CNO Financial Group is finding it easier to keep experienced agents right now than to recruit new ones.
Gary Bhojwani, the Carmel, Indiana-based life and health insurer's CEO, talked about the effects of a tight labor market on agent recruiting last week, during a conference call the company held to go over earnings for the second quarter with securities analysts.
The second quarter ended June 30.
"I've been involved in a handful of groups both within the insurance industry and other industries with other business leaders," Bhojwani told Ryan Krueger, an analyst with Keefe Bruyette & Woods. "I don't know a CEO out there right now that's not worried about ability to get labor. Every single CEO I've talked to regardless of industry has expressed concerns over the tightness of the labor market and how difficult it is to get help. So we are absolutely no exception in that regard."
CNO is now benefiting from moves it made before the COVID-19 pandemic came along to focus more on retaining veteran agents and brokers rather than maximizing the number of new producers, Bhojwani said.
The agents in CNO's consumer division sell products such as supplemental health insurance and life insurance to consumers through one-on-one meetings.
At the consumer division, CNO has intentionally followed a strategy of recruiting a smaller number of higher-quality agents.
"The new agents we appoint are more likely to succeed and stay with us," Bhojwani said.
