So far, 2020 has challenged brokers and insurance clients alike, as the coronavirus continues to spread in Canada, and provinces slowly awaken their economies following shutdowns. In light of brokers’ efforts to support their communities throughout the COVID-19 crisis, the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO) is repurposing its Awards of Excellence program to acknowledge brokers’ extraordinary efforts over the past year.
According to a press release, IBAO’s Awards of Excellence program will now have one category, called the Community Leadership Award, to recognize brokers who have contributed to their communities through their support of local organizations or causes, unparalleled service and/or support, volunteer efforts, financial contribution, and/or outstanding expertise or compassion beyond normal expectations.
“We can all agree that if there was one year that we were going to do something different to recognize as many brokers as possible, it would be this particular year,” said Joseph Carnevale,managing director of sales and partner atBrokers Trust Insurance Group, and IBAO president.
The decision to move from a multi- to a single-category program was an easy one to make, considering themany stories that IBAO leadership was hearing from its members and seeing on social media about brokers lending a hand to their local communities and businesses during this time.
“Brokers were already active and going above and beyond in their jobs and their duties,” said Carnevale. “[And doing] this is at a time when all of us were already inundated … In addition to working remotely, we actually had an influx of phone calls and emails from our clients needing some help and support on reducing coverage, changing coverage, and having payment issues.”
For some insureds, this year may have been the first time when they were unable to make a payment on their insurance, causing them a lot of stress. But brokers’ jobs haven’t been as simple as helping clients deal with payment issues – they have also acted as counsellors to anxious insureds who are living through a once-in-a-lifetime event and might be worried about the survival of their businesses. The fact that, amid this influx of communication with clients, many brokers have found time to help out in other ways is incredible, says Carnevale.
“If I had a cape to give to every broker in Ontario, I’d give them a superhero cape because as far as I’m concerned, that’s what they’ve done – they’ve demonstrated that they’re all superheroes,” he said.
The IBAO awards program has also changed this year in that it is moving to peer nomination, so that brokers can nominate any individual IBAO member broker they feel has had an impact on local businesses, causes and/or communities in 2020. Brokers can also be nominated by the clients or organizations that they’ve impacted.
Speaking about this strategy, Carnevale said, “It’s not just about recognizing individuals – it’s about empowering them to feel proud of the fact that they’ve gone above and beyond, and so have their colleagues.”
Besides brokers’ show of support for their communities, there is one other silver lining of the COVID-19 crisis, in that it has presented an opportunity for brokers to show the value of working with a professional who understands their client’s needs and is there for them during hard times by providing guidance and support.
“This year more than any other time I can possibly imagine, brokers delivered on that,” said Carnevale. “I think this goes unnoticed by most people. Being in a GTA brokerage and being greatly affected more than other regions of the province, I can tell you first-hand the number of calls that we had from clients who didn’t just call about changing usage on a car … We had calls about ‘I lost the relative to COVID,’‘my husband’s in the hospital,’and ‘I just lost my spouse.’”
He added that there were weeks at Brokers Trust when the brokerage’s leaders had to counsel their own staff because they were just getting inundated with so many of these personal stories. “The fact that we can demonstrate to people in a very big way during COVID that we’re there for them, whether it’s insurance-related, or for adviceor for counselling and general support, we have proven that these aren’t just words, these are actions that we delivered on,” said Carnevale.
Winners of the IBAO awards will be announced at IBAO’s Virtual Convention October 21–22, with ongoing recognition into 2021.
