At CareerPlug, we know finding qualified insurance salespeople and licensed candidates can be difficult. If you're an insurance agent, you likely know that the unemployment rate in the insurance industry is lower than the overall average for the country.
If you're struggling to find qualified insurance candidates, we recommend engaging in proactive hiring and looking beyond what's on a candidate's resume to discover emerging talent. These recommendations may take you outside of your comfort zone, but they lead to big benefits.
Engage in proactive hiring
Proactive hiring means doing more than posting jobs on CareerPlug and waiting for job seekers to apply. When unemployment is low, employers who make the extra effort to find candidates will be the most successful at hiring.
Here are some ways other insurance agents have been proactive in their hiring process:
- Link their careers page URL in their email signature and on business cards.
- To find your careers page URL, go to your CareerPlug Dashboard, click the Careers Page button, and copy the URL. Now you can spread your careers page link far and wide!
- Add their careers page URL to their insurance agency's microsite.
- Post regularly on social media — and not only when they have a new job opening.
- Posting regularly on social media helps build your employer brand. The most successful insurance agents maintain a strong online presence. Agents who regularly update their social media with photos and company events tend to attract better-quality candidates.
- Source candidates on LinkedIn by connecting directly with local professionals or joining local groups.
- Email current employees for referrals and consider offering a referral bonus as an incentive for employees who help recruit candidates.
- Contact local insurance licensing training programs and ask if they can share any open positions on their bulletin board or email listserv if they have one.
- Share your jobs to external sources, such as local college/university job boards, chambers of commerce, or local job boards.
In addition, successful insurance agents don’t assume they’re in the clear after they hire a new employee. Many keep a job posting open to collect applicants for future hiring needs. We recommend always having a job posting with a status of ‘Accepting for Future Openings.’ A passive job won’t be posted on job boards like Indeed but will appear on your careers page so that job seekers know you're accepting applications for a potential future opening.
Look beyond the resume for emerging talent
We know that insurance agents often seek other licensed and experienced agents. However, because the unemployment rate is so low in the industry right now, there simply may not be any unemployed and licensed candidates in your area. If you are having trouble finding a licensed candidate, consider looking beyond the resume for emerging talent.
When we say look beyond the resume, we mean look beyond an applicant’s experience. Maybe a candidate doesn’t have the specific experience you’re looking for, but they do have raw talent and exhibit the right behaviors for the role. Some of the most successful agents have hired individuals with unexpected backgrounds — like servers or delivery workers — who have gone on to become their best salespeople.
At CareerPlug, we encourage hiring for growth potential. For example, consider a candidate who has sales experience, but not in the insurance agency. Or, consider someone who knows about insurance and has sales potential, but who isn’t currently an insurance sales agent.