What are the key factors to recruit the suitable andidates for agency force of AIA VN life insurance limited company

However, in life industry, recruiting the suitable candidates is very important or how can to keep the candidates to stay a long time in industry is very important.. 1.3 Research introdu

Advisor?s assessment

Advisor’s signature

1.1 Life insurance market in Viet Nam

1.2 Company and Division Introduction

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ACKNOWLEGEMENTS

I would like to take this opportunity to thank deeply and give my sincere gratitude

to my instructor, Dr Hung, who has instructed and given me a deep and sound

knowledge of Business Research Method This is an interesting subject to learn, thanks

to the real practical examples and hearted-instruction of Dr Hung in the class, it helps

me to understand deeply the most important ones of the Business Research Method

Through this semester, Dr Hung has inspired us a lot to explore the Business Research Method subject and installed very deep useful knowledge of this subject It is stimulated for me to do some further research in this field in the future When studying

this subject, I realize that it is very important for my work

Through the assignment, I strongly think that I will get a lot of useful knowledge for my study

ABSTRACT

This is a very hard topic to research but very interested to carry out this survey It

is not popular There are not many studies about this subject in the life insurance However, in life industry, recruiting the suitable candidates is very important or how can

to keep the candidates to stay a long time in industry is very important It costs a lot of time and money to recruit the suitable candidates Every year the life industry in Vietnam recruits thousands of agents But they can’t keep the candidates for a long time due to many reasons such as part time agents, wrong recruitment

In order to help AIA Vietnam can save a time as well as money The study is carried out The study tries to find out the factors affecting the recruiting the suitable candidates Through the literature available, the study focuses on the factors: personality traits, motivational traits and interpersonal traits to find out they are import or not

As the result found out, the study shows that all the three factors are very important when choosing the right agents We recommend for all the leaders that they should spend time to interview to find out the three factors whether they are suitable for this job like an agent or not

The study did a survey with 150 selected leaders with strong experience We do face to face with each the leaders to interview them in order to make sure that they understand the questionnaire and the importance of the survey Therefore, the result of the study is very valid It is a compass for reference for leaders who want to recruit the right candidates for their groups

CHAPTER 1 —- INTRODUCTION

1.1 Life insurance market in Viet Nam

According to Mr Phung Dac Loc, general secretary of the Viet Nam Insurance Association, spoke to the Vietnam News Agency about those issue

Viet Nam's life insurance sector has registered significant growth in recent years

though the local growth is still facing hurdles With six million out of 90 million people

with insurance contracts, the domestic life insurance market still has great prospective

to grow There were 17 life insurance companies by 2014 with around 1,000 representative offices and general insurance agency offices There are 290,000 insurance dealers nationwide The total insurance premium revenue in 2014 reached VND28.54 trillion (US$1.268 billion), a year-on-year growth of 21.7 per cent

According to the association and Insurance Management and Supervision Administration, the total insurance premium revenue in the first half of this year gained

a year-on-year growth of 30 per cent to VND16 trillion ($711 million)

Most of the salary of the Vietnamese is below middle level According to statistics

of the International Retail Association, in Viet Nam, the middle-income group, who can

save a certain amount of money to buy insurance products, accounts for only 15 per cent

of the total population In the meantime, the high-income group in Viet Nam has not changed its thinking to ensure a steady and better quality of life in the future That means they do not think of buying insurance products or investing in a fund to secure their future Moreover, the value of activities on training and consulting from insurance agents has also not been up to the mark The agents have asked more people to buy insurance services only because they receive commissions from insurance contracts

Foreign companies have dominated the life insurance market in Viet Nam because it is a new market having developed only in the last 15 years In addition, local

organizations or individuals have often learnt from the experiences of other insurance operators in the market when they want to set up their businesses Moreover, development of one insurance firm needs a long term plan, including development of a distribution system via agents and the labor force Life insurance products are valid between 10 years and 20 years or the entire lifetime so insurance firms must calculate the value of cash in the future

According to commitments with the World Trade Organization as well as with foreign partners at free trade agreements and bilateral trade agreements, Viet Nam will open its insurance market, which includes life insurance The local insurance market has great potential with large market shares that has not seen investors In addition, foreign insurance companies have strong points with regard to experience, information technology, management and development of products, and especially experience in distributing insurance products Meanwhile, there is high request of life insurance products in the local market The people need funds to complete certain tasks in the future, including children's education, their nurturing, looking for work and buying a house or a vehicle If the people have greater earning, they will pay more attention to their health At present, if they are sick, they wish to be treated at hospital with high quality and advanced technology This will promote competition among insurance firms Finally, employers want to retain their employees by buying insurance products for their workers

