People Management

Pair personalities with positions

By Sean Neumayer

This new department, “People Management,” will offer a quick overview of various topics to assist agencies make more informed hiring decisions and manage their existing employees for peak performance and long-term retention.

Quick, when is it not all right to have the words “insurance” and “risk” in the same sentence? Answer: When you’re talking about hiring employees for your agency!

Taking risks when hiring insurance staff almost always leads to expensive trouble. It happens mostly because too many employers repeatedly overlook one of the most important elements of hiring: correctly pairing personalities with positions. Your candidate might come to you with a great education, designations and experience, but if that person hears “yes” when you say “no” or sees green where you see red, all the credentials in the world won’t matter.

If you’re at wit’s end trying to find workers who are productive, successful, loyal and easy to get along with, it may be that your hiring procedures need some revisions.

You probably already have a clear idea of how you manage and the kind of person you want for the job. That’s a great start, but you also need to be familiar with the personalities/behaviors of your existing staff, especially the ones who will interact with your new hire. Throwing someone who’s methodical and systematic into a group of fast-paced scramblers won’t work. And if your idea of “immediate” is “yesterday,” a more relaxed personality will do nothing but struggle every day to please you. Then one of you will simply give up on the other.

Another area to examine is communication style. Someone who doesn’t mince words and gets right to the point will grow frustrated trying to follow the verbal meanderings of a chatterbox. And so might you. For the sake of everyone’s sanity, make sure the person you hire converses in a way that’s either similar or complementary to you and your group. Differences among employees can work well and bring symmetry— or they can lead to clashes, confrontations, misunderstandings and frequent turnover.

Are you at a loss as to how to deal with an existing employee? E-mail your questions to me at sneumayer@omniagroup.com and I’ll address them in future columns. *

The author
Sean Neumayer has been a consultant with the Omnia Group for more than 10 years, helping agencies in several facets of selection, management, and retention of key employees. He regularly speaks with insurance groups regarding best practices. His contact information is (800) 525-7117, Ext. 1242 or sneumayer@omniagroup.com.