Growing Your Next Insurance Partner – the PSA Intern Program
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How long have you known your insurance agent? 10 years? 20? 30? For many people, you’ve known your agent a long time and see him or her as an integral part of protecting you, your family, your company, and ultimately, your ability to thrive.
But according to a study by McKinsey & Company, 25 percent of currently employed insurance professionals will be near retirement age in 2018. That puts the insurance industry at major risk of losing talent — and puts individuals at risk of losing the personal relationship with the agent they trust to help them identify their needs and match them with the appropriate insurance coverage.
This is why so many colleges and universities around the country are now offering degrees in Risk Management (between 2006 and 2010, the number of risk management programs increased by 93 percent!). It’s also why PSA has launched a formal summer internship program. The program helps us serve our clients by identifying high-quality potential new hires, and empowers our interns to gain hands-on experience working with clients and networking with leaders in the community. Through this internship program, we’re developing future insurance agents who can serve you for the next 10, 20, or 30 years. (And as a bonus, we’ve found that interns bring fresh perspectives and innovative ideas to improve our current client services!)
Here are just a few ways PSA’s internship program benefits you.
An Experienced Next Generation
The insurance business can be complex, and businesses and individuals want to know that their agents have the experience and expertise required to help them mitigate risk. Through this internship program, we are helping the next generation of insurance agents gain the experience they need to jump into their careers and provide value.
This investment in our future not only means that PSA will be here for many years to come, but that our clients will be well-served by dedicated, smart and experienced professionals who specialize in risk management and already have strong experience and drive to help solve clients’ risk management efforts.
The interns agreed. Tom Stenberg, from Temple University’s Property and Casualty program, said, “Many internships give you the grunt work that no one wants to do. PSA’s program, on the other hand, was very informative, rich with experiences, and actively engaged us, which will certainly help transition into the insurance brokerage career. We had the opportunity to work side-by-side with PSA experts on ongoing projects and participate in client interactions.”
As these young people graduate and begin their careers, our internship program will help ensure that they’re equipped to immediately deliver value to you.
Growth in Innovation
PSA’s internship experience includes developing new risk management solutions with insurance carriers to address emerging needs, as well as participating in professional development training sessions. The interns concluded the program with individual presentations and a final group presentation to PSA senior management. Their topics discussed new exposures in the market, such as risks associated with the sharing economy, and solutions to fill the gaps.
The investment of time and resources in the internship program was well worth it — and resulted in innovative ideas to help solve real-world challenges that PSA clients are increasingly facing. Not only were our interns well-versed in insurance because of their coursework, but they very quickly adapted to working with clients, insurance companies, and PSA team members. Their energetic approach to developing solutions to real-world problems and interacting with each other and PSA staff promises to deliver on the service and advice our clients have come to expect.
The interns appreciated that they had access to leadership during the summer session, and used that time to foster innovation. “It’s not often that you meet the owner of the company as an employee, let alone as an intern,” said intern Kathryn Justice, also from Temple University. “At PSA, we not only met Chip Lewis, Managing Director, but we had a standing informal weekly meeting with him where he inquired about our experiences, and was interested in hearing our ideas and feedback.”
The Next Generation of Talent
While we are taking serious steps toward developing talent for the future, the world is moving faster than it once did — meaning that professional experience which, in the past, may have taken an entire career to build without a formal insurance education, now must be gained much faster. This puts pressure on students as well as on companies to find the most dedicated people who possess knowledge, empathy, and drive. Addressing that need is what the PSA summer internship program is all about.
We look forward to the potentially revolutionary changes new talent will bring to our industry. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about our efforts, please feel free to contact me at tbolotin@psafinancial.com.