According to the forecast of the Insurance Management and Supervision Department as well as the development plan of local insurance market this year, the insurance sector will reach VND34 trillion ($1.51 billion) in insurance premium revenue for this year, an increase of 20 per cent against last year The revenue is expected to achieve a growth of 15 per cent next year against 2015, depending on competition with cash flowing to the bank, securities or real property

The association is a representative of insurance companies to contribute opinions

to legal documents related with insurance business activities, including a guide of law

on insurance business and regulations on finance, accounting and tax The association has also reflected the difficulties in insurance business activities, policies, administrative procedures, tax and activities of agents as well as proposed solutions for those difficulties

1.2 Company and Division Introduction

AIA Corporate Facts

Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Korea, the Philippines, Australia, Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam, New Zealand, Macau, Brunei, a 97 per cent subsidiary in

Sri Lanka, a 26 per cent joint venture in India and representative offices in Myanmar and

Cambodia

The business that is now AIA was first established in Shanghai over 90 years ago It

is a market leader in the Asia-Pacific region (ex-Japan) based on life insurance premiums and holds leading positions across the majority of its markets It had total assets of

US$172 billion as of 31 May 2015

AIA meets the long-term savings and protection needs of individuals by offering a range of products and services including life insurance, accident and health insurance

and savings plans The Group also provides employee benefits, credit life and pension

services to corporate clients Through an extensive network of agents, partners and employees across Asia-Pacific, AIA serves the holders of more than 29 million individual policies and over 16 million participating members of group insurance schemes

AIA Group Limited is listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited under the stock code “1299” with American Depositary Receipts (Level 1) traded on the over-the-counter market (ticker symbol: “AAGIY”)

AIA Vietnam is one member of AIA Groups established in February, 2000 AIA Vietnam has more than 500 staff and 24,300 agents up to the end of 2014

AIA Vietnam have protected 482,000 customers and has paid insurance benefits for more than 261,000 customers with more than 1,730 Billion VND up to Sept 2014 AIA Vietnam is one of the life insurance companies has developed and launched a lot of diversified products satisfying the needs of customers

In order to become the most beloved company in Vietnam, AIA has been focusing

on recruiting high quality of agents, expanding the network of distribution, launching

new products with high benefits and building new project life AIA — Exchange or Nest

to build more image of AIA to the community

A Introduction to the Pioneer II of AIA in Vietnam

AIA has established in Vietnam since 2000 It has been operating in Vietnam for

a long time AIA Life Insurance is one of the biggest groups in the World, but in Vietnam

it didn’t take the big share in Vietnam before Therefore, the Board of Directors has given out many strategies to take the market share in Vietnam In 2011 it stood the 6" position in the market share Now it is one the 3 biggest life insurance companies in Vietnam, paid more than 100 billion VND of new premium per month just after Bao Viet life insurance groups and Prudential Vietnam groups AIA is the fastest growth of new business one in Vietnam market

Keeping the very good momentum, during the Pioneer 2 called “Catching the next wave” in 2015 and then, AIA Vietnam has determined to develop new paradigm in life insurance market in Vietnam They decide to develop the new generation call “Gen X (born from 1968 until 1979) and Gen Y (born from 1979)” with at least college degree and applied new technology to do the contract for customers instead of using paper contract We don’t call the “Agent” but “Life Planner”, They will spend half a month for basic training with some allowance, they are just like “half-staff” It means that they also have salary and commission The more they sell the more commission they have

We call this model is “AIA Exchange” We want to set up a new benchmark in life insurance field AIA Vietnam is really one of the companies pioneering to use new technology to do proposal for customers Frankly, up to now AIA Vietnam is the only one company to use technology to do digital proposal for customers in Vietnam

We rolled out this project early 2015 We have a very bid ambition in the future

In 2016 we will set up the 4 more “AIA Exchange Office” nationwide

B The current operation in 2015

This project has run from early 2015 up to now And we have done some big

achievements AIA Groups supports this project and our orientation in the Pioneer II

They are very happy with the result we have done the Phase I from Jan to June Now we are running the phase IT

Notes: ANP (annual premium relating to sales); Active (Life planner does sales

in current month); PA (Premier Life planner, the one who sells at least 40 million VND quarterly)

