February 2023 Louisiana Agent Newsletter

LOUISIANAAGENT

IIABL STAFF

JEFF ALBRIGHT

Chief Executive Officer

jalbright@iiabl.com

(225) 236-1366

BENJAMIN ALBRIGHT

Vice-President of Strategic Initiatives balbright@iiabl.com

(225) 236-1357

KAREN KUYLEN

Director of Accounting & Finance

kkuylen@iiabl com

(225) 236-1353

JAMIE NEWCHURCH

Director of Insurance Programs

jnewchurch@iiabl.com

(225) 236-1350

KATHLEEN O'REGAN

Director of Communications & Events

koregan@iiabl.com

(225) 236-1360

BRANDI VAN PELT

Insurance Programs Administrator

bvanpelt@iiabl.com

(225) 236-1358

DUSTIN WAMBSGANS

Agency Consultant

dwambsgans@iiabl.com

(225) 236-1361

LISA YOUNG-CROOKS

Director of Member Relations

lyoung@iiabl.com

(225) 236-1351

Connect With Our IMS Partner, Attune! Coterie Insurance Claims Experience: Building Loyalty Through Empathy & Transparency

Become An IMS Subproducer

4 Terms To Avoid When Advertising Your Insurance Agency

Maintaining An Inclusive, Accessible Social Media Strategy

How Companies Can Find Their Authentic Voice Amid Crisis

Hiring: Overcoming The No. 1 Issue Facing Independent Agencies

What's The First Step Towards Achieving Goals? Setting Them.

Annual Convention

Upcoming Events

Continuing Education Offerings

Advertiser Index

2023 Industry Partners

IIABL Officers & Board of Directors

UPC In ReceivershipInsolvency Coming

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has filed with the Florida court to place United Property & Casualty Insurance Co. into receivership after higherthan-expected losses from Hurricane Ian helped push the insurer into insolvency.

The company revised claims estimates from last year's Hurricane Ian, exhausting their reinsurance and capital. The resulting financial impairment means that UPC does not have enough capital to complete the orderly run-off that they planned for their Louisiana policies through the end of May.

Jeff Albright

February 2023

The Florida department (who is responsible for monitoring UPC's solvency because it is a Florida-based company) has filed with the courts to begin the receivership process. We expect that request to be approved in the coming week or so.

INSOLVENCYCOMING

Once approved, UPC will send 30-day notice of cancellation on all of their remaining business. The exact date of this cancellation will depend on when the Florida courts approve the receivership orders but is expected in the next week or two.

In a February 10th filing with the federal U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, parent company United Insurance Holdings Corp. said UPC was expected to be placed into receivership because of insolvency.

“United was deemed insolvent on February 6, 2023, because if all of the assets of United, if made immediately available, would be insufficient to discharge all of the liabilities of United. … [The OIR] has determined that United is operating in an unsound condition that is hazardous to policyholders, creditors, stockholders and the public,” according to Virginia Christy, director of the office’s Property & Casualty Financial Oversight unit

Continued from page 6

Agents should prepare to move their entire UPC book of business over the next month.

IIABL will continue to keep members informed as we learn more about this developing situation.

RARE OPPORTUNITY TO REFORM LOUISIANA INSURANCE MARKET

The current Louisiana property insurance market crisis presents a rare opportunity for the Louisiana Legislature to fundamentally reform the Louisiana insurance market.

When people get desperate they are willing to think about things differently and make changes they have long resisted. A historical example is the creation of LWCC as the Worker’s Compensation market of last resort in 1991, which turned the disastrous WC market of the 1980’s into the most competitive line of insurance in Louisiana today.

Jeff Albright February 2023

The Louisiana Legislature has a long history of trying to regulate the insurance industry into submission. That strategy has failed miserably. Insurers find the Louisiana tort, legislative and regulatory environments hostile, and as a result many insurers will not write insurance in our state. Rather than “protecting consumers,” overregulation has left Louisiana policyholders with a crisis of both availability and affordability of insurance.

The current property insurance crisis has caused some legislators to ask what can be done to bring insurance companies back to Louisiana.

IIABL has been working with the insurance industry to develop important legislation to fundamentally improve the Louisiana insurance market environment. Legislators have taken note of our work. The Louisiana Conservative Caucus issued a press release stating in part:

“Florida has already enacted and benefited from some of the policy changes suggested by the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of Louisiana (IIABL). To increase competition in the insurance market and deliver meaningful rate changes, we need policy reforms instead of handouts. The following is what IIABL recommends to permanently address this problem:

1) Reduce the unnecessary or redundant bureaucracy and excessive regulatory burdens that prevent insurers from effectively managing their business in Louisiana.

2) Reform our bad faith statute and provide a dear standard of how insurers pay property claims. This can be done to protect both citizens and the insurance companies by having a reasonable process for resolving disputes on the value of claims.

3) Add more flexibility to our insurance rating laws.”

Some legislators are considering radical changes to our insurance laws.

But these kinds of changes will not come easy.

Will you do your part?

YOU are the local insurance expert back home in your legislators district.

YOU must be the voice of change educating your legislators.

Back in the 90’s road maps were the essential tool used to travel to a destination when driving a vehicle. Nowadays, many electronic devices and apps are used to get you to your destination. Same is true in sales. While the art of the process remains the same, technology has improved the process.

Does your sales process look the same across your agency? While we know insurance sales is about relationship management there are key steps to take in today’s technology world to uniform your sales process. After all I’ve never played a team sport without some sort of game plan or playbook. Some playbooks were thicker than others but nevertheless we had a plan. Here are 4 key steps to take to sell in today’s marketplace.

Website

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Your company, your team and finally YOU are instantly making an impression when consumers visit your website. What kind of impression do you want it to be? Do you come

across as an organized, intelligent, positive and professional agency? Does the first impression you give reflect the values and vision of the agency?

