{"id":18433,"date":"2020-05-20T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-20T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/Life-Insurance-Blog\/agent-hiring-pushing-on-despite-global-pandemic\/"},"modified":"2020-05-20T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-20T05:00:00","slug":"agent-hiring-pushing-on-despite-global-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2020\/05\/20\/agent-hiring-pushing-on-despite-global-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Agent hiring pushing on despite global pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As people\u2019s demand for life and health insurance products has increased<\/a>, agency-building companies aren\u2019t letting the COVID-19 pandemic hamper their recruitment efforts, according to a new poll from LIMRA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The poll, which covers both U.S. and Canadian companies, included questions regarding agency recruitment efforts during the COVID-19 crisis, the challenges they\u2019ve encountered, and the strategies they\u2019ve adopted.<\/p>\n

According to Margaret Honan, assistant research director at LIMRA, companies on both sides of the border submitted nearly identical responses to all questions.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth countries said that they\u2019re recruiting as they\u2019ve always done except in recent weeks it\u2019s being done virtually<\/a>,\u201d Honan told Life and Health Professional.<\/p>\n

Most companies are engaging with candidates through virtual platforms such as Zoom in light of social-distancing guidelines. Training and sourcing of candidates, the poll revealed, is happening through both traditional methods, such as Zip Recruiter and LinkedIn, as well as new means including virtual conferencing, telephone interviews, and virtual classrooms.<\/p>\n

Frequent check-ins, virtual meetings, and phone calls have become part of an established process to keep candidates involved in lieu of face-to-face meetings, according to the poll. Many companies are also eyeing increased use of digital signatures for submissions of business.<\/p>\n

And while some states have allowed for temporary licenses, the closure of testing centers for new recruits is a challenge. \u201cBecause of licensing centres being closed, [companies are] getting candidates to study for their exams so they\u2019ll be ready once centres open up,\u201d Honan said. To sidestep the hurdle of licensing, she said some companies are focusing more on advisors from other firms rather than \u201cfresh-peas\u201d inexperienced ones.<\/p>\n

But in spite of difficulties in getting newer agents licensed, nearly two thirds of companies (65%) said they are choosing not to focus their efforts on acquiring more experienced agents. Companies have also seen an increase in interested candidates as unemployment has gone up, Honan said.<\/p>\n

Hiring new, inexperienced advisors has some benefits, she added. Greenhorns are easier to orient with respect to a company\u2019s \u2018culture\u2019 and ways of doing business, compared to veterans who may already have set ways to do things.<\/p>\n

\u201cNew hires require more hand-holding, sometimes joint work, mentoring, but if the selection process is good, firms will find the right candidate for their system,\u201d Honan said.<\/p>\n

Read the original article at https:\/\/www.lifehealthpro.ca\/rss\/ <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As people\u2019s demand for life and health insurance products has increased, agency-building companies aren\u2019t letting the COVID-19 pandemic hamper their recruitment efforts, according to a new poll from LIMRA. The poll, which covers both...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18433"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18433\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}