How prepared are you with your Employer Brand to start recruiting?
PART 1:
Are You Ready to Recruit?
In this section, we will help you assess your employer brand, provide tools to help you build and strengthen it, and offer best practices on how to make it resonate across communication channels and social networks.
A strong employer brand is critical to attracting, engaging and retaining the best people.
See how you score with this assessment:
Social Media Checklist
- Are your company pages on LinkedIn, Facebook and Glassdoor complete?
- Is your agency logo featured prominently?
- Does your background photo feature photos or graphics that represent your business?
- Are you actively posting content of value to customers, prospects and potential employees?
- Are you measuring new followers, engagement and monitoring reviews monthly?
Website Checklist
- Is your website appealing to customers, prospects and potential employees?
- Are original photos of your agency and employees featured on the site?
- Do you have a Careers page that highlights the benefits of working at your agency?
- Can candidates express interest in careers at your agency online?
- Does your agency’s culture – through mission, values and photos – come through on your site?
Community Involvement Checklist
- Is your agency active in the community, especially in groups and causes that tie to your core values?
- Do you encourage your employees to participate through sponsorships and time off?
- Is your agency visible at community events, including banners, team spiritwear?
- Do you talk about your community involvement on your website and social media?
- Are you connecting with people you meet outside of the community events – both online and in-person?
Professional Organization Checklist
- Are you active in professional organizations, both regionally and nationally?
- Do you enable your employees to participate in professional organizations by sponsoring them and providing time off?
- Are you and your employees actively participating on committees and workgroups?
- Are you connecting with other members through LinkedIn and email outside of meetings?
- Do you take the time to attend meet-ups of new organizations?
Competitive Review Checklist
- Do you have a good understanding of what the other insurance agencies in your area offer (career opportunities, benefits and perks)?
- Do you have a list of other regional employers you compete with for talent?
- Have you assessed your strengths and weaknesses – as an employer – against the other employers in your region?
- Have you used the intelligence about the other regional employers to create a list of differentiators at your agency?
There is a connection between your agency brand and culture and your ability to Win@Talent. Many agencies have focused on developing written mission, vision and values documents that are used internally and in the recruiting process to bring their cultures to life. Agencies can use mission, vision and values with new candidates. It can also inform the candidate assessment process – specific questions can be built around certain values such as integrity, trust and teamwork.
What is a vision statement?
- Future based
- Describes your agency as it would appear in the future successful state
- For internal communications
- Clarifies the why and how
- Answers the question: Where is the company going?
How to create an effective vision statement:
- Keep it short
- Ensure the goals are realistic
- Make it easy to understand and it needs to be written in clear, concise language
- Must be inspirational and aspirational
- Creates a mental image of the future
- Informs direction and sets priorities
Example of a Vision Statement:
Dupont
To be the world’s most dynamic science company, creating sustainable solutions essential to a better, safer, and healthier life for people everywhere.
What is a mission statement?
- Present based
- Describes your agency, what it does, and overall intention
- For internal and external communications
- Clarifies the what you do
- Answers the question: Why does the company exist?
How to create an effective mission statement:
- Keep it short
- Be clear about what value you bring
- Be clear about who you provide value to
- Be specific
- Make it unique to your business
- Be realistic and positive
- Don’t be too limiting
How to create your core values:
- Be detailed
- Get every employee involved in brainstorming ideas
- Be succinct
- Make them clear and memorable
- Keep them visible – employees should see them daily
- Integrate them into team meetings and other work
- Make them real
- Review – and revise as needed – every year
7 questions to define your core values:
- Can you describe your culture in 3 words?
- What’s most important to the business?
- What’s most important to employees?
- What do you like most about the agency?
- What are some of the most difficult decisions you’ve faced and what principles guided you in making them?
- What are you most proud of at the agency?
- What do our customers think about the agency?
Example of core values:
Alliance- We value family and aim to treat every single customer and staff member as one of our own.
- We value the Golden Rule and try to treat everyone the way we ourselves would want to be treated.
- We value honesty, in situations good and bad, as honesty is the bedrock of trust.
- We value generosity and seek to give back to the communities that gave so much to us in our lives.
- We value respect, and seek to avoid judgment, treating others with dignity.
- And we value continual improvement, aiming to always be better than we were the day before.
- With these guiding principles, we are taking aim at a bright, optimistic future. We are aiming higher than we ever have in a mission to reach out and protect more people like you every day.
Example of core values:
Foundation Insurance GroupOrganizations are not always striving for profitability and market share. A successful business does not only look at figures, but how they are achieved. At Foundation Insurance Group, we are motivated to rise to the top, and are just as concerned with how we get there. Our carriers and clients recognized this, and when it came time to define who we are, our core values were the result.
Our Core Values Are Defined As:
Honesty and Integrity
- Completes applications truthfully
- Truthful with clients even if it could jeopardize the sale
- Truthful with underwriters
- Truthful with coworkers
- Admits mistakes and takes responsibility for them
Relationships
- Creating a culture of warmth and belonging, where everyone is welcome
- Treating all with dignity and respect
- Maintains excellent relationships with coworkers, underwriters, company representatives, and clients
Service
- Putting our customers and carrier needs ahead of our own
- Constantly striving to meet or exceed customer expectations
- Giving back to the community and those in need through acts of charity
- Striving to serve each other for the greater good of our fellow employees and the organization
Knowledge and Professionalism
- Producers and Account Managers understand:
- Principles of Insurance and Risk Management
- Underwriting criteria of each company we represent
- Take initiative to learn appropriate subject matter
- Seeks to increase knowledge by pursuing professional designations
- Professional in speech and attire
Competitiveness
- Delivering our very best in all we do, holding ourselves accountable for results
- Performance driven through the lens of humanity
- Giving back to the community and those in need through acts of charity
- Desire to provide the best coverage and price for each client
- Willingness to contribute to the success of the team – not just about Me
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CONTINUE
TO PART 2 - Sourcing, Recruiting
and Hiring