Social Selling

You should aim to do 1 post per day, every day. Doing 1 thing daily is powerful, as it allows you to stay in front of your network DAILY. This generates interest and keeps you “top of mind”. You will also build momentum over time. Doing 1 post a day will also create a habit, so help yourself by blocking out an identical time every day in your calendar. If you want to get more clients and make more money, there is no “magic pill”. You must execute power activities every single day. Power activities are behaviors that “ move the needle” of your business, not maintenance tasks (checking email, client communication, support, scrolling through social media, or cleaning your desk). These are moves that build your network and generate interest, meetings, and clients. Executing power activities is a marathon, not a sprint...therefore it is vital to make time every day to accomplish them. Align your Google or Outlook Calendar. Set up

Dustin Wambsgans IIABL Agency Consultant

SALESPROCESS

your Facebook and LinkedIn Profile for success and execute Facebook and LinkedIn power activities. Begin by blocking out 1-2 hours every day on your calendar. Try to make it an identical time period each day, in an effort to build a habit.

Facebook & LinkedIn Power Activities: Posting Content to Your Network

To adequately reach your networks, you want to have consistent content that your prospects find appealing and balanced. Professional posts include things such as client success stories and testimonials. Your opinions of your niche market (the problems they face, the future of the market). Different or unique ways of doing things. Links to useful articles or videos that someone else produced. Links to useful articles or videos that you produced. Talk about hot topics, include links to your blog and

Continued from page 12

Video Messaging

This can be done from your phone. You can delete and try again as many times as you want, to make it look and sound perfect. This also gives you highvalue repetition practicing your positioning statements. Video messages are more personable and is a great way to grab attention and differentiate yourself from the competition. This generates interest and keeps you “top of mind”. You will also build momentum over time.

Dustin Wambsgans is a results-driven agency consultant successful in sales management, competitive analysis, and operational management. he capitalizes on new trends and technologies to boost business initiatives and reach sales objectives. For a 1-Hour Free Consulting Session click HERE. To contact Dustin for more information and to request a customized proposal for consulting services, click HERE.

Consumers planned to spend close to $26 billion this Valentine's Day, which is up from last year's $23.9 billion, according to the National Retail Federation®. It's no secret that gifting jewelry is an extremely popular way one can celebrate this special occasion.

Now is a good time to have conversations with your clients about whether they need coverage for any new gifts.

Whether they celebrated with a romantic candlelit dinner or a cozy night at home, your clients deserve to enjoy their Valentine's Day gifts worry free. That means insuring with Jewelers Mutual® Group, available through Big “I" Markets.

P R O T E C T T H O S E V A L E N T I N E ' S D A Y G I F T S

Did you know:

Offering a dedicated jewelry policy means your homeowners policies are not adversely affected by a jewelry claim, providing more protection for your clients and for your business.

Jewelers Mutual offers broader coverage than what may be available on a homeowners, renters or condo policy, competitive rates and less coverage restrictions.

An additional household policy improves retention on your core book of business.

Learn how to log in and register to provide your clients with a jewelry insurance quote via Big "I" Markets here. Questions? Contact the Big "I" Markets team.

W O R K E R B U R N O U TW O R S E T H A N A T T H E P E A K O F T H E P A N D E M I C

Workers of the world are more exhausted than ever.

More than 40% of people with desk jobs feel burned out at work, a pandemic-era high, according to a survey released Wednesday by Future Forum, a research consortium backed by Salesforce Inc.’s Slack Technologies. The pain is particularly acute outside the US, where the burnout rate has been rising enough to offset slight improvements seen by American workers.

Economic uncertainty, fear of job cuts and rising pressure to return to in-office work have added to workplace malaise, Future Forum researchers said. Women and younger workers, in particular, reported struggling with burnout.

Regional pressures are also getting people down. In the UK, strikes have crippled the country as publicsector unions protest what they see as paltry pay increases. Japan’s government has asked firms there to help workers cope with the highest inflation since 1981. French citizens have taken to the streets to protest the government’s plan to raise the retirement age to 64 from 62, which could result in some concessions around working from home, a government spokesman said earlier this week.

In the US, layoffs are mounting and return-to-office policies are shifting from being recommended to required. However, workers there seem to feel slightly happier than their international

WORKERBURNOUT

counterparts. Only 41% of people surveyed in the US said they felt burned out at the end of last year, just shy of the 42% global rate and a modest improvement from earlier in 2022.

The Future Forum survey conducted quarterly in the US, UK, Japan, Australia, Germany and France has found that pandemic-era workers with more freedom to choose where and when they work are usually more satisfied, productive and less likely to quit. In the latest poll, conducted late last year, more than half of those who said they were dissatisfied with their level of flexibility also said they were burned out. Employees with immovable work schedules are more than twice as likely to say they’ll “definitely” look for a new job over the next year.

“All the benefits of flexibility are about how you give people focused time, rather than sweating how many days of week they are in,” said Brian Elliott, a Slack executive who oversees the Future Forum research. “Flexibility also improves a company’s culture, and every time I tell executives

Continued from page 16

this, it surprises them.”

It’s not just mandatory facetime that is stressing workers. Companies have thrown so much technology at employees they may be getting overwhelmed. Large employers now use an average of 211 different apps, up from 195 last year, according to a separate survey from Okta Inc., a cloud software company that tracks app usage.

A recent study, highlighted in Harvard Business Review, of 20 teams across three big employers found that workers toggled between different apps and websites 1,200 times each day, leading to a “toggling tax” that can cost workers time, productivity and peace of mind.

Copyright Bloomberg News

IndependentMarketSolutions

February2023

Since 2019, Independent Market Solutions (IMS) has proudly partnered with Attune Insurance to help your clients gain access to small business insurance. As an admitted small commercial market carrier that specializes in unique risks for IIABL members, Attune has no production requirements, an easy-to-quote platform, and opportunities to earn cash incentives.

Whether you’re already appointed with Attune or want to learn more about them, you can join Attune Business Development Manager Omar Farooqi on February 22 at 3 p.m. for a webinar highlighting their top business classes with the highest bind ratios to help you maximize your earning potential. Click here to register.

As part of the webinar, the Attune team will review their select business appetite, complete a product overview, and perform a live quote demonstration to showcase how easy it is to quote, bind and issue a policy in five minutes with no Acord forms and no loss runs required To learn more about IMS and the Attune appointment process, visit www.IIABL.com

COTERIE INSURANCE CLAIMS

EXPERIENCE: BUILDING LOYALTY THROUGH EMPATHY & TRANSPARENCY

13 Feb 2023

After a devastating loss, policyholders expect their insurance company to be there for them which is why the Coterie Insurance claims experience is built around empathy. Recently, Coterie was able to demonstrate our claims philosophy when several flooding claims came in

After parts of California experienced torrential rains in December 2022, several Coterie policyholders reported claims from flooding in an antique cooperative building in Jackson, CA. Coterie Claims Adjuster Mark Miller received a claim from a business owner in the building who told him to expect to hear from the three other business owners in the same location also insured with Coterie.

