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Insurance Companies & Agencies · Insurance companies
HR for Insurance Companies: Sales Forces, Underwriting and Claims Desks
An insurer runs a sales force of agents and officers, back offices for underwriting, policy service and claims, and a branch network in between. Each part has a different kind of employee and a different way of being measured.
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Share your requirementsAn insurance company sells policies through agents, brokers, banks and its own branch staff, and then services them for years. Its employees sit in sales and agency development, underwriting, policy servicing, claims and the head office functions. Branches are numerous, and a branch manager leads both salaried sales officers and a pool of agents who are not employees at all. Sales numbers run to monthly and quarterly cycles, with a rush near the financial year end. Claims and service teams carry a different pressure, because they meet customers on bad days. The wider BFSI hub covers what financial employers share.
- Plan
- Hire
- Onboard
- Manage
- Develop
- Perform
- Engage
- Retain
- Exit
- Improve
When HR is weak in insurance companies, you may see
- Sales officers carry targets for agents they do not control
- Year-end rush distorts everything else
- Claims staff face distress all day
- Underwriters are scarce and slow to grow
- Branch managers have unclear authority
- Different pay for similar work after mergers or product changes
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 insurance companies
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.
- Branch sales officers
- Agency development managers
- Underwriters and risk assessors
- Claims processing and settlement staff
- Policy servicing and customer care staff
- Branch operations managers
- Training and agent support staff
- Regional and zonal heads
- Telesales and renewal callers
Roles we help you hire in insurance companies
GullyHR runs talent acquisition for permanent roles in insurance companies. For each role we agree the job description with you, find and screen candidates against it, and support the offer through to joining. Tell us the role and the number of people, and we start there.
Job descriptions for this sector
We recruit permanent employees. We do not supply contract or temporary staff.
We set up the interview and hiring process for insurance companies
Every business interviews, but few have a written process that works the same way for every role and every interviewer. GullyHR designs yours, from the role brief to the offer, trains your managers to run it, and can run it for you on the roles you hand us.
1. Role brief and scorecard
We agree what the role must deliver, the must-have and nice-to-have skills, and how each will be scored.
2. Stages and sequence
Screening call, assessment, interview rounds and decision points, sized to the role and the number of people you hire.
3. Question bank and scoring
Structured questions for each role family and a rating guide, so two interviewers judge the same answer the same way.
4. Interviewer readiness
A short briefing for your managers on what to ask, what to avoid and how to give a clear yes or no.
5. Offer and follow-up
Who approves, how the offer is made, and how candidates are kept informed from first call to joining.
Where HR strains in insurance companies
Sales officers carry targets for agents they do not control
An officer is rated on business from agents who come and go, so results swing and the best officers are asked to do the impossible.
Year-end rush distorts everything else
Sales leave, hiring and appraisals all bend around the last quarter, and service staff are pulled into a push that is not their job.
Claims staff face distress all day
People settling or declining claims hear from upset families and need support, a clear script and a manager who backs them.
Underwriters are scarce and slow to grow
Judgement comes from years of cases, and a resignation leaves a branch or line short of people who can take a decision.
Branch managers have unclear authority
They are asked to deliver business and manage staff, yet decisions on pay, transfers and discipline sit far away.
Different pay for similar work after mergers or product changes
Staff hired at different times under different schemes sit side by side, and the differences are rarely explained.
HR topics for insurance companies
Start with the topics that matter most here: Recruitment and Talent Acquisition; Performance Management; Policies, Compliance and Governance. Then work through the rest. Each topic is written for banking, financial services and insurance, not in general.
Recruitment and Talent Acquisition
Requisition to joining, the same way every time.
Performance Management
Goals, reviews and ratings that hold up in a conversation.
Policies, Compliance and Governance
Policies a manager can apply, and obligations with owners and dates.
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.
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 Engagement and Experience
Communication, recognition and the conditions people actually work in.
Employee Relations
Two routes, one for complaints, one for conduct, kept separate.
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 insurance companies business puts in place, in an order that makes each easier. Open any card for the detail.
Split the measures for sales and service
Sales officers rated on business and persistency, service staff on turnaround and customer feedback.
