So how do you train the next leaders in claims? How about challenging their creativity!
If you do not know about TED, I strongly recommend you take a look. To quote them directly:
TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
I recently watched the clip below from the TED archives and was so fascinated by the concepts I just had to relate them to claims. Good workers are sometimes all that claims departments look for and, given the nature of claims these days, it is not a bad thing. There is so much to do and so little time to do it and good workers, however you define them, are great to have. But how often are creative thinkers found and rewarded?
Sir Ken Robinson is considered a “Creativity Expert” and led the British government’s 1998 advisory committee on creative and cultural education, a massive inquiry into the significance of creativity in the educational system and the economy, and was knighted in 2003 for his achievements. He has most recently published a book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, which is a deep look at human creativity and education.
Good workers but not creative thinkers
Take a look at the video below with Sir Ken. He is truly and a dynamic speaker and the will engage you quickly. In this clip, Sir Ken asks why don’t we get the best out of people? He argues that it’s because we’ve been educated to become good workers, rather than creative thinkers. Do you recognize that employee in your organization?
Two suggestions to help promote creativity
So how do you promote creativity? How do you get the claims staff to try new ideas? It is difficult to encourage creativity when claims have to be regimented and everything is being monitored and standardized. Regardless, there are ways to attack the creative mind to open up new ways to manage claims.
Challenge staff to be more creative when looking at problems. When facing a difficult situation try and put together an old fashioned brain-storming session to allow free flowing ideas no matter how crazy. The idea here is to promote creativity and come up with new ways to solve problems.
Another way to try and teach creativity is to tell war stories. Have a war story lunch and see who has resolved a claim in the most creative way. I am sure you will be surprised at how creative people are and retelling those stories will help stir the imaginations of others.
How do you think creativity plays a role in claims? What have you done to encourage free thinking?
Take advantage of the summer slow down and make changes, clean things up and improve your operation. In the latest post from the Claims SPOT see three suggestions for ways to use your summer effectively. One for the manager, one for the claims handler and one for the claims executive, suggestions to use the slow down to improve your operation. Take a look and suggest others – we would love to hear from you.
Creating a strategic advantage through improved agent carrier relations
The relationship between claim adjusters and agents can be an adversarial one. Each side often finds itself correcting issues created by the other side. Agents may set the wrong coverage expectation for a customer, leaving the adjuster to deliver the bad news. Adjusters may get overloaded and not return phone calls in a timely manner, resulting in a complaint to the agent’s office. In the worst case scenario, adjusters and agents may badmouth each other to customers, putting customers in the middle. Clearly, agencies have a role to play in the claim process. Enabling agents and their staff to perform their role efficiently with empathy and professionalism can benefit customers, agents, and the claims department. Read more this week from Melissa Loew.
Is it possible to increase claim satisfaction and decrease cost at the same time? Many claim representatives say no. Some view that satisfaction is driven by the ratio of adjusters to claims – having more people to handle claims means higher satisfaction, although also higher loss adjustment expense. Some believe that higher settlement amounts result in higher satisfaction and higher loss costs.
As the Claims SPOT welcomes new contributing author, Melissa Loew, see how customer satisfaction can be addressed in tight staffing markets.
Making a check in the process won’t ensure the matter is done right. I have written, and am a big proponent of, the importance of good process as a way to ensure good results. Putting a proper process in place is a road-map to help move claims to a prompt fair resolution. Nonetheless, doing and focusing on the process without making sure the outcome is sound is doing things right without doing the right thing. It’s so easy in claims to focus on the process and not use the process as a means to the end
Being able to truly focus on what’s important is a path to success. Claims organizations are notorious for multiple process and procedures. Many of these procedures are truly necessary and are required to maintain controls, prevent fraud or comply with a multitude of regulations facing the insurance industry. Nonetheless, doing something for the sake of doing it is no way to be an efficient organization. Today we speak about asking “what’s the point” before proceeding with new projects or exploring existing process.
Reinsurance companies faced with a new submission often review loss runs and other financial data to determine the effectiveness of an account. However, numbers only tell half the story and in order to get a complete picture of a cedent’s submission, it is important to have an understanding of the claims department. What is the company’s reserve philosophy? What kind of systems do they have in place? How are claims staff measured? Conducting a comprehensive pre-bind review is an important step to help minimize the risk.
In this post, the Claims SPOT explores the importance of the Pre-Bind review in the Reinsurance context.
Undoubtedly, you’ve read plenty of articles or have been to numerous presentations regarding the use of social media to investigate claimants. At this point, the novelty of Facebook and MySpace has worn off. The same can be said about Twitter. Everyone knows at this point to take a look at those platforms when searching a claimant’s background. Enough said. However, seemingly with every new day comes a new social media application. One relatively new application that you should also take a look at during your claims investigation is Foursquare.
Learn more from out latest contributor, Christian Stegmaier, JD and look for more articles from Christian in the weeks to come.
An interesting keynote speech given by Allstate head of claims at America’s Claim Event in Las Vegas. Michael Roche discussed Allstate’s push to improve customer service through both improved technology and initiatives. We discuss a few interesting lessons learned that can be considered by claims operations to improve customer experiences.
In a a great analogy about the rapid growth of lily pads in a pond, we discuss the need to start strategic planning to solve problems before they become to hard to deal with. Like most industries, adopting and changing with the times can be a difficult proposition. It takes time to think of issues, come up with solutions and implement the changes. Insurance companies have added legal, compliance and regulatory concerns to say nothing of complex (sometimes outdated) information technology systems. Regardless, it’s not too late to address issues such as a social media or mobile strategy. We give two suggestions of recent trends that should be explored by claims organizations over then next few years.
Bringing together the best and brightest claims experts to SPOT claims issues and trends. At The Claims SPOT, our goal is to provide information to help claims professionals, and organizations, be more efficient and do their jobs better.
Don’t keep doing it just because you have always done it that way
So many organizations fail to improve because they get set in their old ways. Hey, a comfy couch is a nice thing as long as the springs are strong and the feathers don't keep falling out.
Ask yourself why you do certain things. If your answer is "well we have always done them that way", then maybe it's time to look again.
So how do you train the next leaders in claims? How about challenging their creativity!
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