“She mentioned that the creek behind the building overflowed, with six feet of water entering the building,” Mark said. “She lost everything.”

Sure enough, Mark soon received three other claims from the additional business owners whose businesses were severely impacted, including Jennifer Fox Fritz who owns Jackpot Jen Vintage.

“It was a devastating flood and very destructive,” explained Jennifer. “I’ve never been in a natural disaster and to lose your livelihood along with 85% of your inventory is catastrophic.”

Mark jumped into action knowing that standard commercial policies do not cover flooding. Mark pursued the claims’ investigations with a strategy of full transparency. He told the policyholders that their policies do not cover flood, but Coterie was sending out a field adjuster to complete a full investigation on-site

The field adjuster looked at the building, property, creek, and surrounding area and even got up on the roof to see if it was possible that the storm had damaged the roof. There was a possibility the claim would be covered if the cause of loss was weather damage to the roof allowing rainwater to enter.

However, once the field adjuster completed a full investigation, the cause of loss was indeed flooding

Coterie

BUILDINGLOY

Mark knew he had four to explain that the claim However, he was surpri of the policyholders too been prepared for the p the experience, truly fel side.

Mark explained that Co of getting out of paying the business of trying to investigation was thoro cause of loss was not co

Understandably, many p upset considering they’d loss destroying much of Instead, because of Cote investigation and empat completely understood.

“Mark was extremely co he went to bat for me an the call of duty to get us some sort of coverage for the claim,” said Jennifer. “I am super grateful for everything Coterie did.”

So much so, that Jennifer has moved her Jackpot Jen Vintage business to higher ground and is keeping her policy with Coterie. Her agent, Kristi Roots of Kristi Roots Insurance Services, shopped her policy around, but they ultimately decided to stay with Coterie because they know what to expect.

“I would tell other small businesses that Coterie is a very trustworthy, reputable company,” Jennifer said. “Rest assured that your policy for your small business is a wise choice through Coterie.”

The Coterie Insurance claims experience supports small businesses across America as well as the agents and brokers who service these small businesses. Learn more about our claims process and resources we provide to help policyholders in the event of a claim.

Independent

Market Solutions February 2023

Independent agents need competitive insurance markets to grow and succeed. IIABL knows that the more quality markets your agency can easily access, the better your chances of writing and retaining business.

That’s why we’ve invested in Independent Market Solutions (IMS), a members-only program that lets agents quickly connect with carriers and find insurance products suitable for their clients’ needs. The IMS programs are designed to give agencies of all sizes the opportunity to gain carrier appointments as subproducers at no additional cost to the agency. Additionally, several IMS markets feature the opportunity to “graduate” to a direct appointment once specific production goals are met.

If you’re ready to join the IMS program, you must complete the IMS market access application. Before you start the application, please make sure you have access to the following:

Agency and individual agent license numbers

Agency Federal Employee ID Number (FEIN)

Agency E&O policy information

Policy count information

Premium volume information

Agency and individual agent license numbers (copies of the licenses required)

After you upload your completed application, a link to the subproducer agreement will appear in your application confirmation email. Once the application and subproducer agreement are both successfully completed, you will receive a copy of each document.

Applications must be submitted separately for agencies that have branches with separate FEINs. To learn more about IMS and how to sign up in your state, click here.

4 Terms To Avoid When Advertising Your Insurance Agency

Dana A. Gittleman, Esq. Shareholder Philadelphia Office of Marshall Dennehey

Insurance, like any industry, is a business. It is therefore inherently important to attract and maintain customers, often done by touting an agency's competence, customer service and commitment to excellence in online or print advertisements. While growing and developing a customer base is paramount, care must be taken to avoid creating a special relationship or heightened duty to advise through the use of certain terminology.

The use of certain words or phrases can suggest an insurance professional is acting as a risk advisor or fiduciary as opposed to the typical arm's-length business relationship. A fiduciary is held to a higher standard of good faith and a duty to safeguard the insured's interest, even in the absence of the insured's specific request for a particular product or coverage.

Here are four words and phrases to avoid in insurance agency advertisements to help mitigate risk in 2023:

TERMSAVOID

1) “Advisor" or “consultant." Insurance professionals procure the coverage requested by their customers. This may involve providing coverage and carrier options as well as premium amounts. However, the role of an advisor or consultant is far more onerous and advising a customer as opposed to simply taking their insurance “order" suggests a higher responsibility and the ceding of decision-making power. Such influence may be sufficient to impute a special relationship or a fiduciary duty to advise. See Yenchi v. Ameriprise Financial.

Offering management or service fee agreements or risk assessments, which go beyond the mere procurement role, can have the same effect.

2) “Experts." By definition, experts have authoritative knowledge and experience in a discipline. Establishing oneself as an “expert" in a particular area of coverage may seem advantageous, but overstating expertise can invite

Continued from page 22

reliance by an insurance customer, giving rise to a special relationship finding. See Sadler v. The Loomis Company.

3) “Guaranteed coverage." Offering guarantees is risky, no matter the circumstance. Offering guarantees of coverage when the insurance agent is not the party underwriting the risk or investigating and evaluating the claim is considered perilous and unwise.

Insurance agents and brokers procure coverage, may assist with submitting claims on their customers' behalf, and may facilitate transmittal of information from their customer to the insurance company. What insurance agents don't do is make underwriting decisions, nor do they investigate and evaluate claims. Those tasks are completed by the insurer.

Insurance professionals should avoid suggesting that their customer's risk is covered, or that

TERMSAVOID

coverage will be afforded for a loss. These statements or assurances can expose the agent or broker to liability for decisions made by a wholly separate entity.

