First Security Insurance’s Customer and Agent Relations Expert (C.A.R.E.) New Hire Training program aims to help entry-level employees provide world-class service to all customers and to to give new hires the necessary knowledge for expanding their role within the company.
Program Details
The training is segmented into three phases, allowing new hires to incorporate classroom training, eLearning, and job shadowing. This provides new hires an extensive opportunity to have hands-on training between each phase.
The phases are segmented into the various job responsibilities the employees will be required to demonstrate on a daily basis. These tasks incorporate customer service, claims, and underwriting. The three segmented phases are:
Phase 1: System of Record Platform, Billing, and First Notice of Loss
Phase 1 consists of nine days of training. This training provides an overview of the system of record, which is an application platform that stores all policies, claims, and the insured’s data. The new hire has ample opportunity to practice various tasks within this platform, such as taking billing calls or first notice of loss calls. This phase also includes customer service training and handling difficult calls. Once the new hire has completed the nine days of training, they spend two weeks shadowing and taking calls pertaining to billing and first notice of loss.
Phase 2: Claims and Underwriting Manuals and Forms
Phase 2 is an eight-day training course broken into two parts: six days of underwriting and two days of claims. In this training phase, the facilitator goes in depth with each of Security First’s insurance product forms. They also discuss the various types of claims calls the new hire may receive and what their responsibilities. Once they have completed this training, they again job shadow with the Underwriting and Claims teams in addition to the Billing and First Notice of Loss lines.
Phase 3: Underwriting
Phase 3 is the final phase of the new hire training and lasts six days. This phase provides continued in-depth training in specialized areas such as endorsements, inspections, cancellations, authorizations, and wind mitigation. Once this training is completed, the employee shadows on the respective call lines as they will have been trained in all aspects of their job responsibilities.
During this time, each new hire also is required to obtain their customer representative license, also known as their 4-40 license, that they take via Security First’s learning management system (LMS) and a third party. This license must be obtained during their first 90 days.
Checkpoints are included throughout each of the phases. During Phase 1, there are knowledge checks, plus role-playing with peers within the class and a final exam. During Phases 2 and 3, there are daily knowledge checks, Q&A sessions, and games to help reinforce material.
Results
The business impact showed an increase in Security First’s QA CPI score from 161 to 232 (out of 300), which is a 35 percent improvement and puts the company close to its goal of 260. Additionally, the company met its goal of increasing its Google Review Customer Rating by 2 points, as it rose from 1.5 to 3.5 out of a possible 5 points.
