We’ve all done it. You complete your employee training, and with that closing smile on your face you suddenly realize that you forgot a vital chunk of information. You might realize this right after the training is done, or it could be a few weeks later when an employee asks you a question. When you’re working on professional development, what do you absolutely need to remember to have an effective and secure insurance agency?
Who You Are and What You Stand For
The most obvious elements of company communication are the ones that are the easiest to forget when you’re training. According to Forbes, “learning and development programming grounded in both individual and organizational purpose is essential.” Your employees need to know what your business values and why it exists. That way, they can communicate that information through their words and their actions when they engage with your customers.
How to Communicate Effectively With Your Clients
While you hope to employ people who intuitively know how to be polite and work with your clients, you also need to train your employees so that you can ensure that they are working with your clients in the same manner that you would. For instance, you should have a process to follow if a client disagrees with your policies. Identify the needs of your employee team when it comes to communication training, and ensure that you not only provide training but also processes to fall back on when your employees aren’t sure what to do. Check in with your new employees regularly: according to The Muse, “the more time you’re able to invest in the beginning, the faster you’ll have a dynamite team member.”
How to Manage the Details
An insurance agency manages an extraordinary level of detail. If you’re losing an employee, make sure that person has written down all of the details of their job processes and is able to transmit this to you, the trainer or to the employee as part of a job shadowing and training process. Those small details are the ones that are most likely to be lost when a long-term employee leaves. They are also the ones that help you safeguard your quality at work. For instance, the process that your office administrator uses to collect foundational data on your clients helps ensure that you have the correct address and email information when you need to send renewal notices.
How to Keep Your Employees Safe At Work
While it’s important to help your clients stay safe, you also need to make sure that your employees are safe. Workplace safety not only involves showing your employees the fire exits, but it also involves knowing evacuation plans and what happens if there is a serious incident in the workplace. Finally, your employees need to know what to do to defuse and manage situations in which clients become angry.
How You Safeguard Your Clients’ Data
You want to make sure that your clients feel well-protected by your insurance agency. This isn’t just about your insurance, it’s also about your data protection. During your training, go over cybersecurity practices with your employees. Also, review security practices for your office as well. For instance, an employee should not leave information about a client open on the computer when others could walk over and take a look at this data.
Maintaining an insurance agency that treats clients and their data well can be a challenge, but it’s something that you work on every day. Are you looking for insurance that will help keep your company safe? Talk with American Agents Alliance. We’ll help you find the E&O insurance that your company needs, in addition to our many other membership benefits.