4) “Contract." Contracts are legally enforceable agreements either oral or written. Generally, a commitment by an insurance professional to procure insurance or a commitment by an insurance customer to pay insurance premiums is not a contract. Suggesting the existence or formation of a contract between an insurance agent or broker and its insurance customer may give rise to legal duties to perform which would not otherwise be applied or expected. It is best to avoid using this term in client solicitations.

Continued from page 23

Dana A. Gittleman, Esq. is a shareholder in the Philadelphia office of Marshall Dennehey, where she focuses her practice on a variety of professional liability matters, including insurance agents and brokers liability.

When building a social channel, the first things you want to take into consideration are the makeup and needs of your audience. But in today’s social media climate, there’s also a need to ensure that your message is as inclusive and accessible as possible. We recently caught up with Destanie Morman, communications director at Vote Run Lead, to learn more about how to cultivate a social feed that’s inclusive for all. Our conversation came ahead of her panel on the subject at Ragan’s Social Media Conference at Walt Disney World in March.

Putting inclusivity into practice on social

An organization’s ability to be inclusive on social is important for a very simple reason it allows them to reach as many people as possible through its channels. While a one-size-fits-all approach is

fine for some organizations, it’s going to place some pretty significant limitations on the audiences you’re able to reach.

“It’s important to take the diversity of your audience into account. For example, some people you’re reaching out to might have hearing difficulties how can you ensure that the message is getting to them too? If you’re able to communicate with people where they are, there’s a better chance that they’ll trust your brand because you’re taking that extra step to cater to them,” Morman said.

Morman added that word choice on social media is important to consider. She stated that if you’re using words that don’t relate to your target demographic, you’ll risk losing that all-important engagement.

Sean Devlin 6 Feb 2023

SOCIALMEDIA

“It’s also really important to learn from the diversity of your audience and figure out how to apply it in other modes of communication across your organization,” Morman said. “For example, if you’re finding success with the inclusive language you’re using on social media, you might consider adapting it over to external email communication as well.”

Jumpstarting the path to inclusive social

While it’s admirable to aim for the most inclusive social feed possible, not all organizations are moving toward it at the same pace. But there are a few ways to get your organization there if you think there’s room for improvement.

“I think a great way to get started involves both looking at your audience and taking stock of what you feel you might be doing wrong in your messaging. It could involve using less dense language in your written messaging or adapting your captions to really dive into what the image shows. Additionally, you could consider the use of color and the psychology behind how it makes the viewers feel even things like this could help advance your brand if it helps match up with the emotions you’re trying to convey,” Morman said.

Morman added that small steps are the best way to get your social platforms where they need to be in terms of inclusivity.

Rethinking your social feed

Morman pointed to her own strategy at Vote Run Lead on TikTok as a potential jumping-off point for other organizations thinking of putting inclusive social media into practice.

“In my role at Vote Run Lead, we’ve been diving into TikTok a great deal lately, and there’s been a lot of thought about how to make those videos inclusive for a wider audience. We could turn on auto-generated captions for those who might have difficulty hearing, we could have a translation done

Continued from page 25

if we want to connect to a community that speaks a language other than English. It’s also all about using really inclusive terms that people can identify with,” Morman said.

In addition, Morman said that she tries to display diversity in the photos and videos that her organization puts out into the world because it shows that a wide array of people work at the company, serving as both a recruiting tool for future employees and clients.

Companies in today’s world need to have a presence on social media, but it’s important for them to consider how that message is being conveyed. Ensuring that those messages are inclusive is a great way to build a bigger and better audience going forward.

You can learn more about inclusive social media at Ragan’s Social Media Conference, March 15-17 at Walt Disney World. Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports, a good pint and ’90s trivia night

HOW COMPANIES CAN FIND THEIR AUTHENTIC VOICE AMID CRISIS

A few short years ago, sending a corporate communication to our employees about personal and political issues such as women’s reproductive rights, gun control, police violence, or other culturally and emotionally charged topics felt taboo. Now, it’s not only normal it’s expected.

The workforce is changing It’s younger and more vocal, less likely to form a divide between personal and work lives. While previous generations left their personal lives at home when they went to work, this generation doesn’t even leave home to go to work.

With this sea change, companies must adapt to meet the expectations of this emerging talent pool. Whether we like it or not, cancel culture is real, with companies at equal risk of being criticized for speaking up or staying quiet.

[FREE REPORT: The State of Internal Communications 2022 from Simpplr]

Finding your authentic company voice can take time. Here’s what we’ve learned while refining ours

3 types of internal communications

At InMoment, we think of internal communications in three buckets: Crisis, Contextual, and Continuous.

Most companies should be good at continuous communication, but some are not. Types of continuous communications include regular and expected company-wide announcements such as organizational changes and strategy updates. Transparency and consistency are the most important things to get right here.

The next type is contextual, which falls somewhere between continual and crisis. These ad-hoc communications acknowledge ongoing cultural occurrences impacting employees’ physical and mental well-being. Contextual topics are typically not polarizing — mental health awareness, workplace equality, and relief support for natural disasters are a couple of examples. These communications should be timely and let your employees know what you’re doing to meet the challenge.

Kristi Knight 7 Feb 2023

AUTHENTICVOICE

Finally comes the most nuanced: crisis, which is similar to contextual but requires an immediate response. Examples include Roe v Wade Supreme Court ruling, the murder of George Floyd, the Uvalde school shooting, the war in Ukraine, and the COVID pandemic. These communications are the most challenging because they need to go out quickly (ideally within 24 hours) and pose the most significant risk of polarization. They may also require an ongoing cadence of communications to be most effective.

Diversity of perspectives defines us

Our global workforce holds ideologies ranging from “conservative” to “progressive” and every nuance in between. It’s what makes us diverse, inclusive, and dynamic.

Continued from page 27

It also makes it critical for us, and other companies, to focus on highly thoughtful internal communications. You’re right to be concerned about facing backlash from employees (and potential customers and the public) for being too bold in your statements — or not bold enough.

Whether your company has 10,000 employees or only ten, your voice will never represent the views and desires of everyone nor is that the point. Your messages should represent the publicly stated values of the company. Don’t become paralyzed trying to craft a message that will please everyone, or worse, deliver a message that is off-brand and inauthentic.

Many companies are learning that criticism is unavoidable.

