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Banking, Financial Services and Insurance · Financial and credit insurance providers
HR for Financial and Credit Insurance Providers: Underwriters, Agents and Bank Tie-Ups
Credit-linked and financial insurance is often sold through lenders and banks, so the sales force, the partner teams and the underwriters each need their own HR. Here is how.
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Share your requirementsProviders of credit life, loan protection, mortgage and financial-guarantee insurance often reach customers through banks, NBFCs and other lenders. The workforce includes a partner-facing sales and relationship team, underwriters and product staff at the centre, claims and servicing staff and a smaller group of actuarial and risk specialists. Sales staff may sit inside the partner's branches, which complicates who manages them and where their loyalty lies. Pay for sales roles is linked to volumes through the partner, while underwriting and claims depend on careful, slower judgement. See also HR for banking, financial services and insurance.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in financial and credit insurance providers, you may see
- Staff sit inside someone else's branch
- Partner attachment is stronger than company attachment
- Volume pushes mis-selling risk
- Underwriters and sellers are measured differently
- Claims staff carry hard conversations
- Specialist talent is scarce
These are the places the people side of this kind of business tends to give way. The rest of this page works through them.
Who does the work in financial and credit insurance providers
HR here has to work for each of these groups, not only the office. The set-up below is written with all of them in mind.
- Partner relationship managers
- Sales staff placed in partner branches
- Underwriters
- Claims and servicing staff
- Product and pricing staff
- Actuarial and risk analysts
- Operations and policy-issuance staff
Where HR strains in financial and credit insurance providers
Staff sit inside someone else's branch
An employee placed at a lender's branch takes daily direction from the partner, and the insurer finds it hard to coach, track or support them.
Partner attachment is stronger than company attachment
Sales staff identify with the lender they sit with, and a move of the partner relationship can take people with it.
Volume pushes mis-selling risk
Pressure to attach a policy to every loan can lead to customers who do not know what they bought.
Underwriters and sellers are measured differently
The seller is judged on volume, the underwriter on quality, and each blames the other when results disappoint.
Claims staff carry hard conversations
Handling rejected or delayed claims takes emotional strength, and training for it is usually thin.
Specialist talent is scarce
Actuarial, pricing and risk staff are few, in demand and sought by larger insurers.
HR topics for financial and credit insurance providers
Start with the topics that matter most here: Performance Management; Employee Engagement and Experience; Organisation Design. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for banking, financial services and insurance, not in general.
Performance Management
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Employee Engagement and Experience
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Organisation Design
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
HR Strategy and Workforce Planning
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Onboarding and Probation
A first day that is the same for the fifth joiner as the first.
Employee Administration
Records, attendance, leave and the day-to-day HR that must simply work.
Compensation, Payroll and Benefits
Salary structure, payroll inputs and a month that closes on time.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
Career and Succession Management
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Employee Relations
Two routes — one for complaints, one for conduct — kept separate.
Policies, Compliance and Governance
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
Health, Safety and Wellbeing
Induction, records, incident reporting and follow-through.
Retention and Attrition Management
Who leaves, when, why — and which of them mattered.
Exit and Alumni Management
Resignation to relieving letter, in a defined order.
HR Technology and Automation
Records that survive people, and approvals that do not queue.
HR Analytics and Management Reporting
A short monthly pack management actually reads.
HR Operations and Governance
An HR function that runs the same way every month.
What a working HR set-up looks like
The pieces a financial and credit insurance providers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Agree a joint people framework with each partner
Who sets the targets, who handles leave and discipline, how performance feedback is shared and what happens when the partnership changes.
What this coversHide
Agree a joint people framework with each partner
Who sets the targets, who handles leave and discipline, how performance feedback is shared and what happens when the partnership changes.
What this coversHideWho sets the targets, who handles leave and discipline, how performance feedback is shared and what happens when the partnership changes.
Keep placed staff connected to the company
Regular visits from a manager, a monthly review and a clear route for a concern.
What this coversHide
Keep placed staff connected to the company
Regular visits from a manager, a monthly review and a clear route for a concern.
What this coversHideRegular visits from a manager, a monthly review and a clear route for a concern. See employee engagement and culture.
Score sales on customer understanding
Include sales quality checks, such as whether customers can explain the cover, in the scorecard.