During the pilot time of the first 6 months, we have reached more than 107% of recruitment, 88% of Sales, and 70% of Life planners having sales This success is more than expectation of Board of Directors

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a be (Oy

Tracking data from the beginning of the AIA Exchange Project in the pilot time:

The below table shows the plan for 2015:

Box 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Cases Cases |Active |Case Per New Total |Actve |Case (Per Non- Size Active ANP Exchange |Recruit |Premier !Premier |Size Active {Premier |Non Non ANP Non- Total ANP

HCM 8 s S Premier |Premier |s Premier |Premier |Premier |Premier |Plan

The fiscal year of AIA ftom December to November yearly

C Company strategies & Goals in 2016 to 2019

The economic and social conditions of Hanoi and HCMC are radically different

from the rest of the country, with no insurers has a clear dominant market share

However, existing AIAV agency force in Hanoi and HCMC is presently faced with low recruitment, retention and stagnant production A lot of good agency leaders desire a stronger company support regarding to a standardized, practical and disciplined framework in recruitment, coaching and financial aid Thus, AIA Vietnam needs a strategy to engrave good working habits to ignite the existing agency force and build a pool of full-time and highly productive agent force

Contribute to Dominate the Cities strategy (focus on HCMC and Hanoi markets)

by attracting, recruiting and developing a new high-performing full-time agency force (both Gen-X and Gen-Y) through innovative marketing, attractive compensation, rigorous selection process and intensive training and coaching

All Project Financials estimation in this Business Case is based on the following assumption:

IS

13

Project will set up the Initial Pool in Year 0, i.e only recruiting Life Planners for the 1st 6 months, meaning that there are only 6 batches recruited enjoying benefits from the Project’s compensation scheme

After the Ist 6 months, these 6 batches continue to generate Production for the Company They are still called Life Planners

Within each batch, after its first 12 months, some of the Life Planners will

be promoted to leader and these leaders will recruit new agents These agents will generate production and enjoy BAU compensation scheme

+ Year | starts when the Project has Agency Leaders generated from the Ist batch

of Initial pool

Year 0 (FY2015) — Setting up Initial Pool: 19 Leaders & 103 Life Planners

FY2016 Pe FY2018 IàV 2116)

No New Recruits 37 80 144 261

No In-force Life Planner (Agents)

(at year-end)

No Premier Life Planner (Premier Agents) 27 49 92 172

The Table above is the plan of Board of Directors

D Planning for recruiting workforce in 2016 & 2017

In the 2015 the turnover is very high per month, we have recruited more than 200 life planners Up to now we have terminated nearly 100 life planners

Due to the very success of the first phase pilot, I strongly believe to make the big plan for 2016 and presented to the Board of Directors already

Planning for 2016:

Box 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Cases Cases Per Case Per Active Case Active New Total Active Size Active Non- |SizeNon| Non ANP ANP Non- | Total ANP

Exchange HCM | Recruits |Prernlers |Premiers | Premier | Premier |Premlers Premier | Premier | Premier | Premier Plan

December 35 74 56 12,5 25 75) 115 17 1.734 1.466 3.201 January 17 74 36 12,5 25 40 11,5 17 1.125 782 1907 February 18 74 46 12,5 2,5 45 11,5 1,7 1.434 880 2.314

March 35 90 68 12,5 2,5 72 11,5 17 2.109 1.408 3.517

April 35) 90 68) 12,5 25 80 11,5 17 2.109 1.564 3.673

May 35 90 68] 12,5 2,5 86 11,5 17 2.109 1.681 3.791

June 35 115 86 125 25 67 115 17 2,695 1.310 4.005 July 35 115 86 12,5 2,5 72 11,5 17 2.695 1.408 4.103 August 35 115 86] 12,5 25 77 11,5 17 2,695 1.505 4.201 September 35 130 98 12,5 25 69 115 1,7 3.047 1.349 4.396 October 35 130 98 125 25 74 11,5 17 3.047 1.447 4.494 November 35 130 98 12,5 25 80) 11,5 17 3.047 1.564 4.611 Total 350 891 837 26.113 14.897 44.211

Planning for 2017:

