Tao XuChief Human Resources Officer · Essays & perspective

Tao Xu / Chief Human Resources Officer

Three arguments about how an insurer selects, judges and moves its people

Perspectives from a life in leadership.

The latest essay

Agency recruitment5 min read

Show a recruit what second-year agents actually earn

Chinese life insurers recruited agents the way they once sold policies, with an optimistic illustration and a start-of-year push. Before anyone signs an agency contract, they should see the real income distribution of agents in their second year.

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Agency recruitment

  1. Agency recruitment5 min read

    Show a recruit what second-year agents actually earn

    Chinese life insurers recruited agents the way they once sold policies, with an optimistic illustration and a start-of-year push. Before anyone signs an agency contract, they should see the real income distribution of agents in their second year.

    Open essay

Performance management in control roles

  1. Performance management in control roles5 min read

    Do not rank the people who check the sales

    Forced distribution with bottom elimination remains common in Chinese financial companies. Whatever its merits elsewhere, it should never be applied to people whose job is to find and report problems, because it teaches them that accurate reporting is a risk to their careers.

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Regional leadership and rotation

  1. Regional leadership and rotation5 min read

    Six years is long enough to run a provincial branch

    Long-serving provincial general managers bring knowledge and relationships an insurer values. They also accumulate arrangements nobody else understands. A fixed tenure limit, with honest support for the families who move, protects both the branch and the leader.

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