ALEXANDRIA, Va., September 4 - Big “I” Advantage—the products and services arm of the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America (IIABA)—has renewed its agreement with Caliper to continue serving the human resource needs of independent agencies and brokerages, announces Paul A. Buse, CPCU, ARM, president of the Association’s for-profit operation.
The new agreement extends the 30-year IIABA-Caliper relationship and enhances the human resources services and solutions available to Big “I” members. IIABA members will now have access to a full array of human resource solutions available through Caliper and will receive exclusive pricing discounts.
Under the new agreement, IIABA members will be provided exclusive discounts on assessment services, employee- and team-performance services, retention analysis and other unique human resource solutions. Big “I” Advantage also will be working with Caliper to develop a new online course that will be offered through the Big “I” Virtual University. This course will provide agents and brokers a tutorial on managing human resources issues in their agencies and brokerage firms.
The agreement also preserves IIABA member access to Caliper’s industry-leading employee-assessment tools, including the Caliper Profile, First Step for Sales and First Step for Service. Further, IIABA and Caliper will conduct a joint research project studying the profiles of the top producers and service professionals in the independent agency system. The study hopes to reveal a benchmark ‘ideal’ profile for IIABA members to compare to those of prospective candidates. Anticipated to be available next year, the study results will be available exclusively to IIABA members.
“IIABA and Caliper have enjoyed a 30-year business relationship that has yielded both financial benefits and positive results for thousands of our independent agency members,” says Buse. “‘Do you Caliper?’ already should be a familiar question to IIABA members nationwide. We believe that by expanding the scope of Caliper’s solutions available to our members, we not only are fulfilling an essential business need, but also leveraging the true power of our partnership with Caliper.”
Caliper possesses more than 40 years of experience, helping more than 25,000 organizations worldwide match people goals to business objectives. Caliper’s proven approach will maximize the ability of IIABA members to achieve business success by delivering human resources products that help select, manage and develop people and understand the gaps between where a company is and where it wants to be.
“Our years of experience in the marketplace working with independent agents and brokers has put us in a unique position to serve the human resources needs of IIABA members,” says Dr. Herbert Greenberg, Caliper president and CEO. “In analyzing a sample of the industry’s personnel over the past three decades, we have gained insight into what qualities embody the most effective independent agent sales, service and management leaders. We have the luxury of institutional knowledge when it comes to understanding what type of people makes independent agencies tick.”
Caliper is one of several non-insurance company partners of that provide special benefits and discounts to IIABA members through Big “I” Advantage.
Founded in 1896, IIABA is the nation’s oldest and largest national association of independent insurance agents and brokers, representing a network of more than 300,000 agents, brokers and their employees nationally. Its members are businesses that offer customers a choice of policies from a variety of insurance companies. Independent agents and brokers offer all lines of insurance—property, casualty, life and health—as well as employee benefit plans and retirement products. Web address: www.independentagent.com.
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