Differentiate Yourself During the Recruiting Process

Millennials and Females Value Training

LIMRA tells us that today’s candidates, especially millennials and female recruits, are heavily swayed by the ongoing training and educational programs that organizations offer, as well as the technology by which they deliver it. They see education as the pathway to growth and new opportunities.

To differentiate your group from others, quickly demonstrate your training program to candidates. For example, the FSEdNet curriculum is composed of hundreds of engaging, brief training videos that were developed exclusively for this profession.

To make this a “Wow!” factor to the right candidate, this content should be available from a mobile application. This will demonstrate how they will have 24/7 access anytime, anywhere, on any device, which is what today’s millennials seek. The curriculum must demonstrate how they will gain the insights and knowledge, as well as the skills and habits, it takes to build a successful practice — not just sessions on products, compliance, and selling systems.

Have candidates download the mobile app, another “Wow!” factor, and provide them access to a sampling of the dynamic curriculum, which is only a part of the overall training they will receive. Seeing this app on their devices will be a constant reminder of you and the opportunity you are offering.

To Gauge Candidates’ Interest, See if They Watched the Videos

After showing the training platform to your candidates, ask them if any of the other firms they have met with have a dedicated learning mobile app — or anything even close to this ongoing curriculum. Many organizations will have a virtual university, but unfortunately, most are primarily focused on compliance and product information. Those topics are important, but neither of them will train or develop associates with the needed information, concepts, skills and habits they need to build a successful practice. This will be a great differentiator.

A day or two later, you’ll be able to see if they watched all the video sessions, a few of them or none at all. Now, that’s a great way to gauge their commitment and interest.

Once they have committed to joining you, it becomes all about getting them off to a fast start. The second part of your hiring process should be designed to allow the candidate to understand what it takes to survive and thrive in this industry.

It’s Like Drinking from a Fire Hose

Most organizations have an initial training curriculum for their new agents/advisors; however, these programs can easily become overwhelming. New producers retain little of the information because so much is being crammed into such a short period of time. Coursework in these initial curricula will focus on various products, underwriting, compliance, the selling system, prospecting, paperwork, and learning numerous computer and virtual systems. And these are only a sampling of all the content delivered during this initial agenda. The overall retention numbers in this profession have not, for the most part, increased in recent years, so something has to change.

LIMRA reports that more than 87 percent of those who leave our profession do so because of a lack of activity, not because of products, underwriting, selling systems, and so on. So, it’s critically important to develop the prospecting skills and habits that will last for your associates’ entire career.

It is never too early to start learning how and why prospecting and client building will be their keys to success. We recommend that you start as early as when they are studying for their licensing exams. They cannot interact with any consumers and learning products, so training them on your selling system is really putting the cart in front of the horse. What they need, and what they really want, is a war chest of names of people they will see once they become licensed. And even more importantly, they will learn how to become prospecting machines, constantly gathering new names of potential clients. So much for the Project 100; now they should be looking at a Project 500.

Starting this early will also allow both you and your potential associates to understand what each has to offer. You will quickly see if they have the resilience and ability to not only learn but to execute on what they have learned. They will get the answer to their biggest question: “Who am I going to sell?” They will also see how just a small part of your training curriculum delivers on what they need to know, as well as the ease of getting the information, insights and clear directions. These programs should be available both in a facilitator-led format, as well as a competency-based e-learning solution.

Today’s agents/advisors, especially millennials, fundamentally think about their jobs as an opportunity to learn and grow. Their strong desire for development is the greatest differentiator between them and all other generations in the workplace today.

Without a doubt, a properly structured and well-executed pre-hire program will help take your new agent/advisors’ productivity, and thus retention, to a new level.

FSEdNet: Video Training for Everyone in Your Organization

Our training isn’t just for new hires, though. Our three training platforms provide competency-based learning that is ideal for everyone in your organization: FSEdNet for advisors and agents, FSLEdNet for leaders, and FSSEdNet for employees/staff members.

FSEdNet has developed a two-part Pre-Hire Program that will not only make your organization stand out from the competition; it also provides insight into a candidate’s commitment and chances for survival. Our carefully selected sessions will grab candidates’ attention, motivate them and ignite their desire to learn. We can even add proprietary videos about your specific company and opportunities.

Visit hello.fsednet.com today to request a demo, schedule a consultation or learn more about our competency-based e-learning solutions tailored to the financial services profession.