Box 1 2 3 4 s § 7 8

Cases Cases Per Case Per Active Case Active Exchange New Total Active Size Active Non- |SizeNon| Non ANP ANP Non- | Total ANP HCM Recruits | Premiers |Premiers| Premier | Premier |Premiers | Premier | Premier | Premier | Premier Plan December 35) 90 68 12,5 2,5 90) 11,5 1,7 2,109 1.760 3.869 January 20 90) 36 12,5 2,5 60 11,5 1,7 1.125 1.173 2.298 February 20 90 56] 12,5 2,5 6q 11,5 1,7 1,744 1,173 2.917 March 40 110 83 125 2,5 80 11,5 1,7 2.578 1,564 4.142 April 40 110 83 12,5 25 90 11,5 1,7 2.578 1.760 4,338 May 40 110 83 125 25 100 1L5 17 2.578 1.955 4,533 June 40 130 98 125 25 100 11,5 1,7 3.047 1.955 5.002 July 40) 130] 98) 12,5 25 100 115 1,7 3.047 1.955 5.002 August 40 130 98 12,5 25 100 115 17 3.047 1.955 5.002 September 40) 150] 113 12,5 25 120 11,5 1,7 3.516 2.346 5.862 October 40 150) 113 12,5 2,5 120 11,5 17 3.516 2.346 5.862 November 40 150} 113 12,5 25 120 11,5 1,7 3.516 2.346 5,862

435 32.400 22.287 54.687

In 2017, we will recruit 435 life planners and produce 54,6 billion VND

The job at AIA makes your career more amazing than ever with unlimited income, higher respect and secure future

We have the criteria for choosing candidates suitable for the project The age should be from 23 to 35 for Gen Y and 36 to 50 for Gen X They must have college degree with 3 year experience and have income from 6 to 10 million with the previous job They are responsible to prove the current monthly income by bank statement and other supporting documents

They must go through the recruiting process It means that they have to attend

Career Orientation Presentation, do questionnaire, and get the interview with the panel

interview If they pass, they will attend the training course for two weeks and take the

exam to get the certificate

Notes: Premiers (the one sells well); Active Premiers (the good one activates monthly); Case Size (the average premium per policy); ANP (annual premium); Non- premier (the normal life planner)

E Planning for training

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If the candidate passes the interview, he/ she will attend the intensive training

program First of all, they will attend the basic course call ATC1 In this course, they

will learn the knowledge of the industry, company, vision, core values, ethical values

and standards, key products and riders They also learn the sales skills such as approaching and calling, sales concepts and closing techniques They learn some basic soft skills such as active listening, basic grooming, basic NLP (neutral language programming) They will do goal setting and do commitment to mandatory daily activities One of the most important thing is that they must pass the exam of Ministry

of Finance to get certificate Secondly, they will learn how to program the proposal for

customers through IPOS on IPAD They will learn some underwriting, basic claims and

servicing processes They will learn some basic investment concepts They will learn more deeply about sales cycle, referral language, role play on closing and objections handling, rapport building and connectivity, body language Thirdly, they will learn more about product portfolio They will learn more soft skills called SB They will learn how to increase the case size, prospecting, market expansion, enhance productivity, customer orientation, personal development etc

The table shows some core training/ coaching activities for life planners:

1 Skill buiider (SKB) 3-4 hours Biweekly

2 Sales builder (SSB) { hour Biweekly

3 How to Series (HTS) | hour Biweekly

4 Underwriting (UIW) 4 hours once/ every 2/3 months

2 Customer Service (CUS) once every 3 months

continous

6 Sale kit training (SKT) 4 hours training/coaching

continous

7 COP kit training (COP) 4 hours training/coaching

Step up to premier (SUP) 8 hours once/ every 2/3 months

9 PA training skill (PAS) 4 hours PA1-PA2 (once a month)

10 Presentation Skill (PRS) 4 hours every 2/3 months

ll Cold Canvass Training (CCT) 3 hours Monthly

12 Cold Canvass on field (CCF) 3 hours Monthly

F Compensation

Basic Requirement: 100% Training & Activity

XY Maintenance Requirement (MR):

* Reviewed every quarter

* FYP (first year premium) & Case: As Table bellows

¢ First 3 months inactive or not achieving MR: terminated

Benefits:

* Training Allowance (Month 0): 3 Mil,

Notes: 3 Mil is paid after completing Month 0 training, passing all induction program exam This amount will be shared 50% by AL if his LP left the company (either resign or terminated) in the 1st 3 months

* Monthly allowance: Monthly Allowance is allowed to catch-up by month 12

Mlonthls h h h h h I h M ML OMI AT Allowance b 0 | 2

XY Maintenance 30 Mil FYP & 3 35 MilFYP & 4 40 MiI FYP & 4 45 Mil FYP & §

1 Requirement Cases Cases Cases Cases

* FYC (first year commission):

