PIA's New Employee Orientation Series

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Frequently Asked Questions

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What to expect

Student testimonials

Brought to you by PIA & Managing Education Resource Group.

In this "virtual classroom," new employees log on to the course via their computer each week to get the training they need. There’s no travel, no interruption to daily agency activity and, most importantly, no time out of the office.

Your new hire can connect with other rookies, bounce questions off the facilitator, and learn about critical service and communication skills in manageable pieces in the comfort of their home or office!

The first week of each program is an orientation week, which gives new users time to get a feel for how their online course will work. Students will need a desktop PC with Windows technology and Internet access with a current Web browser.

The NEO Series consists of the following courses:

Approx. weekly course time per course: 3 hours

Give your rookies the training they need to succeed—without interrupting your daily sales and service activities. If you have a new employee on board or are planning a new hire, this course is for you! This program is designed for unlicensed employees with less than 12 months experience in the agency. Your employees log on to the course via the computer each week to get the training they need. There’s no travel, no interruption to daily agency activity and, most importantly, no time out of the office!

New Employee Orientation for Agency Personnel

Orientation week: (If first online course)
Week 1: How We All Benefit from Insurance
Week 2: General Concepts of Insurance
Week 3: An Overview of the Insurance Industry
Week 4: The People Behind the Promise|
Week 5: The Insurance Contract
Week 6: Personal Lines Insurance Policies
Week 7: Commercial Lines Insurance Policies

Personal Lines Coverage Basics

Personal Lines Coverage Basics is designed for unlicensed employees with less than 12 months' experience in the agency. Employees log on to the course via the computer each week to get the training they need. There's no travel, no interruption to daily agency activity and, best of all, no time out of the office! Personal Lines Coverage Basics is designed for new employees with 6-9 months' experience.

Orientation week: (If first online course)
Week 1: Introduction to Property Insurance
Week 2: Introduction to Liability Insurance
Week 3: Dwelling Insurance
Week 4: Homeowners Insurance
Week 5: Personal Auto Insurance
Week 6: Misc Personal Insurance

Delivering Quality Service to the Customer and Employer

Designed for new employees, this online program focuses on developing relationships through active listening, taking ownership of the customer's problem, speaking positively in negative situations and helping confused or irate customers. Students will learn to clarify expectations and confirm work plans, minimize E&O risk through proper documentation, follow standard agency procedures consistently and explore the work flows within the agency's system to create a "big picture" understanding of the tasks involved.This program is an excellent follow-up to the New Employee Orientation for Agency Personnel Online Course, but it can also be used as a stand-alone program. It is designed for unlicensed employees with less than 12 months' experience in the agency.

Orientation week: (If first online course)
Week 1: What is Quality Customer Service?
Week 2: Professional Customer Communication
Week 3: Commitment to the Customer Relationship
Week 4: Exceeding Expectations of Internal Customers
Week 5: Overview of E&O Prevention
Week 6: Agency’s Standard Operating Procedures

Commercial Lines Coverage Basics

Orientation week: (If first online course)
Week 1: The Commercial Package Policy & the Business Owners Policy
Week 2: Commercial Property Insurance
Week 3: Ocean & Inland Marine Insurance
Week 4: Commercial General Liability Insurance
Week 5: Commercial Auto Insurance
Week 6: Commercial Crime Insurance
Week 7: Workers' Compensation
Week 8: Miscellaneous Commercial Insurance

View the schedule to register:

View the NEO Series schedule to register. Links take you to the annual education schedule, where you can sort by "class type — online/NEO series."
N.Y.	N.J.	Conn.	N.H.

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FAQ

How do these NEO classes work?
The concept of distance learning seems to throw everyone for a loop. For good reason, perhaps, because there are so many different ways that on line courses are structured.

MERG courses follow a tried and true method of distance learning called Computer Mediated Distance Learning (cmdl for short). Think of a CMDL course like you would a professional continuing education seminar which meets weekly. What would you expect if this was live: Lecture? Discussion? Reading? Homework? Quizzes? Exams? Comradery? Yep! CMDL has almost the same structure. The difference is that MERG courses are not held in real time. Instead, the classroom interaction takes place over an easy to use computer network over a period of time, usually eight or nine weeks.

Click Here for a quick snapshot of what to expect.

What is the New Employee Orientation Series all about?
Quality training for employees with less than one year of industry experience. This series of programs is designed for unlicensed employees with less than 12 months’ experience in the agency. Employees log onto the computer each week to get the training. Since there is no travel, there is no interruption to daily agency activity.

Participants read assigned textbooks, complete comprehensive exercises, share information through online discussion groups, complete weekly quizzes and complete a final exam. Select a program below for additional information and registration.

Need tech. support? Contact John Shaheen at MERG: (800) 472-9404.

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Testimonials

“The New Employee Orientation course was more beneficial than I expected. The workbook was very helpful and resourceful. What I liked best about the course were the questions we had to answer each week. It got me interacting with my supervisor and other CSRs in the office and I was able to learn things I wouldn’t have just answering questions our of a book.”

“I felt the NEO course was quite beneficial. I do not come from an insurance background and I found the material very informative. It was presented in an easy format and the wording was descriptive in laymen's terms.
“I really enjoyed the NEO course. It was easy to pick things up and neat that we could read other people's responses to the activities and discussion questions. It was very beneficial and gave me a better understanding of the industry.”

“What I liked best about the NEO course is that you let us read the text book, gather what info we got from it, discuss it with our fellow employees, and underwriters, get different observations from everyone and let you know what we thought.”

“I feel the NEO course should be taken as the initial step in insurance education. I had already taken the three week crash course of 8.5 hours a day and passed the state test so this was all really the same thing, but it did help as a refresher. I told my advisor that this should be taken before the crash course because it does give the basics to insurance which at the time I hadn’t a clue”..

“I liked your e-Lectures and Discussions, and believe it or not, I liked the assignments – it gave me a reason to ask the people that I work with, detailed questions about how they do things here. I also liked the textbook because it didn’t assume that I knew anything about insurance.

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