{"id":10830,"date":"2024-02-14T14:11:53","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T19:11:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/share.independentagent.com\/?p=10830"},"modified":"2024-02-14T14:11:53","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T19:11:53","slug":"maintaining-team-morale-in-a-challenging-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.independentagent.com\/trustedchoice\/blog\/maintaining-team-morale-in-a-challenging-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Maintaining Team Morale in a Challenging Market"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your employees are one of your greatest assets, and a happy employee can help lead to business growth. With the residual effects of the pandemic combined with the challenging insurance landscape, it\u2019s easy to understand why maintaining employee morale can be challenging\u2014especially as some agency owners are trying to remain optimistic themselves. Another factor impacting morale is the difficulty in recruiting and retaining employees, forcing owners to be creative in finding ways to keep talent.<\/p>\n

According to the recent Trusted Choice survey \u201cNavigating the Hard Market,<\/a>\u201d the majority of Big \u201cI\u201d member agency principals are concerned about morale, and they\u2019re taking steps to keep employees\u2019 spirits up. Here\u2019s a look at what successful agents are doing to maintain enthusiasm.<\/p>\n

Staying Positive<\/strong><\/p>\n

The survey asked independent insurance agents, \u201cHow are you maintaining team morale and motivation during these challenging times?\u201d The most common answers were increased communication, company-paid lunches and extra time off, followed by team-building efforts along with raises or bonuses when budgets allowed.<\/p>\n

\"graph<\/p>\n

To balance morale, over 50% of agencies have implemented new training initiatives to ensure their team is equipped to handle the challenges of the market. This shows that agency leadership is vested in its staff and wants to help them in these hard times.<\/p>\n

Most survey respondents said good communication is critical, and that they invest time and effort in regularly checking in with their employees. One agent says, \u201cCommunicate transparently and promptly with team members. Share information, goals, progress and difficulties to ensure everyone understands the situation and can participate in the problem-solving process.\u201d Another agent agrees that transparency is important and says, \u201cWe talk openly about the problems we are facing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Several agents commented that they\u2019ve experienced difficult times in the past, and nothing lasts forever. One survey respondent says, \u201cWe communicate often and keep each other apprised of all changes within companies. [We] continually remind ourselves that this will be a short-term issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

One agent gives employees \u201cConstant reassurance that sometimes things are out of our control.\u201d Another says it\u2019s important to \u201ccelebrate the small wins, any win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recognizing that burnout and stress are major contributors to poor employee morale, several agents said they give employees more time off via additional vacation days or half days on Fridays. They also find different ways to make the workplace more welcoming, as one agent explains, \u201cThere is a new picnic table outside, we put in a small gym with a giant TV, and we also put in a MASSIVE massage chair and created a relaxation room.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Agents Are Saying<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chris Orletski, President, Blankit Insurance Group, Florida<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time Orletski has been through tough times during his career. Before joining the insurance industry a decade ago, he worked as a real estate agent and stockbroker, surviving the real estate crash in 2007 and the financial crisis in 2008. Despite his best efforts, several of the firm\u2019s employees became discouraged and left in the last two years to pursue other lines of work, one in a different industry.<\/p>\n

Orletski encourages his team to take a step back, look at the big picture, and support each other. \u201cWe are all in this together,\u201d he says, \u201cand we try to keep a team approach \u2014 so not one person thinks they are drowning in the deep end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carol Boucher, Senior Account Executive, Ericson Insurance Advisors, Connecticut<\/strong><\/p>\n

The firm primarily serves the personal and business insurance needs of affluent clients across the U.S. It has had to hire more staff to help on processing and support the relationship managers.<\/p>\n

The agency has relied mostly on referrals from current employees to find people with insurance experience because there is no time to train new staff. \u201cIt has been very difficult to find good people, especially for high net worth, because it is a very specialized area,\u201d Boucher says.<\/p>\n

The agency offers incentives like competitive compensation packages, and managers work hard to stay connected with employees through daily video meetings and team-building activities. The hard market conditions have been wearing on everyone, so managers want to do what they can to keep morale up. \u201cIt\u2019s called a hard market because it does make everything hard,\u201d Boucher says.<\/p>\n

Anonymous, Account Manager and Branch Manager, Agency in Florida<\/strong><\/p>\n

Even long-term accounts with established \u201cgreat relationships\u201d have struggled, which only increases the stress on agency employees, especially those who are the first to field client complaints, the manager says. \u201cOn particularly taxing days, even those who\u2019ve worked at the firm for years want to simply walk out. Replacing them has never been easy, but now applications are few and far between.\u201d<\/p>\n

The firm does take several proactive steps to retain employees. The goal is to \u201cbolster the team, always looking for ways to get them away from their desk for even a few minutes when things are getting tough,\u201d says the branch manager. Even small gestures can have a big impact, so the manager regularly treats the team to food and \u201csilly stuff, like puzzles, just to give them a break and a moment to talk with others.\u201d The manager also follows up with one-on-one encouragement when needed.<\/p>\n

Agent Solution: Team Building<\/strong><\/p>\n

Generally, survey respondents reinforce the message that \u201cwe\u2019re a team,\u201d and as one agent says, \u201cWe are all in the same boat.\u201d Agents also recognize that there\u2019s nothing more helpful in building a community than breaking bread together. Several survey respondents commented that their firms provide breakfast or lunch on a regular basis. One agent says, \u201cWe eat lunch together on Fridays,\u201d while another relates, \u201cWe have team lunches every day to make sure we are on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other agents are being more thoughtful in the kinds of meetings they\u2019re holding. For example, one agent says, \u201c[We] introduced one team meeting a month where the primary function is for team building by having fun.\u201d One agency uses its regular meetings to discuss the firm\u2019s accounts, \u201cgiving each other ideas.\u201d Another agency holds an office meeting each week to discuss the marketplace. \u201cWe also discuss one specific coverage and read through insurance contracts related to that coverage each week (both personal and commercial).\u201d<\/p>\n

Experienced agents seem to be weathering the storm better than most. One agent sums it up this way: \u201cOur team has 25-40 years of insurance experience and has the knowledge to ride out the changes until companies come to a conclusion on how to make a profit in our changing times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Need more support in this hard market? Check out the full suite of resources we have for agents here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your employees are one of your greatest assets, and a happy employee can help lead to business growth. With the residual effects of the pandemic combined with the challenging insurance landscape, it\u2019s easy to understand why maintaining employee morale can be challenging\u2014especially as some agency owners are trying to remain optimistic themselves. Another factor impacting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11956,"featured_media":10831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"authentication_status":"","authentication_restrictions":[],"_downloads_block_files":[],"_sponsor_title":"","_sponsor_url":"","_person_author_id":0,"content-type":"","share_enabled":false,"community_list_site":"","_bigi_custom_date_time":"","blog_show_author":false,"author_name":"","author_title":"","author_bio":"","author_facebook":"","author_twitter":"","author_linkedin":"","author_image":0,"bigi_community_list_restrictions":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[23,24,25],"blog-tag":[],"class_list":["post-10830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hard-market-series","tag-hard-market","tag-morale","tag-team"],"yoast_head":"\nMaintaining Team Morale in a Challenging Market - Trusted Choice<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independentagent.com\/trustedchoice\/blog\/maintaining-team-morale-in-a-challenging-market\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Maintaining Team Morale in a Challenging Market\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Your employees are one of your greatest assets, and a happy employee can help lead to business growth. 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