by Shirley Lukens & Brian McNeely, June 2011

National Underwriter

According to an analysis by the St. John’s University School of Risk Management, every seven seconds a Baby Boomer turns 60. That means a lot of people will be retiring from the agency ranks in the next 5-10 years.

How will agencies fill that talent void? With great difficulty say most agency principals. As a result, they are looking outside of the industry and/or focusing on “growing their own” talent. But finding talent can be difficult, especially when younger people are reluctant to consider a career in insurance because they have a negative perception of the industry. To fight this perception, an increasing number of agencies are implementing internship programs as a way of identifying and recruiting top performers before they choose other careers.

One example is McGriff, Seibels & Williams, a national brokerage firm based in Birmingham, AL. They have maintained a formal internship program for more than 20 years. According to Temple May, McGriff’s HR Director, the goals of the program are two-fold. “It helps support our reputation as a progressive organization, which includes being a great place to work and a great business partner.” She added, “We target young people who want to have a career in insurance. When they have a positive experience with McGriff, they remember it and talk about us wherever they go.”

However, the primary goal is to recruit quality employees. Temple said, “Interns are exposed to all areas of our business, working with many of our people during their 6-8 weeks. One week an intern may observe and assist in the service area, and another week, may help prepare a proposal and accompany a producer on a sales call. If a position is available at the end of the internship, both parties determine if there is any interest in the permanent position. We’ve had success with interns we have hired. Several former interns are still employed with us today.” She added that the firm has enjoyed the most success when filling production and marketing positions with former interns.

Temple did acknowledge a couple of “unsuccessful” intern hires but qualified the term. “We’ve had one or two who left us because they felt we did not bring them along as quickly as they wanted or needed to move.” The lesson for other firms that choose to hire an intern as a permanent hire is to determine and discuss up front all expectations. This includes duties, responsibilities, goals, support, education and the typical timing and requirements for advancement. Once on-board, both parties should monitor and communicate progress to ensure that expectations are being met.

Mitch Watson, COO and CFO at Keenan & Suggs in Columbia, SC, agrees and offers this additional word of caution to agencies new to hiring interns, “Many college graduates want or expect to earn larger starting salaries than what our industry traditionally offers, especially on the service side. However, they don’t have the experience necessary to warrant the compensation. If you want to keep these young people, you need to be able to show them a career path and what it will take to get there.”

Finding interns can be another challenge. McGriff has developed relationships with several academic institutions that refer intern applicants to the firm. Temple shared that she attends career fairs on campuses and that others on the McGriff team often speak to insurance classes. She feels that these activities help create interest in their internships. Most years the firm selects 2-4 interns and those who apply for the program are selected based on personality, skill set and enthusiasm for the position.

When asked why a firm’s employees would want to spend time and energy on interns she said, “They love what they do and want to share what they know. Most like being mentors to these young people.” 

An agency need not start from scratch when implementing an internship program. InVEST, a classroom-to-career education program developed and administered by the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America, has developed an Internship Guide. This excellent resource walks you through important elements of internships – including issues of compensation, credit, and legal implications – and provides you with a framework for developing your own intern program. For more information contact Diane Mattis in the IIABA Education Department – 1-800-221-791 or visit their website at www.investprogram.org.

Structured internship programs like McGriff’s may not be appropriate for agencies that are unable to commit the significant resources needed to maintain a program, but internships can take other forms. Swingle Collins & Associates located in Houston, TX offers part-time employment opportunities for college and graduate school students as well as others who are referred to the agency via local schools and a network of strategic relationships.

Frank Swingle, principal, said “We usually have two to three “part-timers” on staff to perform clerical functions, run errands and help with miscellaneous tasks that no one else has time to do but has to be done. It is entry level work, but they do a variety of things throughout the agency so they gain a pretty good idea of what we do here."

He is quick to point out the differences between formal internships and what he feels his agency offers. “We are creating different expectations for these young people.  We are not trying to create an experience where they can preview our industry and we aren’t trying to support a carefully planned and monitored work experience. We are offering employment, a paying job. As their employer, we have basic expectations and requirements for work that don’t require a lot of our oversight. This has worked better for us than trying to manage an intern.” 

Swingle indicated that frequently one of these young people will show potential for a more demanding job in the agency or will even ask to be considered for a higher level position. “Two of our newest employees stayed with us when they graduated.  We offered one a job in our accounting department, and the other asked us to let him stay on and try his hand at production,” said Swingle.   “We knew they had good work ethics and were competent so it was a good way to get a couple of quality employees.” 

As obvious as it may seem, successfully funneling interns or part-timers into full-time agency positions begins with hiring the intern with the best profile for the agency.  Swingle said, “We don’t specifically target young people who want a career in insurance, but we usually wouldn’t offer a part-time position to a pre-med major from New York because the chances are slim that we could recruit them after graduation regardless of how good we thought they were.”

Mary Flynn, senior vice president at Harden & Associates in Jacksonville, FL concurs. Her firm implemented a formal internship program a few years ago specifically to target young people interested in becoming producers.  Because of the significant commitment the firm must undertake with each intern, Flynn shared that Harden uses the same recruitment strategies to find a good intern as to fill a permanent position.

Flynn stated, “We pre-qualify all candidates to assure they have the requisite skills and competencies to be a successful producer, have an interest in working in our geographical area, are committed to the program, and are considering the internship opportunity as a potential stepping stone to a permanent position after graduation.” She added that an intern is expected to be a self-directed individual who would take ownership of his or her own program. To assure that the intern stays on track an executive producer is assigned to the intern and is available to provide direction and guidance throughout the program.

She noted that the program has been successful and added, “The support our associates offer the interns has grown as more have seen how successful young people can be entering this business.” This fact is corroborated by Reagan Consulting’s Young Producer Study which indicated that the median validation period for a successful young producer in the industry is 22.5 months.

A recent survey of the 2010 Best Practices Agencies showed that 21% of the firms had offered internships during the last 5 years. Almost all were paid internships with work concentrated in the P&C side of the agency.  However, some of the firms used the interns to do special projects including web design, blogging, IT support, and HR support.  During the same time period, 70% of the firms had hired one or more permanent employee from their intern ranks. 

According to the INVEST Internship Guide, which is available to anyone for free at www.investprogram.org, interns can provide a wide range of work without requiring a great deal of industry specific expertise including new business development assistant, marketing/placement assistant, account manager intern, producer intern, accounting assistant, technology coordinator, and communications coordinator. The guide gives sample job descriptions for all positions and suggests the academic disciplines to consider when seeking these people. 

It also offers the following suggestions to help assure that you have a positive intern experience, especially if you are using it as a recruitment tool.

1.  Give the intern real work so you both can assess whether a career in the industry and your agency is appropriate for the person.

2.  Make sure the work the intern will be performing is consistent with the descriptions you have shared with the person. It they will be doing “grunt” work only, let them know so neither party has false expectations.

3.  Remember interns are students, possibly lacking business skills and experience. Be sure to provide feedback, explaining how work needs to be done and how well they are performing their duties.

4.  Include them in the daily life of your workplace such as staff meetings, project meetings, office lunches, etc.

5.  Be prepared. Make sure that everyone understands the role of the intern, that a work plan is ready, tools to do the job are supplied, and a physical work spot is assigned.