— 50% of FYC is paid at rolling quarter end

— The Remaining 50% of FYC will be paid in 3 turns:

=> 40% is paid in Month 13 if the LP achieves PA3* (life planner has 17 million

VND commission quarterly), at least 300 million VND production in total of the Ist year

=> 30% is paid if LP (life planner) continues achieves PA (at least having 12 million

VND commission quarterly) in next quarter

=> 30% remaining is paid if LP continues to achieve PA in the quarter after next

* Quarterly Bonus: Nil

* Others: Applied as BAU (Business as Usual) scheme

Calculation of agent's total benefit will be reconciled at end of month 12 between the PROJECT AIA EXCHANGE 's scheme (Monthly allowance + SO%FYC (paid at quarters end)t+ other Bonus) and the BAU scheme (100%F YC+ Bonus) The higher one will be prevailing

Other benefits:

Y Uniform: Life Planner who will be provided uniform valued 3 mil (included in Compensation Cost)

Ceremony: Passing probation ceremony, graduation ceremony

Premier Agency Club

Other Company Yearly Award

Yearly health care check up

1.3 Research introduction

1.3.1 Problem statement

Recruiting agency force is very important for all life insurance company In

Vietnam, there are 17 life insurance companies: Prudential Vietnam, Bao Viet, Manulife, AIA Vietnam, Ace Life, Dai-ichi, PVI — Sunlife, Prévoir, Great Eastern, Hanhwa, Generali, Aviva (Vietinbank — Aviva), Cardif, Cathay life, Fubon life, Phu Hung Life, Metlife All the companies they have to find out the best way to recruit the good agents for their companies Agency force is the main one to distribute life products to all customers The problem is that all companies can recruit many agents but it is hard to keep the agents to stay a long time with the company due to many reasons The retention

is very low Like AIA Vietnam, the retention is just 20% within 12 months That is the reason why all the companies have a big headache to solve the problem AIA Vietnam recently focuses mainly about the retention of agency force That is why they must find the best way how to choose the suitable candidates in order to improve the retention Every year, AIA Vietnam has to spend a lot of money for recruiting and training new agents Due to the high turnover, the cost is very high each year

According to Hackett, Penny (the selection interview, London, CIPD, 1998) says “The importance of good recruitment and selection Recruiting people who are wrong for the organization can lead to increased employee turnover, increased costs for the organization, and lowering of morale in the existing workforce Such people are likely

to be discontented, unlikely to give of their best, and end up leaving voluntarily or involuntarily when their unsuitability becomes evident They will not offer the flexibility and commitment that many organizations seek Managers and supervisors will have to spend extra time on further recruitment exercises, when what is needed in the first place

is a systematic process to assess the role to be filled, and the type of skills and abilities needed to fill it Most recruitment systems will be simple, with stages that can be followed

as a routine whenever there is a vacancy to be filled, and which can be monitored and adapted in the light of experience.”

In life industry, recruiting agency force is very difficult, especially if we want to recruit the right people The agents don’t have fixed salary life permanent staff They only have commission if they can sell the product In order to look for the right people who can work in life industry like an agents needing a lot of time and high cost

1.3.2 Purpose of the study

The purpose of this research is to find out what are the key factors to recruit the suitable candidates for agency force in AIA Vietnam (AIAV) The research will answer the question “What are the key factors to recruit the suitable candidates for agency force

in AIAV This is very important for AIAV If we can answer this question, the AIAV can improve the retention and save a lot of cost as well as to improve the reputation of the company This research aims to find out the key factors to recruit the suitable candidates and

1.3.3 The scope of the research

Based on the purpose of the research, the questionnaire is designed for agency leaders who have many years of recruiting agency force It surveyed with 200 agency leaders in order to find out the key factors for selecting the suitable candidates We try

to find out the key ones in order to guide the rest of agency leaders to have a compass for their work

knowing that, in order to attract the suitable or the quality ones, the products and compensation must be good and all the companies are nearly the same The problem here

is that the key factors such as personality traits, market potential, motivational traits, interpersonal traits, product belief of such a candidates in order to select the best one to

stay with the company for a long time

CHAPTER 2 —- LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Recruiting the suitable candidates in life insurance industry

Recruiting the representatives for life industry is not hard, but the problem how

to recruit the right ones and keep them to stay long in life industry If recruiting the right ones can save a lot of money for company and bring a lot of production for the company

