Galen M. Hair is an attorney based out of New Orleans, La., and runs Insurance Claim HQ, representing local and national policyholders who may have suffered from a disaster and have not been fairly paid for their losses.
His firm is annually involved in numerous philanthropic events for the city of New Orleans, all of which his staff is eagerly involved. One of his marquee strengths is his ability to build and grow a team of devoted, dedicated employees and make sure they are living their best lives, personally and professionally.
We sat down with Hair, who discussed what it takes to grow and scale a business in 2022 and beyond.
Attracting Employees
“You have to be resilient, and you must be able to change gears quickly. This is not optional if you want to grow in today’s climate. In 2020, it kind of divided people into two groups, based on the traditional fight-or-flight classifications. As for 2021, it was a different animal altogether. Fight-or-flight was no longer applicable. A lot of those that would have fled were already gone, albeit some slowly returning. However, by then, the ‘flights’ had learned to ‘fight’ when confronted with adversity,” stated Hair. “Now the challenge was separating yourself while the entire world entered into financial, political, and public health turmoil. Hiring became a massive issue as well. There is no one ‘magic bullet’, but I learned that you have to focus on drawing in the right members — showing a unique value proposition that is more than just a paycheck (while also not minimizing said paycheck). You also must specialize. With all the information out there, if you aren’t specializing, you are opening yourself up to be put out of business.”
Business Model Focus
“We tend to focus on human behavior. Businesses should monitor human behavior on a daily basis, including vendor behavior, consumer behavior, and employee behavior,” said Hair. “Watch for the trends. We always say, ‘row with the disaster, not against it.’ The COVID-19 pandemic caused a lot of companies to alter their models, including utilizing different communication technologies. We have done our best to stay at the forefront of technology that makes communicating with people easy and pleasant. I expect remote work to become the norm, but with healthy returns to in-person interactions. We are social creatures, after all, and the return of conferences, festivals, and events have proven that this year.”
Company Growth and Employee Retention
“We teach our team that we are here for our clients. The only way to truly adopt that mindset is to show the results of what we do, which we achieve through emails, texts, videos, and meetings. We want to make sure we never forget the positive impact we can have when we work together. I personally want to put 1,000 people back into their homes each month,” Hair stated. “Unreasonable growth comes with unreasonable costs. As a potential recession looms, the cost is going to be a key factor. Companies will soon show whether they planned well for it. Leaders will sometimes dodge the blame, but ego is a dangerous thing in business. Self-awareness is the most valuable thing for a business. Be self-aware, not egocentric. Evaluate your company culture weekly, not quarterly. Success is ultimately measured by happy clients.”
Merely implementing some of these key strategies will help company growth and employee retention and ensure the successes are plenty.
About Galen M. Hair
Galen M. Hair, Owner of Insurance Claim HQ, is a property insurance attorney who has helped over 800 families rebuild their homes and businesses. He has been rated a Super Lawyers Rising Star and voted one of the National Trial Lawyers Top 100. To learn more about protecting your property from disaster, click here: www.insuranceclaimhq.com