What this coversHide
Score sales on customer understanding
Include sales quality checks, such as whether customers can explain the cover, in the scorecard.
What this coversHideInclude sales quality checks, such as whether customers can explain the cover, in the scorecard. The performance management process shows how.
Bring underwriting and sales to a common table
Joint review of declined and accepted cases, using the organisation design approach to settle roles and decision rights.
What this coversHide
Bring underwriting and sales to a common table
Joint review of declined and accepted cases, using the organisation design approach to settle roles and decision rights.
What this coversHideJoint review of declined and accepted cases, using the organisation design approach to settle roles and decision rights.
Train claims staff for difficult conversations
Practical sessions on explaining decisions kindly and clearly, drawing on communication skills and emotional intelligence training.
What this coversHide
Train claims staff for difficult conversations
Practical sessions on explaining decisions kindly and clearly, drawing on communication skills and emotional intelligence training.
What this coversHidePractical sessions on explaining decisions kindly and clearly, drawing on communication skills and emotional intelligence training.
Start by checking where you stand
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. These checks take an afternoon and tell you which of the topics above to start with.
Share your requirements- List staff placed in partner locations and when each last met a manager from your company.
- Check what share of your sales scorecard concerns customer understanding rather than volume.
- Sit with the claims team for a day and note the hardest conversations they handle.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the insurance-sector, conduct and employment obligations that apply to your business.
Confirm with a qualified professional. What applies to you depends on your business, your state and your arrangements, and it changes. This page describes practice. It does not state a legal position.
How GullyHR helps
The services below fit this kind of business best. Each starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes.
- Performance management process
Scorecards that balance volume with customer understanding, and underwriting with sales.
- Employee engagement and culture
Keeping placed staff attached to your company as well as the partner.
- Organisation design
Clear decision rights between underwriters, partner teams and sales.
- Communication skills
Practical training for claims and servicing conversations.
Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
Our HR transformation approach
- 1
Assess
Understand the business, its workforce, current processes and HR challenges.
- 2
Identify gaps
Find the missing, weak, inconsistent or person-dependent processes.
- 3
Design
Create the structure, processes, policies, SOPs, dashboards and systems needed.
- 4
Implement
Help HR and department managers actually adopt the new system.
- 5
Automate
Digitise repetitive and approval-based workflows where it is worth doing.
- 6
Measure
Track hiring, attendance, employee cost, performance, training and attrition.
- 7
Improve
Strengthen the people-management system continuously, not once.
Blogs worth reading first
From the GullyHR blog: one on HR in banking, financial services and insurance, and one on each of the topics this page points to.
HR Management
Why employees need clear expectations before performance reviews
A review can only judge what was agreed beforehand. How to set expectations that are specific, written and revisited, so the review stops being a surprise.
5 min readRead article
HR Management
The engagement survey that made things worse
Eighty per cent responded, the report was thorough, and six months later trust was lower than before. What went wrong between the survey and the silence.
8 min readRead article
HR Management
Everyone reports to the founder: when and how to redesign the structure
A flat structure works until the founder becomes the only route to a decision. How to tell when you have passed that point, and how to redesign without a reorganisation.
8 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Questions owners ask
Your company remains the employer and should hold the line on targets, conduct and performance. Agree with the partner how day-to-day direction and feedback are shared so the employee is not caught between two bosses.
Include customer-understanding checks in the scorecard, train on the product and on what to say, and act on complaints. Incentives that reward only volume push behaviour the other way.
Offer interesting work, a clear technical career path and fair pay checked against the market. People in scarce roles often leave over lack of challenge before pay.
Practical training for hard conversations, a manager who listens, rotation where possible and recognition. Their stress is often hidden.
Yes. We start with a conversation about the partnership and the team you need, then work on hiring, onboarding and the people framework.
More on HR for banking, financial services and insurance
All 10 business types in banking, financial services and insurance · Find another business type
Health insurance providers and TPAsGeneral insurance companies and brokersBanksCredit services companiesCo-operative banks and credit societiesFintech companiesPerformance Management in banking, financial services and insuranceEmployee Engagement and Experience in banking, financial services and insuranceOrganisation Design in banking, financial services and insurance
See all HR topics for banking, financial services and insurance, or another industry.