GET READY, GET SET, GO!

Rough Notes, Apr 2004 by Clarke, Connie

Career planning for CSRs

Occasionally I will ask one of my Dynamics of Service classes: "Is there anyone here who wants a more exciting job and also wants to be making a good deal more money five years from now?" Typically, all in attendance will raise their hands (except, of course, for the participant who is near retirement). Then I ask: "Do you expect that to happen if you continue to do everything exactly the same as you are doing now?" Hmmm. They think about that a bit. No, they admit, it probably won't happen, unless something changes.

Yes, growing professionally and financially doesn't happen accidentally. Your best insurance (pun intended!) that this will occur is to plan for it. If you want something more than what you have right now, the best way to start is simply to write down where you are now and where you want to be sometime in the future. Next, determine if you truly have a passion for your goal. Be careful not to want something just because it's what you think others expect of you. Without the goal being your hope and dream, there will be only a slim chance of its becoming a reality.

Strategic planning. Goal setting. Objectives. Interim goals. These terms and activities all apply to management and supervisors, not to the customer service reps in an agency, right? Well, quite often that is true. CSRs generally aren't actively involved in planning agency goals with their employers. However, for CSRs who want to achieve professional and financial growth in their jobs, all of these activities are useful tools for career planning.

Let's explore a typical scenario. Joan is a CSR is an agency. She has worked in the insurance industry for eight years; her first two years were as an underwriting assistant for an insurance company. She started at XYZ Agency six years ago as an assistant CSR. She now manages a good-sized book for a successful producer. She has children in school and is involved with their activities as well as those of her church. Her husband seems well-anchored in his job in their community. In order to obtain the CE credits she needs for her license, she attends various continuing education courses sponsored by local professional insurance organizations. So, life is good, but she feels she is getting in a rut professionally. She just doesn't know what she wants to do later in her career. There isn't a lot of upward mobility where she now works. Given all of these circumstances, she doesn't see much reason to prepare for a job that is more exciting and offers better pay. Does any aspect of this sound familiar?

Setting goals

There's no time like the present for Joan to "Get Ready" as the first step in career planning. She needs to identify her goals in the same way businesses work to identify theirs. The "SWOT Method" assists in this process-assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

What are Joan's personal strengths and weaknesses? What situations or circumstances would offer her opportunities or hamper or threaten her progress? Some examples will help explain the value of this method.

Perhaps Joan knows the agency management system inside and out (S), but she caii'L handle Excel spreadsheets as well as she should (W). What are her job-related strengths and weaknesses? She has a good handle on most coverages (S) but is weak in garage insurance (W). That is a start on the S and W part of SWOT. The opportunities and threats factors are somewhat outside of her control. Perhaps the community is growing and there could be higher positions in other agencies in a few years (O). Maybe she would like to test the waters in selling (O). The state/town has taken an economic downturn (T); it's likely that the boss's kids will be slotted in any higher-level positions in the office (T). So now we have an understanding of what SWOT is all about.

Now for the "Get Set" part. What do we do about our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats? First, are our present strengths important to our dream job? Do we need to broaden the scope of those strengths, or partake in activity to maintain or develop them? Does our dream job require new skill sets or knowledge that we need to develop or nurture?

Education

Many weaknesses can be eliminated, or at least reduced, through education. Let's examine some of the sources available for Joan to learn Excel and, say, garage insurance. Internally, there may be an education department within the agency that could conduct training sessions. Other likely sources are an evening class at a local high school, classes at a vocational school or college or a computer-specialty training firm. Self-help books such as the "Dummies" series and a whole array of others are available to learn almost any software programs. Numbers of resources are available for Joan to learn garage coverage: BISYS commercial auto Pictorial, certain National Alliance classes, AICPCU/IIA courses, reference books from The Rough Notes Co., IRMI manuals (either paper or online), and many others.