Presented at ORBiT Real Time Days 2014 Keynote address by: Alex Gallacher, EngageHR The high-tech, consumer-savvy, not-too-distant future may very well require different skills than we have traditionally hired for or trained for. Let’s talk about what skills we actually need to be building in our existing staff and looking for in those we hire. If we don’t have those skills ourselves, how do we hire for them? What do we need to know, how difficult is it to learn, how big a leap is it? Whether you’re a broker or a carrier, you need to know and we’re here to tell you!

1. REFINING YOUR
SKILLS FOR THE
NOT TOO DISTANT
FUTURE
Alex Gallacher,
EngageHR

2. FRIENDS, THIS IS NOT DISNEYLAND.
AND OTHER GUIDES TO NAVIGATING THE
RIVER OF CHANGE
Alex Gallacher MBA, CHRP, SHRP, ICD.D

3. EVER BEEN WHITE WATER RAFTING?
Here’s what we know going in:
• Wear protective gear!
• Mental and physical strength are required.
• Listen to your guide.
• The river can be unpredictable, with
lots of hidden dangers.
• The river moves fast. You can not stay
in the same spot. If u don’t navigate it
properly, the river will knock you around
and could overturn your raft.
This adventure is not for everyone. If you fear it, here is one critical fact to
consider….

4. THIS IS NOT DISNEYLAND;
THE RIVER CAN’T BE TURNED OFF!

5. Let’s apply the WWR metaphor.
Good news: Running a brokerage today can
be as exhilarating as a good WWR adventure.
Bad news: The environment we are in today
makes it tougher and tougher to do this successfully.
Why? We are reactive about:
• Political environment driving consumers
• Economic environment (M&A activity, direct writers)
• Shifting demographics
• Constant technological changes
We have no control over these forces. The rate of change will only
accelerate.

6. Reality Check
A May 2014 Canadian Auto Insurance Study published
by J.D. Power/McGraw Hill Financial reveals:
26% of respondents rated “Interaction” as the #1 factor in customer satisfaction.
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30%
Interaction
Policy Offerings
Claims
Customer Ranking

7. Bigger Reality Check
The study also found that as compared to last year:
• Interactions with Local Agents or Brokers is 6%
lower.
• Interactions with call centre representatives are
4% higher.
• Website Interactions are 2% higher.

8. WHAT CAN WE CONTROL?
We can use what we know about the external
environment to better prepare for and navigate that fast
moving river.
• Question: What is the most critical and yet
underleveraged tool in your business?
• If you guessed your BMS, think bigger, more expensive,
more fun and more challenging.

9. People

10. How to better leverage your people
before you hop onto the river:
Hire for competencies that enable change:
• Flexibility / Adaptability
• Relationship Management / Development
• Innovative Thinking / Problem Solving
• Pro-actively Customer Centric
How to do this:
• Make a job ad sing
• Behavioural and team (not panel) interviewing
• Personality/personal inventory tools & metrics
• Ensure the business culture and systems enable the behaviours that you want.

11. Onboarding and Integration
Think about how we normally do this:
• Meet the troops
• Show the ropes
• Train
• Incentivize
• “Integrate”
What’s the result a year later?

12. MORE OF THE SAME
• We tend to try to make people fit
the company mold.
• Problem: the company mold, as it stands is likely
breeding process efficiency, not flexibility and
innovation.
Join me for 10 minutes of interesting insight with
Dan Pink.

13. VIDEO
• Drive: The surprising truth about what
motivates us:
• www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

14. Key Messages
• We have to start to think differently about how
great work happens.
• Innovation and creativity tend not to happen in a
4X6 cubicle under fluorescent lights, in front of a
computer, with a manual that offers step by step,
error free transactions to take
place, with rewards that
incentivize speed and volume.

15. Multi-Tasking Merril
I Got
This!
• Flexibility / Adaptability
• Relationship Management /
Development
• Innovative Thinking /
Problem Solving
• Pro-active Customer
Centricity

16. Create the Environment
If you want to breed innovation, flexibility, fun,
ability to build relationships with customers:
• Create an environment that enables those things
where your “change agents” can thrive.
• Build your job descriptions, performance
management construct, company policies,
rewards and recognition programs to support
these.

17. What would happen if:
• Your change agents were allowed to work from home one day a month and
his/her only task is to come up with a process improvement?
• A team meeting happened outside the office once a month, lead by a change
agent, to discuss/present a topic of his/her choice related to change?
• Part of regular work included working in a different department for two
weeks at a time until all employees have worked in every department….doing
that department’s work?
• People were rewarded for innovation?
Take a dive! It’s an experiment. Trigger those right
brains and see if creative ideas come forward.
Then it’s your job to help see those ideas through.

18. Closing Thoughts
The river is moving fast.
This is not Disneyland, it’s white water.
BUT
You CAN greatly influence, enjoy,
and reap the rewards of the ride.
Grab your paddle!

19. Enjoy the balance of
ORBiT’s Real Time Day 2014
ENGAGE HR™
www.engagehr.com
#ENGAGE_HR
905.306.8111