Competency Development, Training Design, and the Use of Digital Transformation as a Medium to Enhance Work Efficiency for Thai Life Insurance Agents

Abstract

          The life insurance business is a business that is highly important to the economic system. Each year, more than 80,000 new agents pass the knowledge examination criteria required by the government and enter the business holding a license in the first year. However, only about 47.50% or 38,000 agents per year survive and meet the government’s criteria for license renewal to continue into the second year. Therefore, the researcher studied the problem in order to determine the components of competencies, design training programs that promote work efficiency, and develop a competency model through the mediating role of digital transformation. This research employed qualitative methods by conducting in-depth interviews with executives who supervise sales teams of life insurance companies to create question items, and quantitative methods by collecting data from questionnaires administered to life insurance agents holding licenses from the second year onwards in life insurance companies ranked in the top 1–10, which were then analyzed using structural equation modeling. The findings revealed that an appropriate set of competencies and training design, taking into account the principles of digital transformation, can enhance the long-term work efficiency of life insurance agents. This research helps to fill the gap in competency theory, adds measurement components to efficiency theory, and benefits both the government and the business sector by providing a competency model that can be applied to design training curricula for the development of life insurance personnel to be of quality and to grow sustainably.