Industries
Why BFSI employees leave and how to understand why
Sales producers, branch staff and operations teams in financial services leave for different reasons. How to ask what shaped their decision and act on it.
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Banking, Financial Services and Insurance
HR for General Insurance Companies and Brokers: Agents, Surveyors and Renewals
General insurance sells motor, property, travel and commercial cover through agents and branches, and settles claims on the ground. Agents, surveyors and broker staff each need different support, and a claims surge tests whether on-call duty was planned or improvised.
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Share your requirementsHow the work is organised
A general insurance company or broker covers vehicles, property, travel, marine and business risks. Its people include agents and sales officers who build business, renewal and telesales teams who keep customers year after year, underwriters, claims staff and field surveyors who assess damage at the scene or the site. Brokers add placement specialists who negotiate with several insurers for corporate clients. Work follows renewal seasons, and claims peak after floods, accidents and festivals. Agents are often not employees, which makes management by influence rather than instruction. See also HR for banking, financial services and insurance.
Who does the work
- Agency managers and sales officers
- Telesales and renewal executives
- Underwriters
- Motor and property claims staff
- Field surveyors and loss assessors
- Broker placement and account staff
- Branch and operations staff
Where HR strains in general insurance companies and brokers
Agents are managed without authority
Agents are independent, so an agency manager can only motivate through support and earnings, and many agents drift to rival insurers.
Renewal teams face the same list every year
Telesales staff call customers who may already have been contacted by three others, and targets rise whatever the list quality.
Surveyors work alone and on call
A surveyor goes to an accident site at any hour, and the pay, rest and conduct rules for that work are often vague.
Claims pressure peaks without warning
A flood or storm brings a burst of claims, and staff are asked to work long hours without a plan for relief.
Sales and claims see different customers
The seller promises easy settlement and the claims team has to explain the limits, so customers are unhappy with both.
Brokers depend on a few seniors
Corporate client relationships rest with one or two people whose departure would cost the broker clients.
What a working HR set-up looks like
- 01
Build an agent support routine
Regular training, quick answers to agent queries and a plain statement of earnings, so loyalty rests on service as well as commission. See training consulting.
- 02
Clean the renewal list before the target
Work with the team to agree realistic renewal targets from list quality, and use the performance management process to review them fairly.
- 03
Set rules for surveyors on call
Duty rosters, rest, travel and conduct norms and a safety check-in, through the attendance, shift and leave process.
- 04
Plan a catastrophe response
A pre-agreed way to bring in extra hands, reallocate staff and give time off afterwards, drawn up with HR strategy and workforce planning.
- 05
Spread broker relationships
A second named contact for each key client and written client notes, as part of succession planning.
What to put in place first
- List agents who sold nothing in the last year and ask three why they stopped.
- Check whether surveyors have a written duty roster and rest rule for call-outs.
- Name the second contact for each of your ten largest broking clients.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the insurance-sector, agent 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.
Where GullyHR helps
- Performance management process
Fair targets for renewal and sales teams, based on list quality and real capacity.
- Attendance, shift and leave
On-call rosters and rest rules for surveyors and claims staff.
- Founder dependency and succession planning
Relationships that do not depend on one senior person.
- Training consulting and implementation
Agent and staff training that is practical, regular and trackable.
Every engagement starts by recording where you stand, and every later report compares against that. We do not promise outcomes. Start with a free conversation, or see the paid HR Diagnostic.
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 Process
The training calendar nobody attends: fixing the learning and development process
A calendar of courses, a budget spent by March and no record of what any of it changed. What a learning and development process contains when it starts from need rather than from the catalogue.
7 min readRead article
HR Management
"We need two more people": the headcount plan nobody wrote
Hiring decisions made one request at a time, in the month the pain is worst. What a workforce plan contains and why a twelve-month view changes what you hire.
7 min readRead articleMore on the GullyHR blog.
Questions owners ask
Offer clear, timely earnings, quick service on queries and training that helps them sell. Agents leave for firms that make their work easier.
Base them on the size and quality of each list and on past conversion, not only on last year plus a percentage. Targets people consider fair are easier to hold them to.
A published duty roster, a fair way to compensate on-call and travel time, rest after long call-outs and a daily check-in. Confirm working-time and pay obligations with a qualified professional.
Decide beforehand who can be reallocated, how outside help is brought in and how staff are given rest afterwards. Making it up during the event is exhausting for everyone.
No. We work on your own team's hiring process, performance design, training and retention.
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