Rightsourcing, Part 2: When the Talent Well Runs Dry

How Smart Insurance Leaders Are Future-Proofing Their Operations

By Tom Gray, Founder and CEO, Employee Pooling

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese Proverb

The insurance industry faces a sobering reality: the talent pipeline isn’t just running low—it’s approaching empty. In Part 1 of this series, originally published in April’s Aspire Magazine, we explored how rightsourcing offers BGAs, IMOs, FMOs, and carriers a smarter path to operational excellence. Now, let’s examine the forces driving this transformation.

The Numbers Don’t Lie: We’re in Crisis Mode

Picture this: One in four of your most experienced professionals hands you their retirement notice tomorrow. Sound dramatic? Over 25% of insurance professionals are already over 55, with nearly half past 45.

The silver tsunami isn’t coming. It’s here.

Meanwhile, younger talent runs in the opposite direction. A 2015 Pew study revealed fewer than 4% of millennials express interest in insurance careers. For Gen Z? Even worse.

We’re fighting over an ever-shrinking talent pool with increasingly expensive weapons.

The Hidden Costs of Playing by Old Rules

Let’s talk about what it really costs to fill a position today. Beyond that 6-12 week recruitment cycle, the real battle begins after you hire.

Remote work has fundamentally changed onboarding. Try explaining 20 years of industry nuance through a Zoom screen to someone who’s never processed an insurance application. Add product-specific knowledge, proprietary systems, and tribal wisdom, and you’ve got extended ramp-up times and costly mistakes.

The brutal math: turnover costs reach 150% of an employee’s salary. That doesn’t include lost productivity, project delays, or morale damage.

One resignation can trigger a domino effect that cripples operations for months.

Enter Rightsourcing: The Strategic Alternative

While traditional outsourcing feels like surrendering control, rightsourcing is different. Why? Rightsourcing employs a co-sourcing model, where your internal team and the rightsourced team collaborate toward shared goals, blending expertise rather than replacing it. You can extend capabilities without sacrificing quality by considering both internal and external resources to determine the best fit for each task.

Think precision staffing: deploying trained, insurance-specific professionals for high-volume, process-driven work (case management, agent contracting, commissions, client outreach) while your internal team focuses on what truly moves the needle.

Rightsourcing reflects our philosophy: doing the right work, with the right resources, liberating your core team to concentrate on the 20% of activities that generate 80% of profits. So you get optimal resource allocation based on skills, costs, and strategic needs.

Why Rightsourcing Thrives Today

The insurance landscape shifts faster than ever before. Interest rate volatility, product evolution, and fluctuating demand patterns mean your staffing model needs the right experts for the right work.

Rightsourcing offers:

• Deploy specialized teams without disrupting daily operations
• Scale instantly during surges without costly recruitment
• Maintain compliance without stretching internal resources
• Continual improvement with feedback loops and service adjustments

Real results speak louder than theory: One EP client slashed over $1.25 million in annual staffing expenses while accelerating expansion. They didn’t just cut costs—they bought freedom to grow.

The Price of Standing Still

Traditional hiring and outsourcing often limit agility. Hiring in-house means lengthy recruitment, slow ramp-up times, costly turnover, and ongoing overhead. Outsourcing can solve capacity issues, but it often removes control, flexibility, and alignment with your long-term strategy.

Rightsourcing is a mindset—expanding your thinking to blend the strengths of both approaches. It gives you pre-trained insurance professionals ready to contribute immediately, with no onboarding lag and predictable, transparent costs. You retain oversight, scale capacity as needed, and eliminate the hidden expenses of traditional employment.

For companies operating on razor-thin margins or managing multiple growth initiatives, this isn’t just about convenience. It’s about survival.

Building Tomorrow’s Success Today

Whether navigating seasonal surges, launching new products, or managing retirement transitions, rightsourcing provides the operational flexibility that modern insurance firms require to stay competitive.

More importantly, it enables leaders to redirect their internal teams toward activities that truly drive growth: building relationships, developing strategy, and creating value that competitors cannot easily replicate.

The Bottom Line: Adaptation or Extinction

Rightsourcing isn’t a band-aid solution. It’s a fundamental business model evolution in an industry where every process impacts revenue, compliance, and client experience. Having the right support at the right moment can mean the difference between thriving and merely surviving.

As we navigate Q4 and plan for 2025, ask yourself the hard questions: Is your current staffing model positioned for growth and disruption? Or are you one key resignation away from operational chaos?

The talent crunch isn’t going anywhere. Interest rates will continue to fluctuate. Regulations will keep evolving. Product demands will shift with market conditions.

Companies that embrace rightsourcing today will find themselves with an unassailable advantage: the ability to adapt, scale, and excel while their competitors struggle with the limitations of yesterday’s employment models.

At Employee Pooling, we combine cutting-edge technology with deep human expertise to solve today’s staffing challenges while preparing you for tomorrow’s opportunities. The future belongs to those who work smarter, scale faster, and rightsource their most critical operations.

Interested in learning more about Rightsourcing? Schedule a call with Steven Lacher.