According to Wikipedia, “Recruitment — synonymous with "hiring" in American English — refers to the total process of attracting, selecting and appointing suitable

candidates for jobs (either permanent or temporary) within an organization Recruitment

can also refer to processes involved in choosing individuals for unpaid positions, such

as voluntary roles or unpaid trainee roles Managers, human resource generalists and recruitment specialists may be tasked with carrying out recruitment, but in some cases public-sector employment agencies, commercial recruitment agencies, or specialist search consultancies are used to undertake parts of the process Internet-based knowledges to support all aspects of recruitment have become widespread

Life insurance or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth, is a agreement between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises

to pay a chosen beneficiary a sum of money (the benefit) in exchange for a premium, upon the death of an insured person (often the policy holder) Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness can also trigger payment The policy holder typically pays a premium, either regularly or as one lump sum Other expenses (such as funeral expenses) can also be included in the benefits

Life policies are legal contracts and the terms of the contract describe the

limitations of the insured events Specific exclusions are often written into the contract

to limit the liability of the insurer; common samples are claims relating to suicide, fraud, war, insurrection, and civil disorder

Life-based contracts tend to fall into two major categories:

Protection policies — designed to provide a benefit, typically a lump sum payment,

in the event of specified event A common form of a protection policy design is term insurance

Investment policies — where the main objective is to facilitate the growth of

capital by regular or single premiums Common forms (in the U.S.) are whole life, universal life, and variable life policies.”

2.2 Personality traits

According to By Mark P Cussen, CFP®, CMFC, AFC, “High vitality level - One

of the most vital traits of a good insurance agent is that they appear to be excited and excited at all times A worn-down or dreary disposition will immediately rub off on clients and discourage them from buying anything

Persistence - This is possibly the most vital quality of any good insurance agent Those who work in this field totally must be able to handle rejection on a daily basis over the course of their careers, and do it with a smile Good insurance agents understand that each "no" only brings them closer to someone who will say "yes."

Trustworthiness - Insurance agents who use deception to close business seldom stay with the same company for very long - and can end up behind bars in some cases

A good agent identifies that telling the truth up front will win them clients' respect and trust and is likely to lead to repeat business over time.”

Research in the field of personality has recently advanced compelling evidence that (a) personality constructs can be measured with practical consistency, (b) there

is stability to personality measures over time and occasions; (c) personality

measures are significantly related to some external measure of performance; and

(d) personality measures can predict performance of prospective employees in certain settings (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Hogan & Nicholson, 1988) In the past 10 years, the views of many personality psychologists have converged regarding the structure and concepts of personality

There is growing consensus that there are five robust factors of personality (referred to as the five- factor model or the Big Five factors), first postulated by Norman and developed by Goldberg and Costa and McCrae (Taylor, 2004), which can serve

as a meaningful arrangement for classifying

Personality attributes (Digman, 1990), the five factors include Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience Ata glance, the factors typically can be seen as necessary personality dimensions for a number of occupations Goldberg (cited in Digman, 1990) asserts that any model that focuses on finding a structure to explain individual differences should include traits reflected in the big five dimensions

Within a work context, personality assessment can be applied to gather more information about an individual with a view to predicting job performance (Taylor, 2004) specifically for making recommendations about appointing new employees, transferring employees to another role, assessing promotion as well as for termination

of employment (Anastasi, 1982).

Traditionally, Industrial Psychologists have questioned the usefulness of

personality measures in predicting job-related criteria (such as job performance), because of pessimistic conclusions of early reviews of the topic (for example, Guion

& Gottier, 1965) and concerns that most personality measures can be faked (Bergh

& Theron, 2003) However, recent reviews have suggested that personality measures are valid predictors of diverse job-related criteria (Barrick & Mount, 1991; Goldberg,

1993 cited in Rothmann & Coetzer, 2003; Tett, Jackson, & Rothstein, 1991)

Personality is one of those core universal concepts in psychology that has attracted much attention and theorizing The diverse approaches and theories on personality are reflected in many different definitions, as no universally accepted

definition exists Definitions of personality may reflect the theoretical and assessment

preferences of theorists According to Bergh and Theron (2003), there is consensus on some aspects which should be included in a personality definition and aspects which influence personality According to Bergh & Theron, (2003, p 291), to define personality in all its dimensions, the following criteria or aspects must be considered:

- The external, visible or observable physical appearance, behaviour and traits, often referred to as a “mask”, the original meaning of personality;

