With the insurance industry facing a well-documented talent shortage, many firms are searching for new ways to attract and retain staff. For Don McLardy, CEO and co-founder of McLardy McShane, the answer may be surprisingly simple: make work more enjoyable.
In an interview with Insurance Business, McLardy emphasized how much fun he’s had – and is still having – in his career as an insurance broker. He said that sheer enjoyment has kept him engaged with this career over decades, and also helped differentiate his firm from the competition.
McLardy’s approach to running a brokerage suggests that if more firms focused on providing fun in a supportive workplace, their talent crunch and staff retention issues could be significantly reduced.
As a young man and to this day, McLardy suggested that he is driven by a personal ethic based on a feeling of responsibility towards the people he works with but also a sense of the importance of fun as a key to business success. He said he’s focused on cultivating that at his brokerage.
“I've driven the business that way and we’ve focused on it,” said McLardy.
McLardy traces his philosophy back to the 1980s, when he was with OAMPS Insurance Brokers, run by industry leaders Peter Claringbold and Terry Lane.
“I loved everything about it and it was very exciting almost from day one because I really liked the work environment they created,” said McLardy.
He described it as like being on a rocket ship. “We had a lot of fun at work and a great camaraderie within the team,” said McLardy. He said work connected closely with his social life.
McLardy has tried to adopt and extend this fun culture at McLardy McShane, the firm he started with Mike McShane in 2007.
“I think one of the other keys is that Mike McShane, my business partner, he's exactly the same as I am – we look to have fun together,” he said.
One example of the success of this approach could be that over a couple of decades this leadership duo seem to have attracted staff and clients who often also become friends. An early secret: the tree bar.
“At our first office, we had a tree in the backyard, and I used to walk out there to get to my car, and I started thinking, ‘We could build a bar around that tree,’” said McLardy.
So they did and started to host events.
“We used to have a function every couple of months and say, ‘Come to the tree bar!’”
A novel move, he suggested, was inviting insurers along as well.
“In those days, brokers tended to see most insurers as the ones who had to pay for everything and take them out – we turned it the other way and started looking after the insurers,” he said.
McLardy said this simple fun actually helped his firm build a reputation for doing things differently.
“Of course, we ended up having great relationships with the individuals in the insurance companies and that meant that they were really supportive of our business,” he said.
McLardy said today the firm has essentially taken this early tree bar concept to a bigger scale. At their national conferences, he said, insurers are also delegates and treated like an integral part of the business.
“They're not sponsors who stand on the outside, they're in every session, they listen to our financials, hear about all the community work we do and end up helping us raise money,” said McLardy.
McLardy said this business approach that combines professionalism and fun helps them to stand out in a global corporate world.
“It's very much a corporate world of big businesses and our competition is sometimes very faceless and the key people change all the time,” he said. “There's no relationships built and there's no respect for relationships or the smaller individuals in the business.”
McLardy said his firm has deliberately built a business plan around being “the exact opposite” to this corporate style of doing business.
He explains it this way:
“We've tried to build something where people enjoy being at work and where we value all our relationships,” he said. “We also try to be part of the communities we're in.”
He said this approach, where McLardy and his leadership encourage a culture of fun, respect and looking after employees wherever they sit in the business, has significantly helped retention rates.
IB asked him to articulate this in more concrete terms. After all, it’s one thing for a brokerage leader like McLardy to adopt this approach, but the real test is whether his employees share the same feelings.
“I think we've got a really high retention rate – not many people leave us,” he said. “I think a lot of it is to do with really trying to create a caring and fun environment so it's enjoyable to come to work and be involved in all activities.”
One way they include everyone is by celebrating wins together and adopting business targets so they have milestones where they can celebrate.
“I like people around me having fun,” he said. “But I also like being good at what we're doing, so we combine those together.”
He said compared to other AR networks their basic business approach is probably similar. However, he suggested that another key difference is that his firm is very good at caring for its AR members and keeping them happy by giving them access to people who can help them make decisions about their businesses.
“I think at the moment, we're a bit of a destination company where people like what we're doing - but we work really hard at it and it's something that we talk about all the time,” said McLardy.
McLardy suggested that imparting life experiences to staff that engage with these ideas of combining fun with professionalism is also important. For example, their annual trip to London.
“We took about 14 people [this year] to London and that's a very expensive exercise,” he said. One focus of this staff trip is a visit to Lloyd’s of London.
McLardy said doing these sorts of activities is easier in a firm like his that is independently owned rather than relying on a CFO to sign off on expenditures.
“You can’t put a price on that experience and they're very thankful and we know that that helps us with retention because they go out and they tell our story to everyone around them – so it's got a lot of lot of benefits,” he said.
As the insurance industry continues to grapple with attracting and retaining top talent, McLardy’s story suggests that a culture of enjoyment and community could be a powerful differentiator.
What do you think of having more fun at work? Could it help your brokerage firm? Please tell us your view below.
