Insurance staffing for a distribution network that is always being rebuilt
Insurance distribution is rebuilt constantly as sales staff leave, and the operations side behind it — issuance, verification, claims, cashless authorisation, renewals — runs on turnaround times IRDAI has written into its rules. Staffing insurance means feeding the channel with people who are licensed before they sell, while keeping the back office documented and on time.
Roles, headcount and cities. We aim to send a costed proposal within one working day.
Roles across distribution and operations
Distribution roles are volume hiring with heavy attrition and a licence gate. Operations and claims roles are quality hiring against turnaround clocks. We run them as separate tracks for life insurers, general and health insurers, brokers, corporate agents and TPAs.
- ✓Agency channel: agency development managers, adviser recruitment support, activation desks
- ✓Bancassurance: branch support and servicing staff, and certified sellers where your structure permits
- ✓Direct and digital: licensed telesales, inbound conversion, renewal and persistency desks
- ✓Operations: policy issuance, data entry, document scrutiny, underwriting support
- ✓Verification: pre-issuance tele-verification, medical test scheduling, welcome calls
- ✓Claims: intake, document scrutiny, cashless desk and hospital coordination, surveyor follow-up
- ✓POSP onboarding operations: document checks, training and exam scheduling, certificate records
Distribution attrition is the sector's structural cost
Sales roles turn over faster than they can be trained, so the channel is permanently at partial strength and every territory is being re-learned.
Candidates are recruited on availability, not on the discipline the role needs, so many leave before they write meaningful business and the training and exam effort behind their licence is wasted.
Plus a back office that misses issuance and claims turnaround targets because its own attrition is being backfilled by untrained joiners.
Assessment built around field discipline and persistence, licensing and IRDAI training coordinated, and operations roles staffed as a distinct quality-hiring track with turnaround accountability.
Get a quote →Insurance roles: what they do, the licence they need, what they typically pay
Selling roles are screened for persistence and honesty, and cannot start until the licence is in place. Operations and claims roles are screened for accuracy and medical or document literacy. Pay bands are indicative market figures to help you budget, not our rate card.
| Role | What they do | Licence and screening | Indicative monthly pay* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bancassurance officer / support | Supports the bank's corporate-agency sales in branches: leads, documentation, login, after-sales service | Specified-person certification if they sell; sales role-play, BGV | ₹22,000–28,000 + incentive |
| Insurance telesales executive | Outbound and inbound selling of term, health and motor policies on approved scripts | Channel certification before selling; voice test, mis-selling scenarios | ₹18,000–29,000 + incentive |
| Salaried insurance advisor | Field or desk selling for an insurer or broker | Agent licence (25 hours plus IC-38 exam) or the channel's equivalent; BGV | ₹22,000–31,000 + incentive |
| POSP | Sells simple, pre-underwritten products for one insurer or intermediary | 15-hour training and exam; not usually salaried | Commission only |
| Policy issuance / operations executive | Proposal data entry, document scrutiny against checklists, issuance and dispatch | Data-accuracy test, document-checking exercise, BGV | ₹20,000–29,000 |
| Claims processing executive | Claims intake, document completeness checks, query letters, surveyor and hospital follow-up | Medical or insurance document literacy test, BGV | ₹22,000–27,000 |
| Cashless desk / TPA medical officer | Reviews pre-authorisation requests and hospital documents for the adjudicating authority, works shift rosters | Medical qualification check (e.g. BAMS/BHMS/MBBS as your policy requires), case exercise | ₹31,000–38,000 |
*Indicative monthly pay (annual CTC ÷ 12) for 0–3 years' experience, derived from AmbitionBox salary bands for these job titles and for large insurers, brokers and TPAs (September 2026), rounded. POSPs are paid commission by the insurer or intermediary, not a salary. Pay must never fall below the State minimum wage for the category; your billed cost adds statutory employer costs and the service fee.