- Possible invisible, covert or unconscious behaviours, emotions, attitudes, values, thoughts and feelings within people;

- Enduring patterns and consistencies (e.g shyness in many situations), but also the dynamic nature of behaviour, indicating motivation and change;

In a similar vein, Allport (cited in Bergh & Theron, 2003, p 238) describes personality as “the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determines his [her] characteristic behavior and thought.” In proposing that personality comprises composite psychological qualities causing people to react to

different situations in a fairly consistent manner, Andrews (2001) emphasizes the construct’s relatively stable nature and its predictive quality Child (cited in Bergh & Theron, 2003, p 291) refers to personality as “more or less stable, inside factors that make one person’s behavior consistent across, and different from the behavior other people would manifest in comparable situations” underlining the individual and idiosyncratic or unique expression of personality as external behavior Ivancevich and Matteson (1993 cited in La Grange & Roodt, 2001, p 35) construes personality

as the product of internal and external factors “formed by inheritance and by social, cultural, and environmental forces” and which "determine the commonalities and differences in the behavior of the individual.”

A definition more relevant to the present study that locates personality as a

composition of unique predictable traits comes from Raymond Cattell, who was one

of the protagonists of trait psychology Cattell (cited in Byrne, 1989, p 136) defines

personality as “that which permits a prediction of what a person will do in a given

situation The goal of psychological research in personality is thus to establish laws about what different people will do in all kinds of social and general environmental situations.”

2.3 Motivational traits

The vital reason for the workforces to work with the insurance company is the reasonable wage offered by the life insurance company It streams image of the company in the mind of the customers, agents The good image about the insurance

company can attract, knowledgeable employees or candidates from the market It

retains the existing customers and pull the employees of other region Special incentive rewards, spot bonuses and cash- equivalent rewards all play a role in the economic reward package (Hardick Shaw, 2008) High wage was given preference by the employees in the organization (Prasad, 1993) It indicates that the organization must

offer a attractive salary and other financial benefits which should be equal to that of employees of other life insurance company’s salary in the same market If there is any difference in the salary level, employees will be unhappy Later suitable salary package must be fixed to the life insurance company employees When an employee achieves his target within the deadline, Life Insurance Company must give incentive

to the agents in the form of money based on the performance

Workforces who are in need of money, prefer to get money by producing more output and speed up their work Here, money acts as a motivator for those employees Employees do the work in the company mainly for money motivates them to achieve the objective (Arun Kumar and Meenakshi, 2010) Satisfaction refers to the overall positive feelings people have about an organization; it can be measured casually by listening to people talk or by asking them how they feel about the organization It can

be measured through focus group or by administered attitude survey focus groups

(Curtis and Philip, 2001) Salary package is also helpful to increase the level of motivation and satisfaction among the employees (Tulsigiri Goswami and Harsh Dwivedi, 2011) At a minimum, employees expect their organization to provide fair pay, safe working conditions and fair treatment (Beer et al, 1984 Work has been allotted to the agents by the manager He can observe the activities of the employees and their attitudes about the job Best performing agents in the life insurance company

is to be noted down and that employee must be appreciated by the manager in front

of the other employees It will certainly fulfil the outstanding employee in the insurance company Aruna Srinivasan (2007), described the employee’s expectation for appreciation and recognition for their best performance in the organization This motivational method influences other employees to perform well for getting

appreciation from the manager Once the best performer is identified, that employee

should be recognized quickly without any type of delay

According to Wikipedia, “It is significant for organizations to understand and to structure the work environment to encourage productive behaviors and discourage

those that are unproductive given work motivation's role in influencing workplace

behavior and performance There is general consensus that motivation involves three psychological processes: arousal, direction, and intensity Arousal is what initiates

action It is fueled by a person's need or desire for something that is missing from their

lives at a given moment, either totally or partially Direction refers to the path

employees take in accomplishing the goals they set for themselves Finally, intensity is the vigor and amount of energy employees put into this goal-directed work

performance The level of intensity is based on the importance and difficulty of the

goal These psychological processes result in four outcomes First, motivation serves to direct attention, focusing on particular issues, people, tasks, etc It also serves to

stimulate an employee to put forth effort Next, motivation results in persistence,

preventing one from deviating from the goal-seeking behavior Finally, motivation results in task strategies, which as defined by Mitchell & Daniels, are "patterns of behavior produced to reach a particular goal”

