Transcript Slide 1

The Five Major Hiring Mistakes
Only Hire the Best
Community Webinars
www.insurancecommunitycenter.com
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Presents Monthly Webinars Free to
Community Members
Community webinars are archived on the
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George Nordhaus
Chairman, Insurance Hiring System
Sue Nordhaus
President, Insurance Hiring System
Today’s Presenters
Insurance Hiring Systems
www.agenciesonline.biz
888 985 3331 X 210
Cost of a Bad Hire
Wasted time in the hiring process
Money spent on the new hire/termination
Lost Business
Staff Alienation
Today’s Presenters
Insurance Hiring Systems
www.agenciesonline.biz
888 985 3331 X 210
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Most hiring and promotion decisions are
made in haste—during the first 5 minutes of
an interview
The economy is having an effect on hiring,
and on turnover, but..
80% of employee turnover is avoidable
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Hiring the “wrong” person for the “wrong” job
can be a financial disaster.
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Many employees do not have all the skills and
attributes to do their jobs well
Other vital factors need to be
determined before successful
hires can be made
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Understanding the financial (and other)
effects of establishing more proficient hiring
practices will provide you more reasons to
spend time and effort on this vital growth
subject.
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The Gallup Organization places the cost of a
bad hire as being 3.2 times the individual’s
salary.
Agency management consultants tell us bad
hiring decisions that result in turnover cost
the employer up to twice the person’s annual
salary—for example a salary of $50,000 but
cost of failed hire is up to $100,000.
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Consultant Chris Burand says it
costs a minimum of $200,000 to
develop a producer.
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Avoid frequent turnover?
Save money, time and aggravation?
You learn to be more savvy
when hiring your next
employee…and stop making….
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The five major hiring mistakes…
1. Not identifying needs
2. Not understanding the “Hiring Triangle”
3. Not getting ALL the pertinent information
4. Not conducting a productive interview
5. Not measuring against specific “Job Match
Patterns.”
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Failure to understand the concept of the
Hiring Triangle
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What do we need to accomplish?
Exactly what positions are we trying to fill to
accomplish those goals?
What do we need in terms of skill, character
and competency?
Objective standards they need to meet
What education should they have
How about prior work experience
Technology skills
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Unless we understand the functions e want
the potential hiree to perform (and agree on
them with the candidate) the long-term
probability of a successful hire is at stake.
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Here, for instance are the fourteen job
functions in agencies…
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Agency Principal
Benefits Account Manager
Benefits Producer
Bookkeeper/Financial
Claims Manager
Commercial Account
Manager
Commercial Lines Producer
Information Systems
Mangers
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Marketing Manager
Operations Manager
Personal Lines Account
Manager
Personal Lines Producer
Quality Manager
Receptionist
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Prequalifies new business
Educates clients about coverage,
exclusions & exposures
Helps clients make appropriate
coverage changes
Makes each contact a marketing
opportunity
Decides whether to use immediate or
delayed invoicing
Provides producers with technical
support (to help clients and agencies)
Follows up t ensure timely response
Explains audit procedures to clients
and reviews interim reports
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Provides binders, certificates,
policies, etc. for clients
Explains audit procedures
Seeks referrals from client base
Summarizes schedules/proposals
Remarkets, contacts clients and
follows up with producers
Renews policies
Verifies accuracy of direct billed
cancellations
Follows agency credit and collection
policies
Review's walk in payments
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Hirers primarily use resumes only to screen out
non-qualifying candidates.
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But resumes, if used and understood properly,
can play a major part in the hiring process
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Employment apps not standardized, have little
probing questions…so..
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We are not getting all the information we truly
need
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 Believe it or not, lying on resumes
is on the rise. Over 60% of H.R.
professionals say they find
inaccuracies on resumes.
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What do applicants lie about?
 Education
 Number of years they have worked on a job
 Accomplishments such as taking credit for that
they did not do
 Reasons for leaving the previous job
 Salary at previous jobs
 References
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There are a variety of outside services
(Google “Background checks’…51 million
entries) that will help you verify the resume’s
authenticity:
 Comprehensive Background Check
 Education Verification
 Criminal, Civil and Sex Offenses
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 Employment Verification
 Reference Check
 Professional licenses and certification checks
▪ It is very easy to simply put initials after your name.
▪ Many accreditations, such as CIC, require the individual
meet the accreditation requirement on an annual basis.
Has the candidate kept current with
the requirement?
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 Infatuation
 Blindly promoting from within
 Recommendation from a friend
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Three basic tips of interviewing..
1. Hold the interview in a quiet, private area and
schedule plenty of time
2. Put the applicant at ease by being friendly and
conversational
3. Let the candidate talk, but control the question
and answer flow—You learn a lot more by
listening then talking
Profiles International, Waco, TX.
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Group interviews are useful because a big
part of cultural fit is whether or not the group
actually accepts the person.
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So bring people from different parts of your
organization to the interview.
INC. Magazine
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Five interview questions you should ask:
1. If you stayed with your current employer,
what would have been your next move?
2. What makes you stand out from others in
your business?
3. Tell me your greatest accomplishment.
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4. Give me an example when you took the time to
share a co-worker’s achievement
5. Will you agree to take our assessment tests so that
we can jointly determine whether you fit the
specific job qualifications?
NOTE: Make sure that all people conducting
interviews use these same questions and document
their answers in their employment file.
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 Create a list of these and
have everyone who is
involved in hiring use
it…always!
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Age or date of birth
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Unless you can prove that the applicant needs to be
a certain age to qualify (such as for licensing or
driving a car), don’t ask
Gender
 The only place this applies is for rest room attendants
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Language Spoken
 Use caution. You may require effective
communication, but you may not eliminate a
candidate due to a slight accent
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Number of children, child care
arrangements, marital status:
 This is confidential information
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Club memberships:
 Don’t ask, this can reveal religious affiliation or
ethnic background
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Emergency Information:
 Wait until the person is hired to ask for this
information
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 Not measuring applicant’s abilities
against people successful in that
position.
Need to know learning style, verbal
and numerical ability.
Need to know behavioral traits such as
attitude, social ability and energy
level.
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1. Utilizing the hiring triangle
2. Defining expectations
3. Getting the right information
4. A productive interview
5. Job-matching
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Laurie Infantino
 [email protected]
 714 803 5830
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Marjorie Segale
 [email protected]
 714 206 9583
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For Information about Insurance Hiring
System
 Sue Nordhaus
 [email protected] 505 6o3 5503
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 Insuring Winery’s
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