Which IRDAI qualification each selling role needs
Nobody solicits insurance without the qualification for the channel they sell through. The licence route decides how long onboarding takes, who runs the training and exam, and which products the person may sell — so it has to be settled before a role is advertised.
| Role | Training and exam | What they may sell, and for whom | Our part |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual agent | 25 hours of training provided through the insurer, then the pre-recruitment exam on the IC-38 syllabus conducted by the Insurance Institute of India. | Appointed by the insurer; at most one life, one general and one health insurer. The 2025 insurance amendment did not open this up to multiple insurers per line. | Sourcing, document checks, training and exam scheduling, follow-up to activation. |
| Point of Sales Person (POSP) | At least 18 years old and Class 10 pass; 15 hours of in-house training by the insurer or intermediary, followed by its own exam and certificate. | Only simple, pre-underwritten products: e.g. term and non-linked products in life; motor, personal accident, travel and home in general insurance. Tied to one insurer or intermediary at a time. | Onboarding operations: KYC and document checks, training and exam logistics, certificate records. |
| Specified person of a corporate agent (e.g. a bank) | 50 hours of training (25 hours if already qualified) and an exam under IRDAI's certification route, with 25 hours of renewal training. | Sells for the corporate agent's partner insurers — up to nine per line of business, 27 in total for a composite corporate agent. | Certification tracking; whether a contract employee can be designated is confirmed with your compliance team first. |
| Telesales and renewal callers | Depends on the channel the calls run under. Anyone who solicits or sells needs that channel's certification; pure servicing and reminder calls usually do not. | Scripts, disclosures and call recording follow the insurer's or intermediary's approved process. | We split selling and servicing seats so uncertified callers never pitch a product. |
Based on IRDAI's POSP guidelines (life, 2019; non-life and health, 2017), its 2016 circular on agent and corporate-agent training, and the corporate-agent regulations as amended in 2022, as available on irdai.gov.in in September 2026. The Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Act 2025, largely in force from 5 February 2026, moved intermediaries to one-time registration; your compliance team's reading of the current master circulars prevails.
What an insurer can staff out, and what must stay in-house
IRDAI's 2024 framework (the Protection of Policyholders' Interests, Operations and Allied Matters of Insurers Regulations 2024 and the Master Circular on Operations and Allied Matters of 19 June 2024) replaced the 2017 outsourcing regulations. The line it draws is between decisions and the procedural work that supports them.
Stays with the insurer
- ✕Underwriting decisions: accepting, loading or declining a proposal
- ✕Claims decisions: admitting, settling or repudiating a claim
- ✕Product design and actuarial work
- ✕Grievance redressal decisions and enterprise risk management
Can be staffed through a service provider
- ✓Claims intake, document collection and scrutiny against a checklist
- ✓Proposal data entry, issuance processing and dispatch
- ✓Pre-issuance verification calls, medical test scheduling, welcome calls
- ✓Servicing and renewal-reminder desks, complaint logging and tracking
How we keep the line clean
Job descriptions and system access are written so our people prepare and route files while your authorised officers decide. Outsourced activities still go through your outsourcing committee, and your policyholder data rules, audit rights and exit plan are written into our contract.
Distribution, licensing, operations
Sales roles are billed per joined candidate or per head per month on our payroll; operations and claims teams are billed as deployed headcount. The slider assumes an operations or claims role at about ₹24,000 gross a month and an illustrative 12% service fee; your actual fee is set out in the rate card.
Agency, bancassurance and direct channels need different people, sourced differently.
Staffing to IRDAI's one-hour and three-hour clocks
IRDAI's Master Circular on Health Insurance Business (29 May 2024) requires cashless authorisation within one hour of the hospital's request and final discharge authorisation within three hours. Any extra hospital charges caused by a delay beyond that are paid from the insurer's shareholders' funds. Those clocks run at night and on holidays, so the cashless desk is really a rostering problem.
