I recently came across a fantastic article by our friends at Nationwide® discussing onboarding. Thanks to our annual Broker Services Survey, we know that new producer onboarding/training is among the top three concerns for brokers. This article lays out 7 great tips and I wanted to highlight three of those for you today:

Tip #3: Assign a mentor.

Wow. This is important. Here at Zywave it’s the first thing we do when onboarding a new account executive. It has proven to be an invaluable way for new employees to be immersed in our culture right away. Think about it: when you are in a new environment or a new situation and have questions, who do you turn to? Most of us would turn to a friend or peer first. It’s about comfort. Get your producers comfortable as fast as possible.

Tip #6: Go by the book, or write one.

You need an employee handbook. Simple as that. As brokers you preach this to your clients, so there is no reason why you shouldn’t have one too. Practice what you preach.

Tip# 7: Recognize excellence

A couple of years ago we learned that at Zywave some of our major players on teams throughout the company felt they weren’t getting the recognition they deserved. They were right. So many amazing things were happening there simply wasn’t a way to know all of them! That’s why we started a peer recognition program called “Kudos”. It allows peers to send a “Kudos” to team members who they wanted to recognize for being awesome. At the end of the month, receiver and sender are entered to win great prizes. This of course is just an example of how we do it, but it is even more critical to have a system of some sort set up right away to recognize milestones as well with new hires.

Thanks for writing this Nationwide. Read the full article. It’s a great way to get some tips, and hey, it’s short! Comment below if you have any other questions and feel free to explore and contact us about how Broker Briefcase Benefits, Broker Briefcase P&C or PL Suite can help with onboarding and training new producers.