Agent Spotlight: Highpoint Insurance Group

IN 2008, HEATHER AND BRANDON SMYRL OPENED HIGHPOINT INSURANCE GROUP WITH TEN EMPLOYEES.

Located in Friendswood, Texas, Highpoint was founded on the humble belief that if you treat people right and do the right thing, success will follow. Highpoint offers commercial and personal insurance, as well as employee benefits. Five years following its inception, Highpoint more than doubled in size with 25 employees. The team at Highpoint places a focus on company culture above all else. 

“Employee engagement and buy-in is the key to organic growth. Growing is painful, and exciting in some aspects. It requires constant evaluation, improvement, and a strong unwavering leadership,” said owner Heather Smyrl. “We embrace organization, communications, and the empowering of our employees. We promote work-life balance, encourage health and wellness, and always put our people first.” 

Today, Highpoint has grown to 45 employees located in a 20,000 sq ft building. Their employees have many opportunities and are encouraged to move beyond comfort zones. They often utilize a phrase “pursuing discomfort,” which basically involves all of the team exploring new ways to drive customer success. “It may sound crazy, but comfort is the casualty of growth,” said owner Brandon Smyrl, “We strive to be innovative and elevate the success of our clients by constantly challenging ourselves far beyond our natural comfort zone.” 

Highpoint has had high retention due to the company culture, training, and promoting within their own ranks. Their productivity and profit is great because the team cares about Highpoint and, in turn, the culture is nurtured by caring about the team. “It’s really a service-minded business where we give more than we take from our clients,” said Heather. “We have a holistic approach to company culture and focus on the heart of engagement. Some days we blow off steam by hosting a dance party for our team or provide them opportunities to work out in the full-size gym contained within their office. Since COVID-19 has changed the way we work with our team and our clients, we’ve continued to evolve our cultural focus by hosting virtual Zoom dance parties and have had a greater emphasis on virtual team and client touch points which include coffee breaks for team building and getting to know one another better. Prior to working remotely, we hosted 3pm healthy snack options at our Fuel Bar, which contains healthy snack foods and drinks.” 

Highpoint also hosts an annual employee appreciation month, held each June, where they celebrate their team’s efforts with a variety of fun activities and a catered lunch. “People who know us recognize that we’re not afraid to jump into things,” Heather explains. “In addition to having a robust, interactive website, we were active on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms before it became a “must do” marketing tactic for almost every business. Unlike many other agencies, we allowed our team members to go on social media during office hours. You have to meet your customers where they are, and many of our customers are regularly on social media, so we felt it was important to allow our employees to appropriately utilize the tools to engage and build those relationships. 

A lot of times, when I talk about us having fun, people seem to think it means that we aren’t taking our jobs seriously. However, nothing could be further from the truth,” Heather explains. “Every day we focus on building trust, establishing effective communications, and bringing value to all our employees and clients in very a meaningful way. We respect LUBA Workers’ Comp because we feel that our company culture and values align—give clients and employees more than they expect."