How to Keep Insurance Staff Motivated During Renewals Season

Ready for open enrollment?

As peak season approaches, many benefits brokers are gearing up for a difficult time of year when overtime, stress, and employee burnout commonly soar. Is your team prepared to handle the increased workload? Here are a few tips for keeping your workforce happy and focused on your customers during this open enrollment period.

1. Support your team

Before the busy season hits, consider offering your employees additional training on time management and prioritization. In addition, make sure employees know they can approach you if they are struggling with their workload, and be proactive about it. As an added gesture, send weekly email updates to your team, acknowledging and thanking them for their hard work.

2. Start a friendly competition

You can experiment with different competitions—daily versus weekly, or individual versus teams. One insurance agency we work with allows the employee who is the quickest in completing benefits update forms to take an additional Friday off (as soon as open enrollment period is over).

As an alternative or additional incentive, you can offer a free lunch or dinner to the employee who wins each week, or other prize options, such as two tickets to a movie, a gift certificate to a store, or tickets to a sports game.

3. Consider Outsourcing

Keep your insurance organization running at full capacity with the aid of a business process outsourcing partner. Outsourced staff can complement your full-time employees’ schedules, as they typically have more flexible hours and can work late at night or even during weekends. Additionally, your full-timers will feel less stressed and appreciate your taking note of the amount of work that needs to be done while you continue to be responsive to your clients’ needs.

CASE STUDY: INCREASING TIME WITH CLIENTS

Navigating increasing employee benefits market demands, seasonal stress, and regulatory complexity can be tough, even for experienced benefits brokers. One broker found that despite remarketing approximately 80% of renewals, only about 5% of their clients changed carriers.

ReSource Pro worked with the broker to develop a four-part solution that would allow them to:

  • Define a pre-renewal meeting process
  • Segment accounts to tailor services
  • Deploy a carrier strategy
  • Reduce time spent on following up

READ CASE STUDY ON OPTIMIZING BENEFITS MARKETING

After implementing the solution, the business saw dramatic productivity gains. By initiating conversations in advance of renewals and devoting time to better understanding carriers, plans, and client needs, the time spent per renewal decreased by an average of 29%. There was also a 35% reduction in renewal marketing, which led to a 25% increase in time that producers were able to devote to client relationships and new business generation.


Looking to enhance your benefits operations? Find out how ReSource Pro can support your insurance organization during peak season, navigate regulatory challenges, and optimize your operations by visiting our Employee Benefits page.