How Recruiting Shaped a President’s Approach to Insurance | Insurance business America
It’s about listening to your people…
Life & Health
By Emily Douglas
In 2009, Jacqueline Roth (pictured center), president of employee benefits at IMA Financial Group, found herself at a crossroads.
She was initially hesitant to delve into the insurance world, but a chance meeting with her company’s CEO opened her eyes to the profound impact health insurance has on individuals’ lives and career decisions.
“What I didn’t fully realize at the time was that there was a team of people behind this one decision and that it had enormous power and influence on people’s lives,” she said. “Once I got a handle on the possible implications, I thought, ‘Maybe I could believe in this.’ And the rest is history.”
Moving on to her role at IMA Financial Group, Roth’s unique approach was shaped by her background in recruiting. Her metrics and quality-based perspective transformed her from one sales role to another with a focus on solving problems through employee benefits programs.
“I am fortunate to have had training opportunities at Robert Half,” she told Insurance Business. “It was a metrics-based system that focused on that [the idea that] If you talk to enough people, open enough doors, and have a quality product – and our product was people – then you will create connections. I have brought this philosophy into my work as a health insurance consultant because people are still at the center of the entire conversation.”
The importance of listening
When Roth moved from recruiting to consulting, she discovered a common challenge for employers: listening to their employees. Roth believes her job is to help employers truly understand the needs and wants of their workforce.
“Often, [leaders] At the end of the year we say, ‘We just don’t know if our people appreciate this.’ And my question to them is, ‘Have you listened?’ How would you know if they appreciate it?’” she said. “As I transitioned a little bit from recruiting to working with HR decision makers, the question for me was, ‘What is the goal?’ What are you trying to tackle?’ And by taking so many of the skills that I had learned in recruiting around metrics and quality and applying them to this area, it worked for me – I was able to network with the same group that I had been working with, viz HR managers and CEOs. ”
Switching between recruiting and insurance may sound like a leap, but as Roth told Insurance Business, there are some transferable skills – not least an understanding of how to gracefully deal with unforeseen obstacles. This special ability came into play with the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
“Initially there was fear and panic about what would be mandated,” Roth explained. “And while it took several years to achieve compliance with certain components, many people weren’t talking about what more could be done to develop a meaningful program that met the goals they had as an organization.
“I think it’s been a real test for the industry to see how quickly we can move to supportive reporting rules that we’ve never had to comply with before – measuring affordability, getting accurate information through MLR and in other ways can work with network operators.” ”
In discussing larger, more unified challenges for employers, Roth emphasized the difficulty of listening to a large workforce. Her solution? Remember recruiting days by conducting surveys and creating opportunities for employees to express their needs.
“It’s easier to have four people decide on 1,000 than to listen to 1,000 and have four people make a more informed decision,” she said. “In my role we are able to help employers listen to their employees.
“Whether in person, often through technology, we can conduct surveys and provide listening opportunities for our customers. So that when the data comes back, we don’t just sit in a room and think about the funding strategy or the voluntary benefit that we need to introduce this year. We can say, “We asked your people and learned what’s important to them.”
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2024-04-19 14:10:35
www.insurancebusinessmag.com
