New to Insurance? Here’s Three Reasons Why You Should Stay the Course

This post is part of a series sponsored by AgentSync.

New to Insurance? Here’s Three Reasons Why You Should Stay the Course

Ask any insurance industry veteran and they’ll tell you it’s a career worth having. Whether they own an independent agency, work as a producer for a larger brokerage, manage and service accounts, process claims, or any of the dozens of career paths within the insurance industry, most agree this tight-knit field makes a good professional “home” for those who land in it.

Of course, like any field, there will be ups and downs. It can be discouraging at the start to feel like a tiny fish in a huge pond who isn’t getting their share of the algae flakes. Let’s just assume for a minute you actually want algae flakes. You’re a fish – just go with it.

Despite its excellent reputation with long-timers, the insurance industry is notorious for having a high turnover rate. As many as 30 percent of new producers quit within a few months and a full 83 percent of producers resign within three years, according to a 2019 article from Property Casualty 360. And those stats are from pre-pandemic times! We can only imagine how high the turnover is in 2021 with the “Great Resignation” in full swing.

Why does insurance have such high turnover?

If it’s such a great industry to work in, why is the turnover so high? The primary documented reasons include:

• Inadequate onboarding
• Lack of diversity in the workforce
• Slow technological adoption

Combined, they boil down to a less-than-stellar employee experience, particularly for young, new, or inexperienced producers.

If you are in fact a young, new, or inexperienced producer, don’t run to put in your resignation just yet! Each of these factors can be addressed by an insurance agency if they truly prioritize fixing them. The good news is that many agencies are doing just that!

What makes insurance a great career?

People with lifelong careers in insurance rave about it while new agents and producers quickly flee. So where’s the disconnect? Much of the answer comes with time and experience, but that’s time and experience the next generation of insurance industry professionals rarely see.

New producers may be lured into the industry with promises of flexible hours and unlimited earning potential, but soon realize there’s a steep learning curve to become a licensed agent and many rejections along the way to growing a successful book of business.

Realistically then, why should you stay the course and invest in a long-term insurance career? Here are the top three reasons we believe it’s worth the effort.

Insurance really is about helping people

Insurance is an industry that most people love to hate. Most of us have had at least one experience where we didn’t get a claim paid exactly how we would have liked, or as quickly as we wanted.

While it’s true there is a large potential for wrongdoing, the fact is the industry is highly regulated for the sake of protecting consumers. There are over a dozen reasons why a producer can lose their insurance license and be basically booted from the industry. And most of them involve unethical actions like lying, misrepresenting, or omitting facts during the course of selling an insurance policy.

Thanks to the strict regulations, and the high standards placed on many producers who act in a fiduciary capacity for their clients, most insurance professionals really do help people and have something to feel good about at the end of the day. After all, what could feel better than knowing your client will be alright if a disaster strikes because you’ve sold them a solid policy? Or being there with your client in their worst times with the ability to help them recover?

Insurance is recession-proof

There are only a few things that are certain in this world. Death, taxes, and, as it turns out, insurance! The modern world runs on insurance and no person or business can get along in society without at least a couple of policies.

This is why you’ll often hear the insurance industry referred to as “recession-proof.” It’s not that it never has its own ups and downs, for example hardening and softening insurance markets can make things easier or harder for those in the industry as well as for consumers. But all in all, while luxury cars may go out of style during deep economic downturns, and cruises may suffer tremendously during a global pandemic, the insurance industry is so integral to the everyday running of the world that it simply can’t stop churning.

The stability of the industry makes it an attractive option, and one of the key points industry vets point to when they recommend it as a career. Still, it can be hard for new and/or young people entering the field to appreciate that long-term perspective when there are still challenges in their day-to-day experience.

Which brings us to…

The insurance industry is catching up with modern technology

The age of insurance technology, or insurtech, is upon us. Over the past few years, the growth of software and technology specifically built to serve the insurance industry has seen astronomical growth with no signs of slowing. In 2021, the investment in, and growth of, insurance technology has hit an all-time record with $2.55 billion in the first quarter alone.

The pace of growth is breakneck, but much needed. For decades, the insurance industry lagged behind others in terms of technological advancement and automation. This is great news for a younger generation of insurance professionals who are digital natives and expect to work in tech-forward environments.

At long last, insurance companies and agencies alike are addressing their talent crisis by modernizing the employee experience. With millennials fully infiltrating the workforce (keep in mind, the youngest ones are already 25 years old!) the industry has unprecedented demand from its potential labor pool to step up its technology game.

And a modern experience matters. Not just for the new producers learning how to sell, but equally – or perhaps more so – during the process of recruiting and onboarding the next generation of talent.

If you’re an agency owner, or in a leadership role, we hope you’re noticing a trend. The insurance industry has been an exceptional place to call home for several generations, but there’s a lot of work to be done to keep that legacy alive.

And if you’re a young professional just getting started in the industry, or even just considering it, we hope you see the promise and potential for it to serve you well in your future career, even if you still feel like the small fish in a very large pond. The agencies of the future are actively working to create an exceptional experience, provide onboarding and training opportunities to help you succeed, and invest in technology that makes your job easier.

You might still be a small fish, but we know you’ll get that algae if you just keep swimming! Learn how AgentSync can help you scale your team.