AUTHENTICVOICE

The purpose of your communication should not be to appease everyone. Of course, you don’t want to offend people. But if you deliver your message in an authentic and empathetic way, hopefully, even those who disagree will respect the thoughtfulness that went into it.

Be prepared to respond

Don’t get caught trying to devise a crisis communications strategy after a crisis occurs. Instead, work with your executive team immediately to answer the following questions if you haven’t already:

What are our brand values, and how do we want them to show up in light of a crisis? How do our values inform our approach to issues that affect our employees and customers?

What is our brand persona? Does our persona differ between our internal messaging and our public image?

If you’ve created a place of trust, safety and respect, your team will discuss issues openly, knowing that differing views are encouraged and welcomed. The outcomes of these discussions will inform your crisis communications strategy, including the response’s tone, voice, and strength.

Crisis communications are a team sport

Now that you have a strategy, you need to build a team to stay on top of current events, coordinate in real-time, and draft culturally sensitive and inclusive communications for company leadership to review and distribute. Engage your communications experts from marketing, your employee experts from HR, and a handful of respected and trusted global “culture-builders” to represent the diverse views across your company.

When a crisis occurs, the team should work asynchronously over several hours to craft a message and send it to their executive contact for

Continued from page 28

review. The review and subsequent revisions must happen within a specified time period. If you wait 48 hours, you may have missed the best window to communicate your authentic message, and to your employees. The silence could be deafening.

At InMoment, our crisis communications are primarily distributed from our CEO, but our regional and HR leaders are secondary messengers depending on the geography and other specifics of the crisis.

External crisis communications

Too often, people view external and internal communications as independent of each other. This is an archaic view. We live in a world where information is immediate and social posts go viral in seconds. You’ll know you’ve delivered a message that resonates with your workforce when your internal communication organically becomes external communication.

1.

2.

3. 4.

AUTHENTICVOICE

If you craft an authentic, inclusive, empathetic, and respectful message, your employees will naturally want to promote your response. It will make them proud.

In other words, having your internal statement become external while staying true to your voice should be an unofficial goal.

While everyone hopes they won’t need to implement their crisis communications strategy often, we have learned over the past couple of years that these events are unfortunately inevitable. It’s better to have a plan and not need it than to scramble to create a plan amid a crisis. Each message we craft allows us better to find our company’s voice and our own.

Continued from page 29

Remember, your employees are human beings with complex and complicated lives outside of work. If you respond with empathy and err on the side of inclusivity, you can’t go wrong.

Kristi Knight is the Chief Marketing Officer at InMoment.

Annemarie Mcpherson Spears

Has your agency struggled to make a hire? If so, you're in good company. Finding and screening job candidates was the No. 1 issue facing independent agencies in 2022, according to the 2022 Agency Universe Study retaining its position as the top challenge from 2020.

It may be tempting to blame the Great Resignation and put hiring goals on hold until a recession increases unemployment and a rush of qualified candidates swamp your job posting like rabid fans at a red-carpet premiere. But those days may be gone for good.

“I've had a lot of conversations with agency owners, and they asked me, 'When are the jobseekers going to come back?'" says Claudia St. John, president of Affinity HR Group, a Big “I" Hires partner. “Folks are waiting for the labor market to soften, but all indicators show that this market is going to continue to be tight and tighten more for the next 10 years."

OVERCOMINGHIRING

There simply aren't enough workers in the pipeline to keep abundant talent flowing. “We lost a lot of people out of the labor market, either because of COVID-19 illness or death and also mothers who have decided it's not worth it and their priorities are elsewhere," St. John explains. “The baby boomer generation is huge and they're retiring, and we don't have the birth rate behind them. Gen Z is just not large enough to replace the departing boomers and is looking for a different employment relationship than prior generations. We've got what we got."

And if it's tight for the U.S. workforce at large, hiring in the insurance industry is even harder. Unemployment in the insurance industry has historically been lower than the national average, according to Jacobson and Aon Ward's “Q3 2022 U.S. Insurance Labor Market Study." In November 2022, the national unemployment rate was 3.7% but the unemployment rate in the insurance industry was 1.5%.

Continued from page 31

To attract talent, agencies need to adapt, not wait. Luckily, the labor market's challenges present some surprising opportunities for the independent agency channel.

“In times like these, smaller organizations, like many independent agencies, actually have some levers that they can pull to outcompete highervolume recruiters for the best talent available in the labor market," says Ted Kinney, vice president of research and development at Talogy, a Big “I" Hires partner. “It's a candidate's market. And if you're a high-volume recruiter, you can't give candidates white glove service."

“There are some things that I really like about this labor market," Kinney continues. “One of the things that I stress all the time in labor market conditions like this is that you have to think about your selection process as a bidirectional decisionmaking process, where it's not just about you making decisions about candidates, but

OVERCOMINGHIRING

candidates making decisions about whether or not they want to join your organization as well. Agencies have a particular advantage in that they can build a closer relationship with that candidate pool and give richer and more complete data to the candidate about what they're going to be getting into "

Acknowledging this element of the hiring process is a key part of the hiring success of Powers Insurance & Risk Management in St. Louis. Timothy Davis, chief operating officer of Powers, a family-owned agency, points out that many familyowned agencies have the attributes that job seekers are looking for in today's environment and should be shouting those perks into a megaphone.

“There's a lot that all of us family-owned agencies can offer right now," Davis says. “It's that anticorporate atmosphere that we're seeing across the

Continued from page 32

culture There are a lot of people who don't want to deal with red tape and that atmosphere can be avoided in the family-owned agency. It's something that a lot of agencies should make a big deal about; family-owned agencies understand what it's like to have a family and balance the workload."

Setting the Scene: Job Search Parameters

Your agency is growing, a top producer moves on or an employee retires, and you're looking for your next employee. The quest begins by determining exactly who you're looking for and what you need to do to attract them.

“If you were to draw a compass around your office, does the talent that you're looking for exist within a 10-, 15- or 20-mile radius? If not, then you need to do something different," St John says

Unless your agency is a blockbuster production,

OVERCOMINGHIRING

you shouldn't be looking for the Brad Pitt of insurance. However, it may not be in your best interest to hire the new kid on the block either. “There's a bell curve, and most likely your business is going to be in that middle section," says Suzanne Lucas, founder and owner of the Evil HR Lady. “You've got to look for the people who are there, too; otherwise, they won't be happy with you."

