Introduction
This leading US retirement and life insurance company has offered a range of products for over 11 years. They have over 1,500 employees, 400 of which work in operations.
Leveraging Industry Learning for Employee Success
This member company has a rich history with LIMRA and LOMA, including LL Global Board of Directors participation and historical usage of LOMA’s designation and certificate programs to help employees become familiar with the insurance industry.
The Operational Excellence team is responsible for onboarding new hires, training existing employees, and upskilling and reskilling industry professionals. This valuable team uses a data-driven approach to document all training processes and ensures employees have the proper information to do their jobs well.
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“We utilize LOMA designation programs for getting employees up to speed on the life insurance industry. We’ve now added Industry Advantage for onboarding, upskilling, and reskilling.” – Operations leader, LOMA member company |
Redesigning the Onboarding Process with Industry Advantage
A few years ago, this company required new hires in operations contact centers to participate in an 8-week onboarding program, consisting of a course curriculum within PowerPoint slides. This curriculum was an arduous, passive-learning process for new hires, resulting in low retention of information and employees. Many new hires left the company before completing onboarding, and many of those who stayed did not reach proficiency until after 6 months in their roles.
The Operational Excellence team wanted to expedite employees’ proficiency, ensuring they understand the insurance business and handle calls accurately. Goals for the updated training included a shorter onboarding time frame, improved employee retention rates, and to have new hires demonstrating proficiency within 90 days. To do this, they revised their entire new hire training curriculum to include more active learning modalities. Coincidentally, LOMA released Industry Advantage — an industry-specific, just-in-time learning program — around this time. The Operational Excellence team reengineered the Contact Center new hire training program to include Industry Advantage courses and company-specific content weaved into an updated, 6-week curriculum.
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“Often our Contact Center employees come from outside the insurance industry and need to quickly understand our products and services. Our updated program needed to get employees up to speed quickly, encompass a variety of learning styles, and break the curriculum into digestible sections.” – Operations leader, LOMA member company |
The Results
As part of the new program, employees can attain four levels of proficiency after completion of training — beginner, novice, proficient, and expert. From the first iteration of the redesign, the Operational Excellence team saw valuable improvements. The average time to “proficient” has been reduced from 6 months to 3 months.
The utilization of Industry Advantage has also reduced attrition. This company is already seeing the need for fewer new hire classes, as employees are moving into their roles after program completion and feel supported and more confident to perform their jobs. Overall, they have seen a 20% reduction in attrition, with their improved onboarding and training a key contributor to this success.
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“Employees are no longer drinking from a fire hose when they’re first hired to learn every aspect of the complex insurance business. The information provided by the Industry Advantage courses we have integrated in the training curriculum is designed with a layered learning approach — take the course, apply it to their role, practice translating the learning in mock calls, rinse, repeat.” – Operations leader, LOMA member company |
The Future of Industry Advantage
The Operational Excellence team is now redesigning the entire new hire onboarding program to include all areas of operations beyond just the Contact Center. They plan to continue leveraging the Industry Advantage courses and LOMA designations in the new onboarding curriculum as well as upskilling and reskilling programs.
Learn More About Industry Advantage
Learn more or reach out to IndustryAdvantageSupport@loma.org.