According to Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (1943) was applied to offer

an explanation of how the work environment motivates employees In accordance with Maslow's theory, which was not specifically developed to explain behavior in the

workplace, employees attempt to satisfy their needs in a hierarchical order At the most

basic level, an employee is motivated to work in order to satisfy basic physiological needs for survival, such as having enough money to purchase food The next level of need in the hierarchy is safety, which could be interpreted to mean adequate housing or living in a safe neighborhood The next three levels in Maslow's theory relate to intellectual and psycho-emotional needs: love and belonging, esteem (which refers to competence and mastery), and finally the highest order need, self-actualization Although Maslow's theory is widely known, in the workplace it has proven to be a poor

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predictor of employee behavior Maslow theorized that people will not seek to satisfy a higher level need until their lower level needs are met There has been little empirical support for the idea that employees in the workplace strive to meet their needs only in the hierarchical order prescribed by Maslow

2.4 Interpersonal traits

According to by Laurie Reeves, “The language in an insurance policy can put

even the avid reader to sleep Filled with legal and insurance terminology, a policy can

be hard to understand The best agents know how to communicate this information in a way that you can easily comprehend They don't talk down to you — they inform you intelligently The best agents can talk to anyone; they can effectively communicate with people from different backgrounds and cultures

To put it another way, as one forum member did, “A good agent knows when to

shut up.” Talking too much or going off on tangents is a surefire way to lose a potential

client Having interpersonal awareness means knowing when to speak, when to listen, and how to help a client understand his or her options.”

The surroundings of the employee comprises of manager, colleagues to the employee Once an employee has a good manager in the life insurance company, that employee can do duty smoothly Each doubt about the job, task can be clearly responded

by the manager An employee friendly manager can achieve his/her target by motivating the employees suitably In connection with this, work group or team will have an effect

on job satisfaction Friendly, co-operative co-workers team can provide suggestion and support the employee at the needed time Friendly work team gives power to an employee and makes an employee a stress free person within the company Therefore, it is clear that financial incentives and non-financial incentives are to be offered to the employees at the right proportion at the correct time Highly motivated employees satisfaction level will increase

According to Raj Agnihotri “Due to their responsibility of developing and

fostering business relationships, salespeople are embedded within a sphere of

interpersonal relationships; the salesperson’s inter-personal traits are critical

to ensuring these business relationships Within the sales literature, interpersonal traits — which include personality traits like persuasiveness, confidence, competitiveness, need for learning, materialism, conscientiousness, and openness to experience — have been examined (Harris et al., 2005; Reday

et al., 2009) However, social and self-conscious emotional traits also play a

critical role in business relationships (Bagozzi, 2006) To shed light on issues of

these emotional traits, some scholars have incorporated learning from the human

and social psychology literature to better understand sales force behavior The

value of these insights is best demonstrated by the trend of sales research that is using the psychology literature to inform their respective studies (Aggarwal et al., 2005; Homburg and Stock, 2005) We assume a similar approach and utilize pro- social motivation and behavior theory to establish the link between emotional traits and pro-social behaviors (Hoffman, 1972, 1982, 2001).”

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CHAPER III - RESEARCH MODEL AND HYPOTHESES

Source: O'Reilly, Chatman, & Caldwell, Hackman and Oldham, Hudson

3.1.1 Dependent variables:

Recruiting the suitable candidates (Agents) is the dependent variable We are trying to find out the key factors affecting in order to choose the suable ones (agents) for life insurance

Personality traits (looking at behavioral preferences that is how candidate’s

preferred style of working There is no concern with their ability)

Motivational traits (estimating how much candidate are into his/ her career and whether he/she has determination and willingness to give all that he/she has to make it big)

Interpersonal traits (testing the candidate’s interpersonal skills, it will show how

well candidate build lasting and meaningful relationship with others

3.1.3 Constructs

Key construct: Recruiting the suitable candidates (Agents)

Other constructs:

Personality traits Motivational traits Interpersonal traits

3.2 Research hypotheses

Hypothesis 1: Personality traits is positive with the recruiting the suitable

candidates

Thoughtfulness of person-organization fit is based on the view that aspects of both an individual employee and a job situation combine to influence the individual's response

to work (O'Reilly, Chatman, & Caldwell, 1991 ) That is, attitudes, behaviors, and other individual-level outcomes result not from the person or environment separately, but rather from the relationship between the two The concept of fit is particularly prominent

in studies of organizational stress where measures must recognize individual differences