Articles by Mary Newgard

Newgard is partner and senior search consultant for Capstone Search Group, a national recruiting firm dedicated to the insurance industry. For questions and comments, email: asktherecruiter@csgrecruiting.com.

Partner or Pariah? 5 Hacks to Improve Your Experience Working With Recruiters

Q: How am I supposed to use a recruiter when my company had a horrible experience with a firm? A: A great question and an excellent starting point for my advice on working with third-party recruiters. I’ve been in the …

A Clear Path For Agencies Hiring Young Account Managers

As a recruiting partner to insurance agencies, so much of my role is about sourcing account manager candidates that I believe a bigger piece of the hiring puzzle is overlooked. What happens to agencies once they onboard millennials? What is …

Remote Employees: Your Biggest Game Changer to Fill Openings Now

Q: I’m the Talent Acquisition Director for a national brokerage and have been recruiting within insurance for 10 years. I’ve seen all the highs and lows when sourcing experienced talent however 2019 seems to be particularly difficult. My hiring managers …

In Their Own Words: Why Producers Change Jobs

Q: We have a zillion newbies and plenty 50-plus year old veteran producers. I’ve tried the out-of-industry route. Frankly, my agency isn’t good at training. I want experienced, ‘hit the ground running’ sales talent at other agencies. How do I …

How and Where to Start When an Agency Leader Retires

Q: Our executive team wants to start the recruiting process for a chief operating officer. The current leader is within two years of retirement. We prefer to be ahead of the game and have the current COO groom his successor. …

Agencies Promote Soft Benefits to Gain A Distinct Recruiting Advantage

It’s Part of Who We Are “When I first brought up some of these new ideas you would have thought I suggested we all go to the moon,” said Michelle Trueblood, chief human resources officer at The Horton Group. She …

3 Female Agency Leaders on Opportunities in Insurance

I was so intrigued by McKinsey & Company’s “Women in the Workplace 2018” study that I decided to flip the script for my first column of 2019. From a simple question, “What are opportunities for women in the insurance industry?” …

The Insurance Recruiter: Q&A

Q:I’m keenly aware of the talent shortage in our area. As vice president of benefit operations, our agency not only wants to hire more account managers but is battling against the constant solicitation of those employees by our competitors. An …

Where’s Waldo? Enticing Experienced Producers to Your Agency

Getting a picture of who that person is? I’ll never forget that interview experience. In a time such as this, with so much pressure to perpetuate Baby Boomers, I bet you would have hired the 26-year-old me in a second. …

Q&A

Q:My agency’s 2019 producer recruiting plans are under way and one thing is clear. We are definitely going to make substantial investments. In years past, we’ve relied on newbies and college grads to fill the ranks. We’ve sprinkled in some …