11 Aug Give New Employees a Taste of Your E&O Culture
Let’s face it…when you hire a new employee, there is a lot of training planned for that individual. After dealing with HR and meeting their new team, the training starts and this includes systems, procedures, carriers, responsibilities, etc. This new hire orientation is detailed, with the hopes of getting the new staff member headed in the right direction. As the saying goes, “you don’t get a second chance to make a good first impression.”
Unfortunately, there is one area that might not get the attention it deserves. This involves giving your new employees a good understanding of the E&O culture in your agency. Projected retirement numbers for the industry tell us that there are going to be a significant number of new staff joining agencies, and there is certainly the chance that some of them don’t know much about E&O. You may find that when E&O is brought up, a new employee (or two) may even ask what E&O is. This is definitely an area where agencies should not assume the new employee knows what E&O is – or even if they do, they may not know what your agency’s E&O culture is all about. Without question, the E&O culture of your firm is going to be heavily influenced by the level of E&O training these new staff were provided upon joining your agency.
Some issues to consider:
- Provide an E&O overview. Once a month, gather all new staff in your conference room (or through some form of technology for remote employees) and provide an E&O overview. Possibly use a PowerPoint presentation to review the key ingredients. I am looking to do my upcoming webinar (December 1) on this topic, so that is one option. Another option would be to have your E&O Plus reviewer do an E&O session when they are on-site and require new staff to attend.
- Have the new employee watch some of the E&O Plus webinars that are stored on Passport. These cover a variety of topics and issues. These can be watched individually or as a group. One take-away that new staff should get it the importance of proper documentation. While the phrase “document, document, document” has been engrained in us for years, don’t assume your new staff fully understand the value of a high level of documentation. Even with staff that came from another agency, your guidelines regarding documentation are probably much higher. Share your agency’s expectations for documentation with the new staff.
- Have the new employees subscribe to this blog. Then, once a month, get the new staff together and get their take on what they have learned.
- Don’t assume new staff with insurance experience get what E&O is all about. Let’s look at issues involving your agency system. Just because you hire a new employee that has knowledge of your agency system, it is important to understand that your agency may use the system differently than how your new staff member used the system at their previous employer. Having a written procedures manual which details the use of the system will play a key role.
- Have a defined focus on auditing the work of your new staff. Auditing will play an especially important role in verifying the new staff are meeting the agency’s expectations. If they are not, action plans to address the issues should be developed.
Bottom line, providing a taste of your E&O culture will let the new staff know that you are an agency that takes E&O very seriously.