4 onboarding tech features to help insurers compete and win

To succeed in today’s competitive insurance marketplace, companies must manage growth, handle change effectively and balance multiple priorities. Agents and agency channel partners are playing an increasingly important role for insurance companies, which are facing sustained growth rates of approximately 10 percent per year, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics projections.

At the same time, agent turnover rates are high at about 40 percent per year, which could leave some companies onboarding up to half of their total pool of agents each year.  

Related: Digitizing the insurance process – are you ready?

To address the challenges of industry growth and agent turnover, insurance companies need a way to bring agents onboard quickly. The onboarding process has traditionally been complex, with companies handling corporate and regulatory compliance issues and verification requirements through multiple manual steps. The delays caused by the onboarding process can hamper companies’ ability to get agents into the field to generate new revenue. But new onboarding technology solutions can simplify the process considerably — and provide a major competitive edge.  

How to choose the right onboarding solution 

Technology solutions that streamline credentialing can provide a real competitive advantage. But it’s important to choose a scalable solution with the flexibility to handle multiple workflows. Ideally, an onboarding solution would be customizable to meet varying requirements, as well as capable of effectively managing the documents and tracking license and appointment expirations.  

Before choosing an onboarding solution, it’s important to clearly define all possible use cases and identify the requirements to onboard in your organization. The right solution should support all the territories, states, product lines and agent classifications the insurance company handles.

It’s crucial to know in advance that a proposed solution: 

1. Allows customization to address a broad range of business scenarios 

2. Integrates with background check and learning management systems 

3. Works seamlessly with e-signature solutions and integrates with current company systems 

4. Easily accommodates changing regulations with date-sensitive capabilites 

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When evaluating a potential onboarding solution, insurance company decision-makers should carefully evaluate the following factors: 

IT configuration and support requirements: Companies have their own unique requirements, so any robust onboarding solution will require some level of configuration to maximize the investment. But it’s a good idea to find a solution that doesn’t require extensive IT support, since most corporate IT teams are already stretched thin. An ideal solution will allow marketing and operations staff to manage routine updates and changes. It should also come with a strong feature set built in, including correspondence functions that allow business staff to send out legal notices, advisories and contract term updates.