ORLANDO, Florida — The stability of the workers compensation line has opened the doors for risk managers and the insurance industry to improve partnerships to maintain the line’s successes, according to panelists speaking at the Workers’ Compensation Educational Conference Monday.
Zeroing in on risk managers, who may be taxed with managing the constraints in harder insurance lines such as property, panelists said that a less-challenging comp environment provides an opportunity to better work with brokers, insurers, third-party administrators and legal teams to develop strategies to maintain the market’s stability.
“The challenge for us is to think about what we’re bringing to help risk managers better manage their new and evolving risks, but also risk mitigation as they’re facing it every day,” said Kimberly George, Chicago-based global chief brand officer, Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc.
“It’s time to level set (to) know your risk managers current hot buttons, what their goals are, what their view on tech is, how they think about the culture of an injured worker and how they’re treated… If we’re not in those conversations, we’re not as effective partners as we need to be,” she said.
Mike Chang, New York-based CEO of corporate risk & brokering in North America for Willis Towers Watson PLC, said working together during easy times prepares for future challenges. “Because everything changes during tough times, when you really get to see who your partner is. …What you put in is what you get out of it.”
Mark Wilhelm, St. Louis-based executive chairman at Safety National Casualty Corp and chief brokerage relations officer for Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., said companies often forgo services provided by insurers to help with risk management. “It pays so many dividends for risk managers and clients if they let the carrier have those face-to-face meetings,” he said.
Better partnerships within organizations are another focus for maintaining stability in workers compensation, according to the panelists.
“I almost want to call it a marketing campaign; where we’ve gone from ‘no’ to ‘know,’ and we’ve involved all stakeholders, from our C–suite to our salespeople, and our operations,” said Susan Shemanski, Jacksonville, Florida-based vice president risk president of corporate risk management of The Adecco Group, a staffing company. “We want to know what people are doing, and we’re giving them advice as far as what they can put in place to really just change that risk.”
Melora Copeland, Charlotte, North Carolina-based director of insurance for Compass Group USA Inc., a hospitality company, said it is common within organizations for “everybody to run away from risk management” but that “we’re trying to institute across–the–board ideas.”
“We want to hear from our field operations teams, what’s working, what’s not working,” she said. “We use a system so we get some live feedback from groups about claims or opportunities… We try to get them reported early so we hear about things and we can mitigate from other losses and find best practices. … We can all learn from each other.”