Can new brokers be trained fast enough?

An imbalance between supply and demand continues to put the squeeze on brokerage firms, say respondents to CU‘s 2024 National Broker Survey.

Broker principles voice frustration that training people to become brokers can’t keep pace with the number of people leaving the industry.

For example, the Canadian Accredited Insurance Broker (CAIB) designation program, which teaches basic, intermediate and advanced broker skills and is administrated by the Insurance Brokers Association of Canada (IBAC), takes one year to complete.

And not much can be done to reduce that time, says IBAC president Traci Boland, since a lot of information is required to train a broker.

“It’s not something you want to rush, because you’ll be putting yourself in a situation in which you don’t have a broker who is prepared to speak to consumers correctly and ensure they have insurance coverage that they need,” she adds.

Education options

Cutting short a broker’s education can only end badly, several broker leaders have noted, citing the potential for E&O claims against the brokerage.

But training time is an issue, say brokers answering the survey (speaking generally, and not specifically about CAIB courses).

One female broker principal respondent leads a small brokerage and has more than 31 years of experience. “Finding qualified workers [and] being able to get staff licensed, this takes a tremendous amount of time,” she comments. “[And it’s] harder for smaller rural brokerages.”

Ditto for medium-sized brokerages.

CU’s survey includes one broker principal with between 16 and 30 years of experience in a mid-sized Manitoba brokerage. She says the “inconsistency of training across provinces, limited course provider [and] time to onboard a new staff member [is] too long.”

She adds uncertainty around auto insurance in Manitoba, plus the lack of courses on the province’s shifting auto product, “makes this [training] process even longer. Brokers have no control over CAIB courses nor Autopac in Manitoba.”

Commercial is critical

Demand for commercial lines brokers is the most acute, the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario reports.

“Many brokerages are looking to hire experienced commercial brokers, but they’re hard to find,” Brett Boadway, chief operating officer of the IBAO, comments. “My advice to brokerages is to invest in commercial lines training themselves.

“IBAO has a certificate program, and we partner with Humber College on a Commercial Account Manager program. But you can’t become proficient in commercial lines from just a textbook. It’s an art, not a science. You require mentorship, job shadowing and tactical experience to develop true competency.

“Our content and partnerships will move aspiring commercial brokers closer to their goal, but brokerages have to invest in mentorship and job shadowing to get them to 100%.”

Getting personal

Across Canada, there is also a strong need for personal lines brokers. Boland says one idea has been to find talent in industries that already train employees in customer service.

“I’ve always given the example of Tim Hortons, where there’s great training with service,” Boland says. “If you’re willing to hire somebody from the service industry, put the time in and get the training completed, that they would be able to move into that position. That position would more than likely be a personal lines position.”

The association has made training commercial lines brokers one of its three key pillars for recruiting new brokers. Its other two pillars include recruiting more newbies and getting them to attain their entry-level broker licenses, as well as offering a Principal Pathway program designed to give more people Level II license skills to help manage brokerage operations.

That’s to help with knowledge transfer, which Boland says has become a huge issue for brokerages where senior leaders are retiring and taking all their knowledge with them.

AI and other automated technologies can also help, Boland adds.

“I just bought two bots,” she tells CU. “I have somebody working on those right now. Because if I can take those two bodies who are doing full-time, very mundane jobs somewhere else, I will definitely do that.”

This article is excerpted from one appearing in the April-May 2024 print edition of Canadian Underwriter. Feature image courtesy of iStock.com/DNY59