When it comes to adjusting your parameters to find the appropriate talent, there are three variables that an agency has to work with, according to St. John: “geography, pay and experience."

1) Geography. “There are lots of great candidates out there that may not be in your geographic area," St. John says. “You may find somebody who's amazing three time zones away, but a lot of agency owners are reluctant to do it because it's their personal preference to have folks in the office. Well, if you can't find somebody locally to satisfy that, then consider changing your geographic requirements."

Continued from page 33

Specialty Risk Insurance in Carthage, Missouri, has been rapidly expanding its team since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. With a book of business primarily focused on agriculture, the agency is seeking a full-time marketer.

Willingness to go remote has “helped us get new people," says Chance Morgan, head of sales and product development at Specialty Risk Insurance. “One of the key things we're interested in is someone who is skilled at marketing but also has a large, consistent background in agriculture. Someone like that isn't sitting here in Carthage going, 'Man, I wish I could get a job.' They're in Oklahoma City or Austin."

2) Pay. “If you're having a hard time finding top talent, are you paying enough?" St. John asks. “Agencies should be looking at their job pricing from the perspective of the ideal candidate that they want to hire."

“You don't need to be paying top dollar, but you do need to at least pay an appropriate amount and

OVERCOMINGHIRING

supplement that with things that we know employees want," she adds. “They want flexibility. They want to know that their employer cares about them. They want to know that their work is meaningful."

3) Experience. What if you can't pay for that fully licensed producer with a decade of on-the-job experience? “If you can't raise your compensation, you've got to lower the job," Lucas says. “There are a lot of people that would love to get on-the-job training."

“The biggest challenge is finding capable talent in our industry right now," Davis says “We do pull from within the industry, but we're also willing to hire and train employees when it makes sense. I found that we can hire some really talented individuals that are a couple of years out of college and just haven't found that right career path."

Continued from page 34

Agencies may be fixated on the level of experience or certifications they think they need, and therefore costing themselves resources by looking for a unicorn. “We've had agency owners that have wanted experienced customer service reps that are licensed, and they took so long to find that they could have hired somebody without the licensing and gotten them licensed within the amount of time it took for them to finally find talent," St. John says.

Red Carpet Premiere: Job Postings

After determining the criteria to attract the talent you need, the next step is posting the casting call. The key to crafting a stellar job advertisement? Above all, be transparent.

“What it really comes down to is strongly advertising the things that make you a competitive

OVERCOMINGHIRING

employer for that type of candidate," says Eric Waldowski, client success manager at IdealTraits Inc., a Big “I" Hires partner. “You're not going to get a candidate to engage with you if you don't have an attractive, transparent job opportunity for them. Candidates should have zero questions about where they will work, when they will work and what they'll be doing at work "

Pay should also be clearly outlined in the job posting. “Candidates are going to be more likely to apply for a role that clearly states how much and how often they're going to be paid," Waldowski says “Here's an example of what that sounds like: 'Base pay of $2,000 to $3,000 per month, dependent upon experience. Top earners in our agency earn over $2,500 a month in commissions and bonuses beyond their base.'"

Not only should the job posting include

Continued from page 35

compensation structure details and work arrangements, additional benefits that help your agency stand out should be listed as well. “List as many benefits as you can, including nonconventional ones," Waldowski says. “Do you have an office dog? Is there a monthly pizza party? These help your agency stand out "

As far as publicizing the job openings, Davis uses “ every resource I can think of," he says. “I post it on our website, we put it on social media, we post on Indeed and we engage with recruiters."

However, Powers' secret for attracting talent comes from an unlikely source. “I think Google reviews have helped a ton," Davis says. “It's incredibly rare I interview someone who hasn't been on our website and seen our reviews. I think our Google reviews help explain our company culture just as well as anything I could say."

OVERCOMINGHIRING

A positive online presence helps prove to job candidates that agencies can walk the talk, especially given that the first action a potential applicant will often take is looking at a company's online presence, points out Blake Cavignac, growth advisor at Cavignac, based in San Diego. “You can sell people on joining you, but when they do join and the culture isn't what you said it was, they're going to think they were misled. We have a great culture, but if we aren't able to translate that into our website, our Glassdoor page and our LinkedIn page, then I don't think we'd have as much success."

To fulfill the agency's talent needs, Cavignac takes a proactive hiring approach using LinkedIn Recruiter, a paid service with multiple tiers. “We'll put in the geographic area we're looking in, identify candidate job titles, and LinkedIn will come back with candidates," he says. “I'll then briefly review the profiles to see if they're a fit, and if they are, I'll reach out via a customized email or InMail on LinkedIn."

Current employees also offer some of the best marketing for job openings. “Good people know good people, and we have a ton of really good people here within our organization," says Gage McKinnis, operations lead at Specialty Risk Insurance. “When you have a need, it's a lot easier when you say, 'Hey, we need a couple of people to join the team,' and before long you have a list of candidates that our people know and feel confident they'd be good assets to the organization."

Specialty Risk Insurance has also “started a very aggressive internship campaign," Morgan adds. “In the summers, we provide a paid internship with living expenses. We've had four or five young people that all started as interns and then worked part-time remotely during college who, when they graduated, just naturally wanted to continue their career here."

What if, even after you've drafted a clear job advertisement and publicized it through both

Continued from page 36

recruiting sites and word of mouth, you're still struggling to attract quality candidates?

First, go back to the geography, pay and experience variables, and don't be afraid to test for different factors, Waldowski says. “Let's say you post an ad for an in-office insurance sales rep, but you've been struggling to find candidates," he says. “You could post a remote opportunity for that individual job, or you could also run one with different experience or licensing criteria."

But here's another question: Is it too difficult for candidates to apply for your job? If the process to apply is too lengthy or complicated, you may be losing out on qualified applicants. The length of an initial application is a factor for 66% of job candidates in determining whether they'll complete and submit it, and more than 70% of job seekers said they will not submit a job application if it takes more than 15 minutes to complete, according to Greenhouse's “2022 Candidate Experience Report."

