The scale of insurance salesmen (including agents) began to grow rapidly in 20 15 after the China Insurance Regulatory Commission cancelled the insurance salesman examination. At the end of 20 17, the total number of employees exceeded 8 million, but the growth rate slowed down, but it still maintained rapid growth. With the expansion of the scale of insurance agents, a large number of newly recruited agents flood into the industry, but there are hidden concerns behind the prosperous talent market: under the condition of high recruitment, the personnel pattern of high turnover, low retention and even net outflow restricts the overall efficiency of the offline exhibition industry of a single agent. The serious problem of agent drain has become a major obstacle to the healthy development of the insurance industry.
1, the problem of low drug retention rate needs to be solved.
In 2004, the data of "Agent Survey Report" released by Boston Consulting Group showed that the loss rate of insurance agents in China was as high as 70%-80% in the first year. By 2008, the average annual retention rate of insurance agents in China will remain at around 30%. During the period of 20 15-20 17, the retention rate of college students recruited by the insurance industry showed a decreasing trend of 60%, 50% and 40% year by year. In the past three years, with the overall decline in the growth rate of industry premium income, the growth rate of per capita premium of agents began to decline, and the retention rate of1March also continued to decline.
Personal agents who frequently join or leave the company will easily lead to uneven quality of the marketing team; The loss or job-hopping of a large number of newcomers and agents who have been employed for less than one year has not only increased the human resource cost of insurance companies, but also affected the customer experience and relationship maintenance of long-term insurance. The agent's retention dilemma is also a microcosm of the insurance industry to some extent.
Judging from the recruitment mode, unlike the strict agent screening mode abroad, most insurance companies in China adopt the mode of "big entry and big exit": attracting a large number of new people and then eliminating them in large numbers, and relying on the recruitment rate higher than the turnover rate to maintain crowd tactics. The low barriers to entry in the recruitment process, as well as various recruitment channels such as "referral", online recruitment and entrepreneurship briefing, have kept the recruitment rate of insurance companies at a high level; However, the agent lacks professional exhibition training and long-term career planning after joining the company, and is more likely to retreat, give up or leave when facing performance pressure.
From the perspective of income structure, most agents have low basic salary and high commission, and the commission income is generally determined according to the new sales volume and commission rate. According to the "20 18 White Paper on the Ecology of Insurance Intermediary Market-Investigation Report of Insurance Marketers" issued by China Insurance Association, about half of the agents earn less than 6,000 yuan a month, and only 9.2% earn more than 20,000 yuan a month. For new agents, although the commission rate of the new policy is higher in the first year, insurance products with high premiums generally need a certain professional background and a higher level of knowledge, so it is more challenging to sign the bill successfully. However, the salary system at different levels limits their income and further increases their professional pressure.
In addition, the performance incentive system of "those who pass the examination are rewarded and those who fail the examination are downgraded", which is not conducive to the income promotion and effective retention of newcomers, and is also the "last straw" to crush many agents.
2. Take measures to realize the sustainable development of talents.
The agent team is the core asset of an insurance company. In recent years, the insurance industry has made a series of attempts to improve the retention rate of agents.
From the beginning, many insurance companies have been actively optimizing recruitment standards, trying to change the lax agent screening model. The Regulation on the Supervision of Insurance Sales Practitioners, which came into effect on July 20 13, has stipulated that agents must have a college degree or above. In addition to the education threshold, insurance companies have also begun to pay attention to the "soft power" of candidates in recruitment, including comprehensive qualities such as sales ability, pressure resistance, integrity level and learning awareness. The "Golden Collar Talent Recruitment Plan" of AIA and other insurance companies also sets a threshold for the working years and past income of social recruitment candidates.
Focusing on entry, many insurance companies actively provide pre-job paid training and actively carry out long-term career planning for newcomers. At the same time, it is also an innovative move of some insurance companies to establish occupational insurance to reduce the responsibilities that agents may bear due to various misleading sales behaviors. For example, the professional liability insurance for insurance agents launched by Zheshang Property Insurance will compensate the economic losses suffered by third parties due to negligence of insurance agents in the process of agency business.
In addition, the scale of agents and per capita production capacity are the main driving forces for premium growth. Therefore, while solving the problem of agent retention and improving the efficiency of human resources, improving the productivity of individual agents is not only an important way to increase the value of channels, but also helps to strengthen the agent retention rate.
3. Insurance technology helps transform and upgrade the agent team.
China Insurance Agent Channel Survey Report 20 19 shows that insurance technology has begun to show its talents in empowering agents, including mobile technology for billing, electronic planning and customer service, and artificial intelligence technology to liberate agents from simple processes.
Using emerging technologies to update and transform traditional insurance agents is a high-quality development proposition thrown to the insurance industry in the information age, and it is also one of the ways for insurance companies to improve the overall retention rate of agents. For example, during the epidemic in early 2020, online training based on smart sales training applet can help agents improve their sales ability; The online shopping malls and intelligent terminals with a sharp increase in traffic have also reduced the cost of obtaining customers for agents, allowing experienced agents to concentrate on marketing services with high intentions for customers.
The Outline of the 13th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Insurance Industry in China points out the need to establish multi-level, multi-component and multi-form insurance intermediary services, which also encourages insurance companies to develop small, community-based and store-based agent teams, and explore innovative forms such as independent agent system and "Internet plus insurance agents" to promote the sustainable development of talents.