Canada’s modern insurance brokerage has digitized exponentially over the last few years. But learning new technology can tap a broker’s time and energy, which is already stretched thin.
The roots of tech fatigue reach back about four years. The COVID-19 pandemic became a launching point for change within brokerages that needed a nudge to modernize their operations. Traditional brokerages quickly had to adapt or be left in the dust.
But adopting new tech, or replacing old processes with new ones, doesn’t come without growing pains.
That’s where change management comes in, said speakers at IBAOCon24’s broker tech panel.
Change management is an approach used to guide employees through operational changes — in this case, new technology implementations — and help them adapt to a new process or workflow.
Danish Yusuf, founder and CEO of Zensurance, shares how change management has been a worthwhile investment for his brokerage.
“Our accounting platform went from Excel to QuickBooks to SAP; payroll changed four times as we grew. So, one of the things we’ve always been investing in is that change management skill,” he says.
“We have three trainers in-house [who] train all the people leaders on change management, because we know that’s the only constant.”
Although staff get accustomed to the tech changes introduced over time, leaders can make it easier by properly explaining how a new process will be better than the old one, explains Zac Sutherland, president of Sutherland Insurance.
“People get used to it, get comfortable with it, and embrace it, as long as you make it clear that the problem you’re trying to solve is one that will help them better [get through] their day, [get] better at what they do, and that [the tech] will be better than [before],” Sutherland says.
“If you’re not moving forward, you’re not going to get to that next level,” he says. “Our team evolved within that [mindset], and the team we have today has become very comfortable with change.”
Still, it’s a fine line for brokerages to implement tech in a way that inspires rather than strains their staff.
“The buy-in is super, super important. So spend some time on that, because the technology adoption will be much easier,” says Laura Gallo, partner and head of broking operations at Purves Redmond.
“Garbage in, garbage out; data is important. And from an operational perspective, all the things that we do for processes and procedures and workflows, they’re actually just critically important to making [employees] lives better.”
Jessica Man, chief financial officer and chief operating officer at BrokerTeam, shares how developing tech buy-in by staff has benefitted her brokerage.
“We have to let our staff, our brokers know that technology can help…because people have a comfort zone that you have to move over, but they have to perceive [a benefit] on an ongoing basis,” she says. “We have good return…and [staff know] most of those technologies can be a tool helping them in the future.”
Feature image by iStock.com/VioletaStoimenova