Rosters built on request volume
We size shifts from your hourly pre-authorisation and discharge volumes, with cover for evenings, weekends and festival peaks, so the one-hour clock is not lost at shift change.
Night shifts, done lawfully
Under the OSH Code, women may work before 6 am or after 7 pm only with their consent and on the safety, transport and hours conditions the State sets. State shops-and-establishments rules also apply to office hours. Consent records and transport are part of our roster, not an afterthought.
Preparation, not adjudication
Our processors and medical officers check documents, raise queries and prepare the case. The decision to approve, limit or deny a claim stays with your authorised officer, as IRDAI's outsourcing rules require.
Turnaround and quality reported
Per-person turnaround, query rate, rework and escalations are reported weekly, so a slipping desk is visible before it shows up in complaints on IRDAI's Bima Bharosa portal.
Insurance roles that should stay with you
- ✕Underwriters and claims approvers. Decisions on risk acceptance and claim settlement cannot be outsourced. Recruit these roles onto your rolls through permanent recruitment.
- ✕Selling seats where nobody can be licensed in time. If a campaign starts before the licence route is complete, staffing it only creates unlicensed selling. Start with servicing seats and move people to selling once they are certified.
- ✕Commission-only agents and POSPs. They are appointed and paid commission by the insurer or intermediary, so there is nothing to put on a staffing payroll. We can support the onboarding operations around them instead.
Questions operations and HR heads ask us
Answers we give in the first call, written down so you can compare vendors on the same terms.
Get a quote →Which insurance channels do you staff?+
Agency, bancassurance, direct and digital, plus broking and TPA operations. On the selling side, only people who hold the right certification for the channel are put on selling work; operations and claims teams are staffed as a separate track.
Do you handle IRDAI licensing and training?+
We coordinate it: document checks, training scheduling, exam logistics and certificate-validity tracking. The training is provided by or through the insurer or intermediary and the certification is issued through IRDAI's prescribed route, not by us.
Can staff be deployed on your payroll?+
Yes, which is common for sales roles given the attrition profile: we employ, pay and cover them and you direct the sales activity, with attendance and activity reporting per territory.
Do you staff claims and issuance operations?+
Yes, as a separate quality-hiring track — intake, document scrutiny, processing, surveyor coordination and settlement support, staffed against turnaround targets with audit-trail discipline.
How do you reduce sales attrition?+
Assessment designed around field persistence rather than interview polish, honest role preview at selection, day 30-60-90 check-ins and territory continuity. It does not eliminate the sector's attrition, but it is designed to cut first-quarter losses.
What training does a POSP need?+
A Point of Sales Person must be at least 18 and have passed Class 10, then complete 15 hours of in-house training given by the insurer or intermediary and pass its exam. POSPs may sell only simple, pre-underwritten products and can work for one insurer or intermediary at a time. We handle the document checks, scheduling and certificate records; the training and exam belong to you.
How long does it take to license a new insurance agent?+
The regulatory steps are 25 hours of training provided through the insurer and the IC-38 exam conducted by the Insurance Institute of India. Elapsed time depends mostly on exam slots and how fast documents are complete, so we start licensing paperwork at offer stage rather than after joining.
Did the 2025 insurance amendment change the rules for agents?+
The Sabka Bima Sabki Raksha (Amendment of Insurance Laws) Act 2025, largely in force from 5 February 2026, allowed 100% FDI in insurers and moved intermediaries to one-time registration. It did not let individual agents represent more than one insurer in each of life, general and health. Check IRDAI's current circulars for the transitional details.
Can claims processing be outsourced to a staffing company?+
The procedural work can: intake, document checks, data entry, query letters and follow-up. Under IRDAI's 2024 policyholder-protection and operations framework, the decision to admit, settle or repudiate a claim cannot be outsourced. We write job descriptions and system access around that line.
Rebuild the channel with people who stay
Send the channel and city mix. We will propose an assessment standard, a licensing plan and a monthly hiring cadence.