, making sales calls and client meetings for a good portion of their day, they need to be able to access all that content from anywhere. The problem is, this content is typically distributed across multiple silos, or “stovepipes.” This is what we call unintegrated content management systems, like Windows File Shares, Microsoft SharePoint, and the like.

The effect of all this content stovepiping is disorganization and wasted time. It makes management of the information more complex, and data analysis harder. In fact, a survey conducted by the McKinsey Global Institute found that the typical knowledge worker spends 1.76 hours a day searching for and accessing information. That’s close to 20% of the workday! Would you rather your employees spend their time making money?

4. Integrations with quality systems.

The answer, of course, is integrating your content management. Fortunately, Zywave partners have access to the best insurance agency management system software in the industry. If you use Broker Briefcase, all of your sales and marketing content is available in one place.