Maximizing Talent to Organizational Goals
Talent management is all about maximizing the value of employees in order to achieve the overall goals of the organization. The idea is to evaluate each employee’s unique skills and passions and reassign any tasks that do not align with his or her expertise. Unfortunately, this kind of management rarely happens, especially in insurance agencies where CSRs and producers can find themselves besieged with data processing and paperwork along with other factors that fuel underperformance.
It’s commonplace to measure agency performance by revenue per employee, yet when we saddle employees with non-revenue producing tasks, it’s no wonder performance can be disappointingly low. So, what can agencies do to alleviate this problem?
- Implement automation. Automation can certainly alleviate employees of repetitive tasks, but there are many pitfalls you should be aware of before implementing it. Along with automation come costs related to hardware, software, program updates, continual training, and the manpower required to input the data. This new systems implementation may be part of the solution but is expensive and doesn’t always lead to the expected results.
- Use a process improvement program. While Lean Six Sigma workflow analysts and consultants can certainly help your agency, it’s worth noting that many unique tasks involved in the daily operation of an agency will each need their own process improvement. Ensuring a successful process improvement program thus requires ongoing project management from the consultant and agency principals.
- Employ business process management (BPM). The third approach is entirely different from the others and it’s called business process management or business process outsourcing. A BPM company can enable every agency employee to arrive in the morning to a clean workstation with no backlog. Provided you choose the right one, BPM employees can become an integral part of your existing team, allowing you to rejuvenate other areas of your agency like your sales and service teams.
BPMs and Change Management
When partnering with a BPM provider, the first step is to reassure your employees that the outsource vendor is not a threat. A BPM provider does not present itself as a tool to replace employees, but rather a tool to allow existing employees to redirect their efforts towards revenue-generating activity.
The second step is to help employees cope with the loss of certain duties and the expansion of other roles. Although they may have complained about required tasks, there remains a level of discomfort when such tasks are removed. That means management must help redirect their efforts to other activities. Identifying skill sets, retraining needs, and possibly even tweaking their incentive program are all possible options.
Unlikely as it may sound, BPM employees frequently become viewed by agency employees as collegial and essential members of the team. They become force multipliers: a night shift (working in China) which the day shift can leverage to write and manage significantly more business. This creates new talent development, career building, and compensation improving opportunities for the home office employees.
Delegating critical processing tasks to an outside provider can be scary, so building confidence in the experience, skills, and track record of a provider is fundamental to outsourcing for talent management.
Maximizing Employee Assets
A business’s greatest asset is its employees. Therefore, it’s only natural to maximize the value of that asset by cultivating a culture where their talents are recognized and nurtured. Think of BPMs as time management resources. After all, time is our most limited commodity. So no matter what solution you choose, give everyone in your organization the gift of time – time to truly utilize their talents to create a successful future for your business and for themselves.
Need help finding a solution? Contact ReSource Pro to find out what works best for you.
