Top Workplaces: At this boutique health insurance agency, helping employees is part of the mission

It’s not surprising that National Senior Benefit Advisors, an insurance company, earned the No. 1 ranking in this year’s San Diego Top Workplaces among small businesses.

Treating employees well is baked into its mission statement.

“Improve the lives of our customers, enrich the lives of our team members,” said Mitch Swersky, the company’s co-founder.

“I think very few organizations out there really explain to their new hires or to their team, why do you even exist?” he added.

The answer: sell insurance. But, Swersky continued, “What is the real reason we exist? We’re improving our customers’ lives by finding them plans and different options that are better for them, and by doing so, we’re enriching our team members’ lives.”

That first why — improve the lives of customers — took root around 2010, when Swersky and the company’s co-founder, Shaun Hunsaker, were friends and co-workers at another insurance agency. After the Affordable Care Act became policy, they branched out in 2013 and started their own agency.

“We wanted to take (our) expertise in insurance, and help people, and start something on our own,” Hunsaker said. Eventually they focused on seniors, working with clients to establish Medicare coverage or find better coverage based on their health needs. “Helping seniors was something that we’re both really passionate about.”

NSBA is growing fast. It has licenses to sell insurance in close to 40 states. In 2018 it employed seven agents. Now it has 81 full-time employees, and about 65 of those are sales agents. “We really hope to double that by next year,” Hunsaker said. Policy volume is up 80% year over year, Swersky added.

The second why — enrich the lives of team members — means a few things, both said. Yes, a job is a paycheck, but they also want to give people a reason to want to come in to work, beyond compensation. They host quarterly outings that include Padres season openers and a San Diego FC match. They provide kombucha and cold brew on tap. People can bring their dogs to work.

One sign they’re doing things right — beyond this ranking — is that their employees have a longer than average tenure for their industry. Salespeople stay an average of more than two years. Others have celebrated four and five year milestones, Hunsaker said. (The industry average tenure for a call center agent is 13 to 15 months, according to Insignia Resources, a staffing company.)

Both know what it’s like to work as sales agents and use that to guide them. These are some other things National Senior Benefit Advisors does to make it an award-worthy San Diego workplace:

Hire people, not merely workers. When they evaluate candidates and employees, they look not just at performance, but also whether someone shares the organization’s core values. These include practicing integrity, having a good work ethic, having a good attitude and being committed to customers. This is important, Swersky said, because it can help people find new roles within the company and keep developing their careers if they’re well aligned on values.

Support workers as whole people. In an anonymous Top Workplaces survey, employees said they appreciate that the company has helped them through tough times, including health concerns. It is not just kind to do this. It fosters loyalty and trust, the co-founders said.

Welcome career changers. “There’s a significant upfront investment, and we have the most success with folks who come in and don’t actually have experience with Medicare or insurance, and come from different backgrounds,” Hunsaker said. “Through our training process and support, we teach them the NSBA way, as we call it, and get them really well versed in helping seniors enroll and plan.” Training keeps coming, as workers are kept up to speed about rapidly changing regulations.

Be transparent about performance. The company tells workers useful metrics about their performance, so they understand where they are relative to their goals.

Seriously care about feedback. At a weekly Friday meeting, everyone gathers together and talks. “The feedback we get from our agents really affects the decisions we make as leaders,” Hunsaker said. One example is compensation. The leaders might ask: “Here’s what we’re thinking in terms of compensation for X. What do you think? And then we take their feedback and make adjustments potentially to their livelihood, which I think is very, very unique.”

Swersky added that building a company where workers feel appreciated is a reward in itself.

“I think Shaun and I feel really blessed many times to look at what we have, and say it’s really, really cool that we’ve created a company where people can thrive, and are having the ability to live their best life,” he said.

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