New Insurance Agent Training Best Practices

We have previously written about the role training plays in boosting new hire confidence and success while improving employee retention. To summarize, knowledge and understanding build confidence, and confidence empowers professionals to exceed expectations. Training also helps employees feel supported. This support combined with a newfound confidence often leads to successful, loyal employees.

To help empower your team, we compiled the top three best practices for insurance training to ensure new hires are given their best chance to realize their full potential: training that focuses on real-world applications; training that people actually enjoy; and training that adapts to changes in your organization and the industry.

Real-World Focus

The best insurance training programs prepare new hires for the job by going beyond textbook definitions. While insurance exam prep and the license exam are meant to cover important aspects of the industry, there is often a lack of similar preparation for the work’s day-to-day realities.

Through real-world applications of coverages, exposures, and how to address them, new insurance professionals can develop the knowledge and the confidence they need to exceed expectations. But this is only possible with real-world insights & applications that go beyond theory and textbook definitions to provide practical, expert-led training to prepare students for work in the field.

This gap in training is the main reason we created EXCEED Insurance Training, which bridges the gap between passing the exam and beginning a career. Our lessons recreate real-life scenarios new professionals will face in the field to teach them nuances the exam may not cover.

Mentorship from experienced colleagues is another avenue for new hires to soak up expert insights and breathe life into abstract concepts and ideas. Whether that means pairing up employees or simply being available, guidance from seasoned professionals can offer vital perspective to better prepare new hires to hit the ground running.

Immersive Learning

An insurance training program can only succeed if people pay attention. If they find the presentation boring, their ability to retain information will suffer. Dry delivery is rarely effective.

That is why the best training programs keep learners engaged with clickable, interactive content and knowledge checks to test retention. Deloitte, for example, employed gamification and saw a 47% increase in completion rates of training modules. Cisco also began using interactive modules and found 74% of new hires felt better prepared and 50% more engaged with their training. These approaches work because they keep users engaged with fresh and fun experiences. The more someone enjoys their training, the more likely they will remain engaged throughout.

WebCE’s EXCEED does this through interactive, clickable content and frequent timed knowledge checks to keep learners engaged and their knowledge growing. Plus, supplementing training with short, bite-sized videos digestible in the time it takes a cup of coffee to cool off is an easy and effective way to keep new hires thinking, learning, and working at their best. The reinforcement videos rotate weekly and cover a variety of topics immediately applicable to the job—not abstract concepts, but guidance they can use to get better today.

In the end, the goal of immersive learning is to make study time more effective: engaged learners, improved retention, and more confidence heading into the field.

Adaptive, Customizable, & Scalable

For long-term success, an insurance training program must adapt to the evolving needs of an organization.

The insurance industry is constantly evolving with new regulations and products. Adaptable insurance training programs ensure employees remain compliant and informed. They can also adjust to organizational shifts, such as entering new markets, changing business priorities, or adopting new technologies.

As organizations shift or react to changing industry dynamics, their training ought to follow. Customizing content ensures that training is relevant to the job roles within your organization, allowing agents, underwriters, and claims adjusters to focus on the knowledge and skills they need the most.

As your organization expands or hires more employees, scalable training can be easily deployed to larger teams without requiring a complete overhaul of the system. Whether you are training 10 or 10,000 employees, scalable insurance training programs ensure that the quality of content and instruction remains high, delivering consistent, shared knowledge base across your organization.

WebCE's EXCEED Insurance Training Program

EXCEED bridges the often-uncertain gap between passing the exam and finding career success. Think of it as insurance career prep that enhances exam prep and onboarding efforts to offer real-world applications to prepare new hires for the unique challenges that await.

Through real-world applications, fun ways to stay engaged, and flexible solutions for any organization, WebCE’s EXCEED Insurance Training offers a comprehensive solution that deepens knowledge and increases confidence for a team primed to exceed every expectation.

Click here to learn more about EXCEED and what it can offer your organization.

You can even Schedule a Demo to see EXCEED in action for yourself!