What this coversHide
Split the measures for sales and service
Sales officers rated on business and persistency, service staff on turnaround and customer feedback.
What this coversHide
Sales officers rated on business and persistency, service staff on turnaround and customer feedback. The performance management work builds this.
Plan the year-end quarter early
A calendar for leave, hiring and extra help that is shared in the first quarter, so the rush does not catch teams short.
What this coversHide
Plan the year-end quarter early
A calendar for leave, hiring and extra help that is shared in the first quarter, so the rush does not catch teams short.
What this coversHide
A calendar for leave, hiring and extra help that is shared in the first quarter, so the rush does not catch teams short. The attendance and leave process uses it.
Support the claims desk
A script for hard conversations, a rotation away from the heaviest cases and a regular conversation with a senior about what they heard.
What this coversHide
Support the claims desk
A script for hard conversations, a rotation away from the heaviest cases and a regular conversation with a senior about what they heard.
What this coversHide
A script for hard conversations, a rotation away from the heaviest cases and a regular conversation with a senior about what they heard.
Grow underwriters on a ladder
Graded authority limits that rise with reviewed cases, with a senior reviewing before a trainee decides alone.
What this coversHide
Grow underwriters on a ladder
Graded authority limits that rise with reviewed cases, with a senior reviewing before a trainee decides alone.
What this coversHide
Graded authority limits that rise with reviewed cases, with a senior reviewing before a trainee decides alone. See competency management.
Spell out the branch manager's role
A one-page list of what a branch manager decides, recommends and cannot do on people matters, agreed with the region.
What this coversHide
Spell out the branch manager's role
A one-page list of what a branch manager decides, recommends and cannot do on people matters, agreed with the region.
What this coversHide
A one-page list of what a branch manager decides, recommends and cannot do on people matters, agreed with the region.
Start by checking where you stand
Before changing anything, find out what is true today. Work through the checks using a recent operating period. The time needed depends on the records you hold; note missing evidence and use the findings to choose a priority.
Share your requirements- Ask your regional heads how many sales officer seats are vacant and for how long.
- Compare the sales target and actual spread across branches for the last year.
- Ask claims staff what the hardest part of the week is and how it is handled.
- List underwriters by years in role and note who can decide alone.
- Read the pay rules for officers hired before and after your last scheme change.
- Confirm with a qualified professional the rules on appointments, record keeping, conduct and employment that apply to an insurer like yours.
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.
- Recruitment process consulting
Hiring for sales officer, underwriter and claims seats with role profiles and a practical trial.
- Performance management and incentive design
Separate measures for sales, service and claims, with incentives that value renewals and fair dealing.
- Competency and talent management
Authority ladders for underwriters and claims staff based on shown judgement.
- HR policies and governance
Clear policies on conduct, transfers, incentives and the branch manager's role.
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.
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Questions owners ask
Use a mix of business generated, agent activation and retention, and renewals that stay in force. Pure volume ignores how much of the result the officer actually influenced.
Targets that reset every month, pay that depends on the business mix and unclear support from branch heads. Clearer territories, steady early support and fair target setting reduce exits.
Give them a script, shared case review, a limit on heavy cases per person and a manager who is available. Training in listening matters as much as training in process.
Yes. Sales cares about business and renewals, service about accuracy and speed, claims about fairness and turnaround. Keep common values, but use different role measures and separate calibration groups.
Plan leave and extra help in the first quarter, spread target conversations over the year and avoid pulling service staff into sales. A shared calendar prevents last minute shortages.
We would ask how many sales seats are open, how targets are set across branches and how claims staff are supported. A usual first job is a sales and service measure set with an underwriter ladder. Scope is written for your approval.
More on HR for banking, financial services and insurance
All 6 business types in insurance companies & agencies · Find another business type
Life insurance agenciesHealth insurance agenciesCorporate brokersIndependent insurance agenciesMotor insurance agenciesRecruitment and Talent Acquisition in banking, financial services and insurancePerformance Management in banking, financial services and insurancePolicies, Compliance and Governance in banking, financial services and insurance
See all HR topics for banking, financial services and insurance, or another industry.