Still hiring like it’s 2010?
If your hiring playbook says “post a job, hope someone local applies,” you’re choosing to slow your own growth. George Petersen Insurance — a $43M independent agency with multiple offices — decided to move differently. They built a dedicated backend team through Edge, freeing their people from burnout and bottlenecks.
The results: faster hiring, lighter workloads, and a workforce built to scale.
The problem: Bottlenecks that break agencies
After a wave of acquisitions, George Petersen’s in-house staff was underwater – buried in backlogs, data migration, and compliance tasks. Local hiring took too long and cost too much. What they needed wasn’t “more people,” it was a better system.
Why “remote” didn’t mean “outsourced”
Most leaders hear “virtual assistance” and think “generic offshore pool.” George Petersen found something entirely different. Edge built them a dedicated team — professionals who worked exclusively for their agency, trained on their systems, and accountable to their managers. As Kathy Heglin, Commercial Lines Service Manager at George Petersen Insurance, put it: “The thing that made Edge stand out… was that the people we worked with were specifically for our agency.”
The impact: measurable relief and lasting results
After building a dedicated remote team, complete with six Edge Talent, George Petersen saw:
- 26–40% workload reduction across overloaded teams.
- 51% faster recruiting compared to local hiring cycles.
- 10–25% higher efficiency in affected workflows.
Those aren’t vanity stats. They freed people from overtime, cleared backlogs, and made growth manageable.
Faster onboarding, not slower
Many leaders worry global teams take months to ramp. George Petersen saw the opposite. Because Edge Talent came with insurance experience and EPIC fluency, onboarding was seamless.
Kathy Heglin shared, “When the Edge talent starts working in EPIC there’s very little we have to show them.”
That meant more productivity, less training, and no disruption for their in-house staff.
Where to start if you’re cautious
The biggest wins came from automating repeatable, high-volume work:
- Certificates & compliance processing
- Data migration and auditing after acquisitions
- Personal-lines support and backend policy servicing
These are the areas where a dedicated Edge team delivers immediate ROI — freeing your licensed staff to focus on clients, not paperwork.
Culture and control: the human side of scaling
This wasn’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. Staff were burning out. George Petersen regained morale and balance. Kathy shared, “If we had not partnered with Edge, our staff would still be overworked.” Edge’s dedicated model meant the agency kept control over hiring, training, and daily collaboration — while Edge handled compliance, IT, and HR.
The result: a truly integrated workforce, not an outsourced one.
The playbook for a low-risk pilot
You don’t need to overhaul your org chart to see impact. Start small:
- Choose one high-volume function (certificates, audits or data entry).
- Set 2–3 KPIs (throughput, accuracy, turnaround).
- Launch with 1–2 Edge professionals and a focused onboarding sprint.
- Measure, refine, scale.
George Petersen used exactly this approach — and the pilot scaled into a full team that solved their bottlenecks.
The takeaway
If you’re still limiting hiring to your ZIP code, you’re leaving capacity, speed, and staff sanity on the table. George Petersen proved you can keep control, train quickly, and win meaningful efficiency gains with dedicated remote teams.
The future of insurance operations isn’t remote, it’s responsible. It’s flexible, compliant, and powered by Edge .
See the George Petersen Insurance Story for complete details.