OVERCOMINGHIRING

“I keep an eye on this by regularly applying for jobs to see trends in companies' processes," Lucas says. “One that I filled out a few weeks ago asked me to upload all these documents, and then when I got to the next screen, it prompted more supporting documents, saying I could upload up to 25! What would these 25 documents possibly be when you've got your resume and your cover letter? And what recruiter is going to look through 25 documents? Make your process streamlined and easy to apply to."

Silver Screening: Interview Process and Selection

Once a pool of applicants is available, the difficult job of choosing one begins. And it's a decision that's important to get right. While the average cost per hire is nearly $4,700, according to new benchmarking data from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Edie Goldberg, founder of E.L. Goldberg & Associates and chairelect of the SHRM Foundation, says that factoring in “soft costs" like time invested by leadership throughout the hiring process pushes the real price up to three to four times the position's salary.

“Of those costs, I would say 30%-40% are hard costs, and the other 60% are soft costs," Goldberg said.

“Think about the consequences of a wrong decision," Kinney says. “You have a candidate that's not a good job fit who stays through the process and potentially gets a job. Then you have someone who's either going to be a low performer or a bad fit within the culture, and then you've got turnover and replacement costs. You end up paying the price."

For smaller agencies, the stakes are that much higher. “The criticality of that employment decision is higher, with an individual's impact being much more salient in a smaller organization," Kinney says. “But luckily, smaller agencies can also take advantage of the smaller candidate pool by putting the smaller group of candidates through a more rigorous selection process."

Continued from page 37

Hiring becomes a balancing act between being thorough to ensure the agency and the job seeker have the information to make the bidirectional employment decision and making the process so lengthy that the candidate disengages.

“You can only keep engagement for so long, and companies are slowly learning that six rounds of interviews aren't cutting it anymore," Lucas says. “Your competitors are hiring after one or two and your candidates aren't going to put up with a long process anymore."

The most important action an agency can take during the hiring and screening process is “keeping applicants up to date," Lucas adds. “I've had recruiters say, 'But there aren't any updates, so I don't tell them anything because there's nothing to say.' Telling a candidate there's nothing to tell them is an update so they don't feel like they're being ghosted."

OVERCOMINGHIRING

Almost 58% of candidates expect to hear back from companies in one week or less regarding their initial application, according to Greenhouse's candidate experience report, but many companies are failing to keep up with these expectations with more than 75% of job seekers reporting that they have been ghosted after an interview.

“Most people have a job right now," St. John points out. “You should reach out to an applicant no more than 24 hours after somebody applies. Absolutely use a text message. Have someone high up in the organization drop them an email as well. You are competing against everybody in your community, as well as people across the country, so be creative and intentional about keeping people engaged."

Once Powers receives an application, “the first step in my screening process is a quick, five-minute phone call," Davis says. “I ask two or three questions really it's identifying if this person has a pulse and they're really interested in interviewing.

Continued from page 38

In this step, I'm just trying to figure out if I want to work with this person based on their handful of responses."

At Specialty Risk Insurance, staff are often on the road visiting their agricultural clients, so their philosophy is: “If we wouldn't mind having them in the truck with us the whole day, then they've passed hurdle No. 1," Morgan says.

“If that initial call goes well, then I offer them an interview," Davis says. “Our first interview is always via Zoom at this point; we've found that's more efficient."

If the applicant pool is on the small side, Kinney recommends holding off on any screening assessments until after the first interview at least. “If you have an application that someone spends 25 minutes filling out and then they realize they have to sit there for another 45 minutes taking an assessment, that's where we see candidates disengage and drop out of the process," he says. “If you're able to put an interview ahead of the assessment, you can set the expectations."

Powers, Specialty Risk Insurance and Cavignac each start the assessment portion of their screening process with an emphasis on figuring out what makes the candidate tick from a behavioral test in Powers' case or a cognitive test at Specialty Risk to a professional development system that Cavignac developed for use at the agency before focusing on technical skills or knowledge further down the hiring funnel.

In today's tough hiring market where more agencies are considering hires from outside the industry, that emphasis on a candidate's soft skills is more important than ever. “Maybe now is the time to recruit a broader applicant pool and give some people a chance that have shown potential," Kinney says. “If I'm going to take a chance on a candidate, I'm going to take the chance based on conscientiousness, attention to detail, work ethic, intellectual curiosity, because those things explain much more about how people perform on jobs over time."

OVERCOMINGHIRING

“Where someone worked last or what education they have doesn't tend to predict what a person is likely to do on the job," he adds. “If you cut candidates based on knowledge and experience, you end up getting candidates that are just like other people in the industry, and there aren't that many of those people out there in the labor market."

“Maybe a Starbucks shift manager has applied for one of your roles with no insurance experience at all but a proven track record in a customer-facing role," Waldowski says. “If you've got an assessment outcome that shows the candidate's going to thrive in a service or a sales position, you should consider them. It's about looking at the individual instead of saying, 'Oh, a person that came from this background probably can't do this.'"

“A lot of what folks are doing can be taught, but it's good soft skills that are hard to come by," St. John agrees. “If you're hiring a college student, or that amazing server at a restaurant who has just the right disposition, the only thing you have to go on is their behavioral characteristics."

Big “I" Hires has several tools for screening both behavioral and knowledge tendencies: IdealTraits and Caliper both offer behavioral assessments, Big “I" Hires DIY Hiring Toolkits includes an ideal candidate profile for multiple agency roles, and VMB's hiring in insurance testing services (HITS) offers knowledge tests.

While behavioral testing is the name of the game today, resume gaps are out of vogue. “A lot of employers historically view gaps in employment as a huge red flag, but I think they should look differently at that," St. John says. “If nothing else, the times have shown us that balancing family and life can be challenging. Gaps in employment, particularly for mothers, have disadvantaged them in the recruiting process."

“If I receive an application with a nine-month resume gap, I'm more concerned with how responsive, communicative and professional they

Continued from page 39

are during my screening process than I am about that history gap," Waldowski says. “Talk to them first before passing on them because of that."

Ultimately, whether a recession raises unemployment rates or the job market remains squeezed, “these practices should be used in every market condition because it's not just about hiring a person, it's about hiring the right person," Waldowski says. “If you're advertising accurate ads, engaging with your candidates and offering opportunities to folks that have the skills and are a good fit, that's going to be your recipe for success."

