Every day, insurance companies are bringing hundreds, even thousands, of agents from all over the world together in one classroom to earn their continuing education (CE) credits, and, typically, the agents are back to work in the same day. Better still, it costs just $1 to $40 per person.
Thanks to the Web, carriers are delivering interesting, entertaining and easily digested CE coursework - along with virtual meetings, compliance reporting capabilities, marketing materials and other training - to their agents, who can find help online whenever they need it. But, is it working? According to a number of insurers with varying needs, the answer is yes...
"For any company, traveling to a class is tough because everyone is over scheduled, so having education at the desktop is very valuable," says Len Brevik, CEO of PIA, the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (Alexandria, Va.), which has relied on Atlanta-based Learn.net for the past year to provide PIA state and regional affiliate associations the opportunity to offer CE and non-CE skills training courses through their association Web sites. "A number of agencies and insurance company sales forces are small businesses, and each employee is critical," Brevik continues. "If someone leaves to take a class or attend a meeting, that can create a challenge for the entire business…"
The PIA's Brevik also stresses the importance of selecting the right e-learning partner. "We are the content experts, so we can put material together and provide a course," he says. "But it is still important to find a technology platform that can present the course in the correct manner - in manageable chunks that allow employees to be educated quickly while being somewhat entertained," he continues.
The key goal for the PIA, according to Brevik, is to deliver services to its members, including education for agency owners and staff about insurance concepts, trends and regulations; information for agents about changing insurance company offerings; and advocacy for agents in legislative matters. Through the organization's partnership with Learn.net, PIA affiliates can offer up to 70 CE courses and more than 2,000 non-CE computer, business and technical courses to both PIA members and non-members in their states, at a price of $35.95 for members and $39.95 for non-members, which includes testing and CE filing. "We are happy with the flexible partnership, which allows us to be scalable and move quickly and at our members' convenience," relates Brevik.
The e-learning initiative is in Phase 1 only. According to Brevik, the PIA plans to build out a larger educational platform that will include additional training materials. Learn.net not only provides the PIA with the ability to deliver courses, it also enables the organization to pull programs and classes designed by affiliated state associations into its platform, he relates. And the PIA currently is working to expand many of the state-specific programs into national offerings...
For the PIA, a major benefit of Learn.net's Web-based collaborative platform is its ability to facilitate organizationwide communication. "We are working on building an early warning radar network on Capitol Hill as regulations impact the industry," reports the PIA's Brevik. He explains that the PIA will use the network to identify and track emerging regulations and alert companies when legislative requirements change…
Further, the organization plans to conduct surveys electronically and send feedback to Congress to lobby for change, according to Brevik…
Virtual University
Boston-based John Hancock Insurance also partnered with Learn.net to create an online learning platform. The carrier, a subsidiary of Manulife Financial (Toronto; $271.6 billion in funds under management), provides fast refresher courses to agents on sales appointments through its Web-based education center, John Hancock University.
"Our agents have the ability to look up marketing ideas on a 24-7 basis," says Frank King, VP of education for John Hancock, who refers to the refresher courses as "just-in-time learning." "By doing that, the real benefit is that it maximizes the time our sales force gets to spend in front of prospects and clients."
According to King, the virtual university was updated a little more than two years ago to look more like an actual university. This is an important feature, notes King, who says usability is a major consideration when choosing an online education program. "You enter into what looks like a college campus with six buildings - a classroom, an administration building, a resource center, a career center, a student union and the John Hancock University store - so you can always easily find what you are looking for," he explains. "We have consistently gotten positive comments on the navigability of the site."
Through reporting capabilities offered by the vendor, John Hancock also can examine usage and identify any problems with the system. "Technical challenges tend to be minor but numerous," relates King. For example, the insurer has had to make sure agents are using the correct e-mail addresses to log on and access the site, otherwise their CE credits will not be tracked correctly, according to King. Additionally, preparing for the uptick in activity at the end of the training year (which runs from July 1 to June 30) in which agents receive credit requires attention, he notes...
But the worth of e-learning goes beyond cost savings, according to John Hancock's King. "There is a cost advantage, but the biggest advantage is being able to track attendance and performance automatically," he says. "The tracking makes it easy for us to figure out when we need to change content, and keep track of the training and progress of our field force [of 1,400 representatives] in compliance and mandatory training activity," King continues. "There is really an overall convenience factor."
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