Profile of Buntain Insurance
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Narrator: A family business, founded in 1967, Buntain Insurance has certainly been around. But this business is anything but an old-school operation. They are managing to attract and keep talented young people. How do they do it? It’s all based on a simple philosophy…
Gordon Buntain, Owner: Buntain Insurance: Be prepared to empower them. Empower them. Give them opportunities that they might not get as an employee or an order-taker. Let them develop relationships and let them grow.
Interviewer: So your whole life, all you wanted to do was get into insurance? Jesse John, Insurance Consultant: [pause] Yes. [laughs]
Anthea Milne, Insurance Consultant: Our ideal employee comes just from university and doesn’t necessarily have insurance experience. Ideal target is actually somebody who’s worked in a restaurant or service industry because they have that multi-tasking behind them and they have a good service attitude usually coming in. That’s worked very well for us.
Jesse John: My brother had told me about being an insurance agent because one of his friends worked for one of our competitors. I just started thinking about that a couple of years ago. It was kind of in the back of my mind. I thought, “Okay,” but then I was already at SFU doing my teaching degree, doing my history degree with plans of doing the education. But eventually – last summer – I said, “Ok, teaching’s not for me. I have all of these contacts – they know me, they trust me. I have a friend that works at one of our competitors, I can see myself doing what he’s doing and he makes a decent living doing that.” I said, “I could see myself doing that.”
Jennifer Muller, Insurance Consultant: It’s a small office and we’re mostly young people which I think is pretty unique in the insurance industry. It’s nice that it’s a small, family-run business and everybody’s connected somehow, whether you were hired through friends or through family. That’s pretty much how everybody knows each other.
Cici Lai, Insurance Consultant: I think if I was ever to leave here, I wouldn’t actually leave it for an insurance position because I would stay here if I was going to stay in the insurance industry. So yeah, definitely – this is not something that everybody thinks about, but it’s something that they should think about.
Gordon Buntain: They see the opportunity outside of university, us seeing the opportunity of having a bright young person who has some interest or some knowledge of our business was a huge advantage. This seems to be where we are growing. You know, I think that we’ve been lucky – we’ve grown enough that we can afford to bring or pay a higher educated person and attract more of them. I think that’s what they see. They see their peers working here and they see opportunities of growth and coaching.
Cici Lai: I think that the insurance industry is always changing. There’s a lot to learn in terms of learning policies about different companies and things like that. Insurance is not a tangible asset so it takes a lot of learning to figure out how to sell something like this to the client. I’ve learned a lot of skills from Gord for selling. In terms of the products, depending on where you are and which companies you carry, you have to learn about each and every product as well. I’ve done a lot of that in the last year.
Gordon Buntain: If you have an older staff, you’re going to limit yourself. I think you have to embrace the opportunities that come with the younger people. There’s risks but if you embrace it, I think that it’s a fantastic opportunity.
Caroline Alvarez, Insurance Consultant: The positive energy. In the mornings, I just know that I’m going to be walking into a place full of energy. Everybody has a different story. Everybody brings something different to the table. That’s what I like.
