Dig deep
There are essentially three layers of management at Brown & Brown.
There are managers who run the local offices around the country, and they report to regional executive vice presidents, who report to Brown and his team.
Since Brown & Brown is big on promoting employees, a lot of those managers have grown through the company. That’s why the interview process is so important at the company. If they find the right person at a producer position, that person can be molded into a manager.
“We have lots of opportunities for leadership in our organization,” he says. “If somebody comes in and shows they can sell insurance and, more importantly, they can help recruit more good people to our organization, which is what all of our leaders have to do, then we can find an opportunity for them.”
Qualified candidates are given a personality profile test. From there, they proceed on to the interview, while the test is graded after the day of interviews.
“We think the personality profile is a very important indicator of potential success,” he says. “If it basically says that we think there is a potential match, then you get significantly into the interview process. If the thing says we don’t think there’s a match, then we might basically say, ‘We just don’t think that there is a fit.’
“Remember, we’ve probably already interviewed them one time anyway. So, any personality test is not a surefire way in successfully hiring people. We think of it as a tool to help qualify potential talented candidates. So, it doesn’t say, ‘Here is a potential candidate and they’ll make it.’ It’ll say, ‘Here is a potential candidate that we think could make it.’”
That’s when you need to really get to know the person through the interview process.
You want the candidate to feel comfortable in the interview so he or she will answer questions openly. Ask candidates about some of their hobbies or what they do in their free time for starters.
“It’s good to not talk about the core interview questions upfront,” he says. “I like to just get to know somebody.”
You can also give some background on yourself, such as what you do in your free time or how you ended up with the company. This creates a more conversational feel, rather than you firing questions at someone.
“I want you to feel comfortable to say anything you want to say,” he says. “You’re coming in with your guard up. I want you to relax and basically say, ‘Look, the bottom line is, we’re just talking about our business, and I want to talk to you about your background and see if there is a potential fit.’”
Once you get to the work-related questions, don’t make a snap judgment that you like the person, letting him or her coast through the interview.
If an interviewer says he or she immediately liked someone right off the bat, Brown asks the interviewer if he or she really asked the tough questions. He wants to make sure the interviewer really dug deep in the interview.
“I always like to start at the beginning,” he says. “I mean the beginning is maybe high school. ‘Tell me about yourself, and what you did in high school, and why you went to the high school you did and were you involved in sports or were you in other extracurricular activit
ies? Did you work in high school? Where did you go to college? Why? Were you involved on campus?’ … and kind of go through it very systematically.”
If there are any gaps in the resume, ask about those, as well. There isn’t a specific answer that Brown has in mind. He just wants to find out about the candidate.
“I don’t have a preconceived answer that is bad or good,” he says. “I want to understand why the person is the way they are today. Quite honestly, we are looking for people who are long-term players. So, if you have somebody who’s had lots of jobs, that’s a question — I have a question automatically, in a short period of time, because I don’t know if they are going to be committed long term to any company. I want to walk through all of that very closely with them.”