AnneMarie McPherson Spears is IA news editor.

What's The First Step Towards Achieving Goals? Setting Them.

Goal setting is the first step toward helping you realize your personal goals as well as well as your agency growth targets, because if you don’t know where you want to go, it’s going to be tough to get anywhere.

Set aside time every day and write your daily goals and to check in on your longer-term goals. Then, you can evaluate your progress at the 90-day mark, the six-month mark, and beyond. Growth in your business will be hindered without clear goals. Holding yourself and your employees accountable is a recipe for success.

Invest in your staff. To grow your business, you must invest in your greatest asset which is your employees. Your employees are the lifeblood of your business. Initial training and ongoing training are critical. Encourage and reward your staff for to participate in continuing education courses. They will be better at what they do and will gain more confidence in their job. Dynamics of Selling and carrier producer schools provide excellent training for the producers in your agency.

Create a winning environment. Having a team that is well trained along with an established compensation plan will create a more positive environment that will breed success. Ask yourself what will keep your employees motivated and

have an action plan. Your employees are more likely to succeed if they have defined goals that are in writing and monitored on a regular basis.

Maximize talents. Every person in your agency has a defined role. It is critical to establishing clear job descriptions for each member of your team. Although there may be some overlap with some of your staff, your agency will run more efficiently if everyone understands their specific roles. It is important to have a plan should one of your employees be out of the office especially if an employee will be out for an extended period of time.

Establish a marketing game plan. Some business may fall into your lap, but top performing agencies and agencies that have aggressive growth goals must decide what marketing plans work best for their business. When it comes to marketing strategies, one size does not fit all. Do your homework and research to determine what will work best for your particular agency. You may have to test drive some marketing plans, so don’t make a quick decision to invest in something that is not best suited for your business and where you will not see a return on your investment of time and money.

TECHTOOLS

Smaller agencies may be reluctant to do something new and invest money, but the reality is smaller agencies are finding it more challenging to grow organically than ever before. Part of the reason for this is we are seeing an increase in very large agencies who have grown by merging with other large agencies or have been acquired by private equity groups. This has typically expanded their carrier representation and given them access to more resources.

Determine your target clients. As you consider your marketing plans, determine who is your ideal client and what types of insurance are they looking for. How can you best reach these potential clients? Part of your marketing plan should be increasing your involvement within your community. Consider sponsoring community events with schools and sporting events and build strong relationships and referrals with mortgage companies and real estate companies.

If you are a smaller agency looking to grow your commercial book, understand that there is some “low hanging fruit” as the larger agencies are bypassing some quality small business because the producers in the large agencies are not seeking the smaller accounts. Consider insuring small commercial accounts that qualify for a simple Business Owners Policy. If you need to increase your knowledge of insuring commercial accounts, you will need to make a time commitment. Talk with your carriers as they can provide resources and training. Also consider continuing education courses. Designation programs like the Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) courses are an example of continuing education that covers all areas of commercial insurance.

If you set clear goals for your agency and plan a path to achieve them, you will often find that the results you want to see will follow.

If you have any questions and would like to discuss this article in more detail, please contact me at jeff@agency-focus.com.

K E Y N O T E S P E A K E R

JAY

LA Commissioner of Administration

Don't miss his renowned presentation

B

Room Block Deadline: May 16, 2023

UPCOMINGEVENTS

IIASB March Luncheon

IIAB YAC Quarterly Call; Community Involvement/Relations

IIABR March Luncheon

IIAGNO BBQ Social

IIAGNO Golf Tournament

IIASB May Luncheon

IIABR TopGolf Charity Event

March 7

The Shreveport Club

Shreveport, LA

March 14

Webinar

Jubans

March 23

Baton Rouge

Central City BBQ

March 30

TBA May 3

May 18

New Orleans, LA

Audubon Golf Club

New Orleans, LA

The Shreveport Club

Shreveport, LA

TopGolf

Baton Rouge, LA

y

NeedFloodand/or Ethicsthismonth? Checkoutour calendar. AllCEcoursescan befoundonour websiteHERE.

IIABL 2022-2023

BOARD OF DIRECTORS & OFFICERS

PRESIDENT, MICHAEL SCRIBER

PRESIDENT-ELECT, ARMOND K. SCHWING

SECRETARY-TREASURER, BRET HUGHES

NATIONAL DIRECTOR, JOHNNY BECKMANN, III

PAST PRESIDENT, DONELSON P. STIEL

YOUNG AGENT REPRESENTATIVE, KRYSTAL GATHE

ANN BODKIN-SMITH

MATTHEW DEBLANC

CHRISTY DESOTO

ROB W. EPPERS

MATT GRAHAM

CHRISTOPHER S. HAIK

STUART HARRIS

ROSS HENRY

CHARLES H. LEBLANC

CRAIG MARTEL

LYDIA MCMORRIS

A. EUGENE MONTGOMERY, III

JOE KING MONTGOMERY

HARTWIG "ROBBY" MOSS, IV

ROBERT LOUIS PALMER, JR.

RANDY PERISE

ROBERT G. RIVIERE

ROBERT STONE

Scriber Insurance - Ruston

Schwing Insurance Agency, Inc. - New Iberia

Hughes Insurance Services, Inc - Gonzales

Assured Partners - Metairie

David H. Stiel, Jr. Agency - Franklin

HUB International Gulf South, Ltd. - Baton Rouge

Thomson Smith & Leach Insurance Group - Lafayette

Continental Insurance Services - Marrero

1st Insurance of Marksville - Marksville

Risk Services of Louisiana - Shreveport

Lincoln Agency - Ruston

Higginbotham Insurance - Lafayette

McClure, Bomar & Harris, LLC - Shreveport

Henry Insurance Service, Inc. - Baton Rouge

Bourg Insurance Agency, Inc. - Donaldsonville

Insurance Unlimited of LA, LLC - Lake Charles

Alliant Insurance Services - Baton Rouge

Community Financial Insurance Center, LLC - Monroe

Thomas & Farr Agency, Inc - Monroe

Hartwig Moss Insurance - New Orleans

Insurance Underwriters, Ltd. - Metairie

Blumberg and Associates - Ponchatoula

Riviere Insurance Agency - Thibodaux

Stone Insurance, Inc. - Metairie