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Overcoming hiring challenges in the insurance industry

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.

Highlight what makes you stand out from other employers

The labor market is very competitive. Candidates are not settling, and it's more important than ever to recruit like you sell.

When you post jobs, we recommend highlighting:

  • Growth opportunities
  • Your agency's values and culture
The insurance industry offers something many others can't: stability, purpose, and long-term career opportunities. People will always need protection for themselves, their family, their property, and any financial risks they take. You should explicitly communicate this story to candidates.

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:

  • Post a passive job even when they're not actively hiring to build a pipeline of candidates that they can leverage the next time they need to hire.
    • A passive job is posted as a "future opportunity" that is only visible on your careers page.
  • Tap their network by including their careers page URL wherever they do business: in their email signatures, in their social media bios, on their business cards, and on their insurance agency's microsite.
    • To find your careers page URL, click the Careers Page button on your Dashboard, then highlight and copy your careers page URL.
  • Share their jobs to custom sources where CareerPlug doesn't, such as local college and industry-specific job boards.
  • Post regularly on social media — and not only when they have a new job opening.
    • 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.
    • Posting regularly on social media helps build your employer brand. Candidates want to know who you are and what it's like to work for you.
    • Applicants from custom sources — like local and industry-specific job boards and social media — are 14x more likely to be hired.
  • Source candidates on LinkedIn by connecting directly with local professionals or joining local groups.
  • Email current employees to solicit referrals, and offer a referral bonus as an incentive for employees who help recruit candidates.
  • Contact local insurance licensing programs and ask if they can share the agent's open positions on their bulletin board or email listserv, if they have one.

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.