How do you motivate a young employee who’s getting bored? How do you address issues like dress code and tattoos with millennial salespeople? What’s your biggest concern as it relates to multi-generational hiring and perpetuation at your agency?

At the annual Big “I” Fall Leadership Conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Joe Paul, motivational speaker and author or “Morning Cup of Joe,” moderated a panel discussion addressing these questions and more. Part of the “Engaging a New Workforce—Multicultural, Multigenerational, Multifaceted, Multitalented” session, the panel featured six industry heavyweights who shared their insight into agency culture, the millennial workforce and multi-generational engagement:

• LeRoy Bostic, president of Lewis & Thompson Agency in Detroit, Michigan
• Linda Steiner, director of operations for Johnson Insurance headquartered in Racine, Wisconsin
• Scott Rogers, president of The Glatfelter Agency in York, Pennsylvania
• Jacki Frank, president of Tri County Agency of Brick in Brick, New Jersey
• Rick Dinger, president of Crescenta Valley Insurance in La Crescenta, California
• Carolyn Reynolds, owner/manager of Reynolds Insurance Agency Inc., L Marion Oliver Insurance Agency and KY Health Insurance & Benefits in Bereaand Richmond, Kentucky

Do you have a plan to replace the 30% of agents that are retiring?

Steiner: One of the things we’re doing is hiring people with no skills and putting them on a career path within the agency—starting in a non-client facing role, then moving into a client-facing role. We feel strongly we have to grow our own talent. But when we’re attracting them—for example, interviewing someone with a four-day work week—instead of saying “we can’t do that,” we’re trying to say “how can we?” Because if we don’t make that transition, were not going to be successful hiring.

Do you find millennials don’t take initiative?

Bostic: I think it’s a difference in the traditional sense of how we look at initiative. Everything I’ve seen from the people we’ve hired from this particular generational group is that they’re quick, they’re efficient and they’re accurate. As a baby boomer, Gen-Xer or traditionalist, we say “it’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint,” but millennials don’t get that. We have to figure out a way to funnel those energies. I wouldn’t say it’s a lack of initiative—I’d say it’s a lack of knowledge of understanding exactly what the expectations are.

How do you work with your millennial employees?

Dinger: In the last year, I’ve hired six millennials and we went through some transition with management within our office. They were somewhat left on their own to explore, train and develop their skills. And one of the things that they came back with was that they’re bored.

It resonated with me that this group of individuals really does need to have focus and they need to know there’s some goal or purpose in working. We told them the things we think they would be good at and these are the development skills we’d like them to follow. Their elevation of energy was almost uncontainable. There are boundaries I’m finding that you have to have, but you also need to constantly set something in the horizon they can see and reach.

Dress code and tattoos?

Frank: We like to dress to the clients we serve. If I’m going out to see a client who owns an auto body shop, I’m going to put on jeans and a blazer. My agency is all boomers and Xers, and a few of my staff members do have tattoos, but they are also very respectful where they aren’t shown. And that’s their decision—we never really had a conversation about it.

Rogers: We’re extremely conservative. We wear suit and ties every day and women wear hosiery. We have a very conservative area that we serve, so what the younger generations are seeing in our office is that it is appropriate attire, but they are pushing the envelope of what they can wear—and I’m perfectly okay with that.

One of the things I talk to new salespeople about is being neutral. Do not put yourself in a position when you’re out trying to persuade somebody to do business with you that will automatically put you in a position where you’re going to be deselected. It’s not just talking about tattoos, it’s not just about what you wear. If you have an individual who does not like cigarette smoke and you walk into a business and you reek of smoke, does that automatically put you in a position where you’re now you’re going to be deselected because you’re not being “neutral” and they’re not seeing you for who you are?

Steiner: It’s this generational gap. I can see it’s not worth our time to spend all this energy [arguing] something so unproductive. It’s a clash. I think we have to come up with something that blends both cultures, because our buying public is different today.

What is your greatest fear as it relates to diversity?

Reynolds: We have a high retention, so most of our clients we’ve had for years. My fear is hiring somebody, my customers falling in love with that person and they move on. And it’s not because they don’t enjoy working for you or love your clients as much as they love them—it’s just part of millennials change jobs 10 times in 10 years.

Rogers: My fear is as we bring in newer individuals into our organization that have different personal motivations, if we do not make adjustments, we’re going to lose out. When looking at training and development, the amount of resources it’s going to take from our management team is going to shift. We have to look at the profit model in our organization and I want to make sure I’m on the cutting edge, not being left behind because I’m being too obtuse and not being proactive.

Steiner: I worry about the pool of talent and the fact that we’re all going to be striving for the same talent if we don’t adapt. I think there’s so much noise and conflicting priorities that it’s very hard to really focus on what’s critical—developing talent for recruitment and developing talent for our industry.

Morgan Smith is IA assistant editor.