Insurance agents across North America were having difficulties hiring excellent Customer Service Representatives (CSR) for their owner-operated businesses. Due to the talent shortage—especially in more rural areas—the State Farm agents needed a tool to help identify “diamonds in the rough” whom they would not normally consider. Most of the owner-operators were relying on their gut instinct to hire people, and they were dismissing applicants who did not interview well but who had great potential. Like most employers who use unstructured interviews to hire, they had around a 50% success rate in hiring top performers. State Farm Insurance was looking to increase their success rate, improve customer satisfaction, reduce employee turnover, and enhance internal morale and culture.
Insurance agents assessed over 4000 candidates across North America using TalentClick’s Workstyle and Performance Profile (WPP), and branch owners benchmarked the top performers. Additionally, job experts completed a Job Analysis questionnaire which was qualitatively useful in creating weighted scores for the overall percentage ‘Fit to Position.’ This data gathered from job experts and top performing agents was used to identify the key skills, characteristics and personality profiles of top performers. From this information TalentClick developed State Farm specific benchmarks and created a specialized version of the WPP for Insurance.
‘Ideal score ranges’ are now overlaid atop each new job applicant’s assessment results, and hiring managers appreciate seeing at a glance how suitable a candidate is for a CSR role. Managers also like using the personalized behavioral questions in each candidate’s WPP-I report, in order to make interviews (and reference checks) more meaningful. Interestingly, State Farm agents now also use the results to identify the occasional candidate who would be a better fit for a sales “hunter” role than a CSR role.
The Workstyle & Performance Profile (WPP) is a behavioral “soft skills” assessment for hiring and developing your best team. The WPP helps predict on-the-job performance for potential candidates and employees, allowing you to make smarter decisions.
TalentClick helped me hire rock star sales producers and excellent CSR’s. We’re seeing better customer satisfaction scores and higher renewals. I know dozens of other State Farm agents have seen their sales increase. The assessment is easy to use and affordable. I think it’s a no brainer.
This WPP-Insurance tool has helped insurance agents build thriving insurance practices. Employee performance and engagement has increased as a result, and branch owners report fewer performance challenges. One agent in Louisiana, Bradley Beck, says, “I used the WPP to find a diamond in the rough. She turned out to be one of my top performers and a wonderful member of our team!”
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