Tips for Recruiting Quality Insurance Professionals in a Competitive Market

The insurance industry was among the hardest hit by “The Great Resignation.”  Already experiencing a labor shortage, the competition has only increased as 68% of insurers plan to grow their staff in 2023. According to the latest job openings report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 407,000 available positions across the entire finance and insurance sector—nearly 30% more than in 2019 before the pandemic.

In short, it’s never been more important to gain an edge in finding and keeping quality talent. Below are effective channels and strategies for recruiting the next generation of insurance professionals.

LinkedIn for Recruiting Insurance Professionals

LinkedIn is the first place to start since it is a dedicated professional network social channel. Users can even share if they are currently open to or looking for work, making sifting through talent and identifying promising leads a straightforward process. Identifying these candidates and reaching out with a personalized message, ideally referencing some tidbit from their profile to reflect your interest, can increase the likelihood of a candidate responding.

Combining personal and professional interests in this message shows a heightened level of interest that could cause the candidate to see this as genuine interest, increasing the likelihood of that candidate responding.

Creating a LinkedIn company page with information, reviews, other employees, and job listings can also build rapport not just with other potential candidates, but within the industry, too. This page allows candidates to conduct their own research, which makes creating a page vital to convincing a candidate why they might want to consider not just working in insurance, but working for your company in particular.

Facebook to Find Promising Talent

While Facebook is less focused on professional networking, there are still many opportunities for recruiting top talent to your insurance business.

Creating a page for your business on Facebook is also recommended, as this is one way you can reach out to potential candidates—as opposed to reaching out from an employee’s personal account, which, on Facebook, may be disregarded as spam or even a scam. Verified profiles are one of the great values Facebook offers, as it serves as a reassurance that the opportunity they’ve been presented with is legitimate.

Facebook advertising campaigns also offer a relatively inexpensive avenue to target specific groups, such as targeting ads toward those with insurance agent as their listed profession. These campaigns allow you to set a budget and duration if you’d like to try it out or even incorporate it into your approach to business development.

Twitter to Connect with #InsuranceAgents

Like Facebook, Twitter offers advertising campaigns for job recruitment as well as a channel for establishing a social media presence, the sort of engagement that encourages potential candidates to reach out to you. Using hashtags such as #InsuranceAgent (or any other relevant phrase) is an easy way to attract those within the field and join the ongoing conversations throughout the Twittersphere. Plus, hashtags allow you to keep track of trends and even keep an eye on what your competitors are up to.

Twitter also offers the opportunity to promote Tweets as part of their paid campaign options as another avenue toward gaining greater visibility and attracting potential candidates. Their campaigns also offer reach campaigns for improved targeting and visibility, boosting brand awareness and the likelihood of reaching promising applicants.

Instagram to Reach the Next Generation

Sometimes, the best approach is attracting and developing young, promising talent (more on that below). One of the best ways to find this young talent is to go where they hangout online: Instagram. In fact, 73% of teens 15-17 use Instagram, while 26.5% of young professionals 18-24 regularly use the platform.

As more agents retire and the Instagram generation enters the work force, insurance companies need to adapt and seek out promising talent where they are.

Instagram’s success rests largely on its visually engaging format. With that in mind, insurance businesses need to think “show don’t tell.” This means posting photos or videos promoting the ins-and-outs of insurance, job opportunities, and even showcasing your company’s culture.

Partnerships & Internships for Insurance Professionals

While social media platforms are a surefire way to reach younger audiences, partnering with local community colleges and universities offers strong pools of candidates dedicated to building a career. Approaching an institution to create, join, or sponsor an internship program creates a kind of agent-in-training opportunity, encouraging students to view insurance as a viable career path.

Some students need direction, while others may simply overlook insurance altogether. For most college students, automobile insurance may be the only brush with insurance they’ve had thus far. An internship could change that by helping them build confidence while gaining a greater understanding of the industry.

After an internship, if a student wishes to pursue a career in insurance, a company or institution could partner with an online exam prep provider to help students take that first step toward getting licensed to sell and pursuing a full-time career.

Training New Insurance Professionals

Training and insurance education keeps top talent around because it empowers new agents to sell with confidence. Online exam prep courses are a convenient and effective way to get them the foundational knowledge they need to earn their license.

Onboard training, like WebCE’s EXCEED insurance training program, ensures new hires have up-to-date product information to help onboard faster and keep them engaged. The more they know, the more their confidence will grow, increasing their chances of success.

Continuing education can help them become a trusted source for all types of insurance—life and health, property and casualty, personal/limited lines, and insurance adjusting—to further develop top talent and remain competitive long term.