The
3 most costly mistakes with problem employees. Separation notice
help.
Whether you are firing your problem employee or laying off workers
because of downsizing, you must give each worker a formal separation
notice. It is a crucial part of the termination process. And while
every termination is different, all separation notices should follow
a similar format. This is not to say you do not have to tailor each
separation notice, you do. But you can use a basic template and change
it depending on your circumstances.
What a Separation Notice should contain
First, a separation notice should have basic employee information.
You should include the employee's name and social security number.
Then list the dates the employee started work and date last worked
and the reason that they were separated from employment. Be careful
when giving reasons for termination. Get rid of any discriminatory
language or unprofessional wording.
You must make sure your employee clearly understands the reasons
for the separation. Also you must have documented evidence to support
those reasons. If you have collected this information properly, the
employee will not be surprised by his or her current predicament.
Finally there should be an area for both you and the employee to
sign off on the separation notice. This gives you legal evidence
the employee knew why you were letting him or her go.
Needing
to separate an employee from your company? This is how I terminate.
Attitude Insurance Everyone knows the importance of having a positive attitude, especially in the health insurance industry. Even negative people say that they have a positive attitude.
All agents have seen it one time or another. They are at a meeting, and in the hallway during one of those five minute breaks they notice a woman on the telephone. In fact, she’s on the phone on every break. Finally one agent says, "calling your husband, huh?" to which she quickly responds, "No! Setting appointments." She’s obviously protecting or insuring her ‘good attitude’. She’s making sure that the outside influence of a meeting will not affect her production goals or her ‘good attitude’.
Or, what about the guy who’s sitting at a table by himself at the Monday morning ‘turn-in’ meeting. He’s busy wrestling with a pile of papers and hasn’t said a word to anyone. Someone goes up to him and says something about the monsoons or scorching heat or earthquake in China last week and he barely acknowledges their presence. "All those papers must be apps", he mutters to the group in the hall.
An example of Attitude Insurance:
Sam, a new agent, rode with John, a seasoned pro, for a week. Monday, John finished setting up his week. He already had about eight appointments and added another 7 or 8. It didn’t look too difficult, people just seem to like him. On Tuesday, things started going bad. The first appointment wasn’t there so they just introduced themselves to a few other businesses. The next person didn’t qualify medically, but they did sell the NBA membership and a critical illness policy. Wednesday they encountered severed thunderstorms. Their first appointment was the owner of a tow trucking company and was a no-show. They went next door to a beauty shop and found five beauticians and a receptionist looking very bored because all their customers had canceled due to the weather. They took to them immediately, offering coffee and a place to dry off. During the three hours before their next appointment, they wrote up every one of those ladies.
Still raining something awful, they went to their next appointment. It was a mechanic shop on the other side of town. The rain was blowing completely horizontal with no signs of letting up, so they made a mad dash for the door. The ground was so soft that Sam lost one of his brand new shoes in the mud. The owner and one employee helped them in and long story short, was so impressed with John’s presentation that he quickly called his brother over. They ended up selling 3 families. Thursday, John’s car broke down on the way to their appointments. So they had to call Sam’s wife to pick them up and use his car the rest of the day. John had over $20,000 in AV that week. He never once let the elements get in his way. He was constantly thinking of positive solutions to every situation. It was John’s best week to date.
So, where does attitude insurance come from? Attitude insurance comes from the same place things like honor, discipline and integrity come from…inner self. An agent’s friends and co-workers surely help but for him to truly have the good attitude, he will have to be the one to get it and protect it. The agent is the only one who can give himself an Attitude Insurance Policy.
The really great news is that there is no cost associated with obtaining this policy. Not in terms of money anyway. The cost is the agent’s action and their discipline. Agents must discipline themselves to take action against all those outside forces that adversely affect their good attitude.
By not protecting his attitude, an agent’s focus and ability to perform sound reasoning will be destroyed. Failure to protect a good attitude will certainly feed a bad attitude.
If an agent wants to make $4,000 a week selling insurance, he can. But if he sets a goal to make $4,000 a week and doesn’t do his due diligence to gain the proper knowledge and discipline, it won’t happen. And what do happens next? Well, believe it or not, this person is now looking for ways to cancel their Attitude Insurance Policy. They actually seek out other unsuccessful people to confirm their lack of success is justified --- again, from another unsuccessful person.
Dropping attitude protection, even for a moment, can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Ironically, highly successful people who encounter great challenges have those really huge Attitude Insurance Policies.
About the author:
Dan Roberts is the VP Sales and Marketing for Insurance of America Agency, Inc. A marketing leader in the insurance industry, Dan has worked in operations and sales and marketing at some of the nation’s largest insurance marketing organizations. He is the recipient of over 85 industry awards including a coveted ‘Million Dollar’ gold ring from the agency’s founder. Insurance of America specializes in both operational and sales and marketing support for those individuals wishing to build their own successful insurance business or marketing organization.
Dan Roberts, VP Sales and Marketing
Build Your Own Insurance Business
www.byoib.com
888-440-4642
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Needing
to separate an employee from your company? This is how I terminate.
An Introduction to Motivational Speaking -
Everybody speaks. Some people speak and get elected president of the United States. Other people speak and armies of business people take to the streets, generating huge sums of money. Still others speak and people’s lives change. What makes for difference between those who speak and are received by a rapt audience, and those who merely fill the air with noise? Speaking clearly and effectively is a science and that science is called motivational speaking. For some it is more art than science but unlike art, true motivational speaking can be learned, can be taught effectively, and must be practiced. To begin with, the thought of getting up in front of a live audience and speaking about any. . .
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