How to minimize staff miscommunication

Have your staff members ever had a misunderstanding about who was responsible for what? Or have you tried to teach a new employee to do something, only to realize you didn’t know enough about the role of the person whose job they were taking over?

You’re not alone, and many MDRT members have seen the need to simplify this process of communication and staffing. Beth Lachance Hesson, CFP, CLU, a 29-year MDRT member from Midhurst, Ontario, Canada, experienced this when hiring a new administrator and discovering that the role, previously occupied by her son, was not documented. So she set up procedure manuals. “This way we can have everything on paper so when somebody new comes in, it’s a little easier process,” she said. “We can make sure that everything is covered.”

Defining roles

Stuart J. Birkel, an 17-year MDRT member from Norfolk, Virginia, USA, had a related but different issue when hiring a second administrative staff member. “Either I or my partner would ask the staff if something was done, and one would look at the other and say, ‘Well, I thought she was doing it,’” he said. “And the other said, ‘I thought she was doing it.’”

To solve this, Birkel’s practice divided the roles for these staff members, with one handling all new business and other tackling existing business like death claims, follow-ups to sales or otherwise. “That was an easy transition once each person understood their job description and what they were responsible for,” he said.

Hear more in the May episode of the MDRT Podcast: