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.
7 min readRead article
Banking, Financial Services and Insurance · General insurance companies and brokers
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.
Not sure what you need? Tell us about your business in six short steps and we will come to the first meeting prepared.
Share your requirementsA 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.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in general insurance companies and brokers, you may see
- Agents are managed without authority
- Renewal teams face the same list every year
- Surveyors work alone and on call
- Claims pressure peaks without warning
- Sales and claims see different customers
- Brokers depend on a few seniors
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 general insurance companies and brokers
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.
- 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.
HR topics for general insurance companies and brokers
Start with the topics that matter most here: Performance Management; Learning and Development; HR Strategy and Workforce Planning. 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.
Learning and Development
Training planned from need rather than from the calendar.
HR Strategy and Workforce Planning
How many people, in which roles, by when — and what they will cost.
Organisation Design
Structure, reporting lines and who is allowed to decide what.
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.
Career and Succession Management
Named backups for the roles that cannot be vacant.
Employee Engagement and Experience
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
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 general insurance companies and brokers business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
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.
What this coversHide
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.
What this coversHideRegular training, quick answers to agent queries and a plain statement of earnings, so loyalty rests on service as well as commission. See training consulting.
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.
What this coversHide
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.
What this coversHideWork with the team to agree realistic renewal targets from list quality, and use the performance management process to review them fairly.
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.
What this coversHide
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.
What this coversHideDuty rosters, rest, travel and conduct norms and a safety check-in, through the attendance, shift and leave process.
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.
What this coversHide
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.
What this coversHideA pre-agreed way to bring in extra hands, reallocate staff and give time off afterwards, drawn up with HR strategy and workforce planning.
Spread broker relationships
A second named contact for each key client and written client notes, as part of succession planning.
What this coversHide
Spread broker relationships
A second named contact for each key client and written client notes, as part of succession planning.
What this coversHideA second named contact for each key client and written client notes, as part of succession planning.
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 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.
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
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.
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 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.
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 TPAsFinancial and credit insurance providersWealth management firmsBanksCredit services companiesCo-operative banks and credit societiesPerformance Management in banking, financial services and insuranceLearning and Development in banking, financial services and insuranceHR Strategy and Workforce Planning in banking, financial services and insurance
See all HR topics for banking, financial services and insurance, or another industry.