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The Human Element of AI Transformation

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Holiday Havoc: A Guide to the Top Five Unusual Holiday Insurance Claims

The holidays are almost here! With the parties, decorations and celebrations of this festive season come some unusual insurance claims. Beyond the snow and ice damage to homes or emergency room visits due to a fall off the ladder while putting up decorations, here are some the most unexpected holiday situations that have resulted in unique insurance claims: Keep Calm and Gobble On: Compared to an average day in November, Thanksgiving sees cooking-related home insurance claims more than double. The increased popularity of turkey fryers is fanning the flames and adding an additional element of danger. Other tasty troubles include food poisoning from undercooked, spoiled or contaminated food. In fact, a surprising number of unlucky partygoers will experience food poisoning after mistaking inedible holiday decorations for chocolates. Over the River and Through the Woods: The holidays are a time of heavy travel as people take to the roads, rails and sky to visit family and friends. The number of accidents caused by exhausted or drunken drivers sees an increase during these busy travel months. Another holiday driving hazard? Christmas decorations. Hundreds of thousands of car accidents are caused every year due to distracted drivers eyeing lights and decorations. You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch: The flurry of gift purchasing during the holiday season is prime time for thieves—both in-person and online. Cyber criminals are known to step up their efforts during the holidays, particularly via public Wi-Fi networks. In addition, burglaries of gifts from within the home or delivered on one’s doorstep also rise during the holidays. Brown Paper Packages Tied Up With Strings: Christmas morning is filled with excitement and anticipation. However, the rush to unwrap the gifts scattered under the tree often leads to hundreds of emergency room visits. Annually, the use of scissors and knives to tear through festive wrapping paper has resulted in a number of health insurance claims for the slicing of one’s hands, arms or legs. O Tannenbaum! The Christmas tree is a centerpiece of many holiday celebrations. But this traditional holiday decoration is not without its dangers. With more and more individuals opting for live trees, there is an uptick in house fires. The combination of electricity from decorative lights and the water used to keep trees alive has led to numerous insurance claims. However, having a tree within the house is not the only danger. One particular claim tells of a woman driving home from a day of Christmas shopping whose car was nearly totaled after a poorly tied tree flew off another vehicle and hit her car. Fortunately, the woman’s auto insurance policy covered the damage, and she was even able to keep the tree! Here’s hoping your holiday season is happy, safe and claim-free!

Financial Transformations: Why They’re Taking the Industry by Storm

The insurance industry is facing a number of critical disruptions across all dimensions. Growing technological advances, increasing regulations and burgeoning competitive pressures have made the ability to transform functions and critical operations essential for continued success. This is all the more true within the insurance industry’s financial segment. But why the financial transformation and why now? Unprecedented challenges and changes have dramatically raised the stakes for financial sectors within the industry. Externally, ongoing merger and acquisition activities, increasing regulatory pressures following the global financial crisis, rising demand for personalized products and services, and the growing focus on digital experiences are driving financial transformation to the top of the strategic agenda. Internally, organizations are facing increasing demand for performance data within finance, ongoing pressure to reduce finance costs, and inflexible and siloed legacy systems that are difficult to use and exceedingly time-intensive. As a result of these megatrends and growing industry pressures, finance leaders are focused on making advancements across several fronts. Driving the transformation is a need for better decision making and more accurate, real-time reporting. Increased controls are being implemented in order to promote strong governance, help reduce risk and streamline the regulatory compliance process. The adoption of common platforms, process automations and cross-organizational standardization are being implemented to increase organizational efficiency and reduce costs. In situations where outdated legacy systems are preventing or limiting the adoption of advanced analytics practices, new and updated technology is being implemented. Closer alignment and synchronization of functions and processes across organizational segments—including finance, risk and actuarial—is being authorized to provide clearer visibility into performance and allow for better decision making. A shift is being felt within the finance segment of the insurance industry. Emphasis is moving away from transaction processing toward more strategic activities. In truth, the financial transformations of the past have primarily focused on savings—cutting costs, gaining efficiencies and establishing controls and risk-management procedures. Now, following the recent economic downturn and resulting great recession, insurance organizations must take a deeper look at their financial situations and rethink their practices and strategies. A new focus on enabling corporate strategy, capital agenda and competitive advantage in the marketplace must be adopted. Organizations must act quickly and decisively to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their finance functions.

Compass 8.4: Enter The Millennials: Make Way For The Next Generation Of Insurance Leadership

As the Baby Boomer generation begins retiring en masse, they are leaving behind a growing executive skills gap that must be bridged. Today's young professionals are poised to meet this impending need. Jacobson shares strategies and best practices for building the executives of tomorrow. This edition also includes our regular overview of the industry's current labor market and recent executive-level job changes.

Focus on Growing Staff Driving Search for Alternate Staffing Strategies

The results from our latest Semi-Annual U.S. Insurance Labor Outlook Study are now in! With full employment and positive staffing predictions, the insurance industry is enjoying its return to its pre-recession state. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), insurance unemployment reached 2.3 percent in August and is expected to hover between one and three percent through the remainder of the year. In addition, the rate of expected hiring has reached the second highest level in the history of the study, with 65 percent of organizations reporting that they are planning to increase their staffs. Further, nearly half of all companies are planning to increase their staffs by at least two percent in the coming year. The primary drivers for this anticipated staffing growth is an increase in business volume and a focus on filling areas that are currently understaffed. For the first time since 2012, revenue growth expectations dropped below 80 percent. In addition, 6.2 percent of organizations are predicting a decrease in revenue. This is the highest percentage since January 2012, which saw predictions of 11.1 percent. Despite this drop in revenue predictions, organizations are still focused on growing their staffs. Due, in part, to the fully employed workforce and the continued focus on filling positions, insurers are facing an increasingly challenging recruitment climate. With 1,515,500 individuals currently working in insurance, the industry is seeing employment levels that it hasn’t seen since December 2003. With a to-date average of 231,000 job openings in 2015 alone, it is clear that the demand for talent is far outpacing the supply. Positions across the board are increasing in recruitment difficulty, with nine out of twelve surveyed roles being reported as moderate to difficult to successfully fill. Currently, actuarial, analytics and executives top the list of job areas most difficult to recruit for. In light of these growing challenges, insurers are turning to temporary staffing strategies to meet their immediate needs. Despite the economic recovery, the business world has seen temporary employment continue to make waves. Since January 2015, the greater economy has added 52,200 temporary employees. In total, 2,907,700 contract professionals are active in the national workforce. And those numbers are only expected to increase. By 2020, nearly 40 percent of employees in the U.S. will be contingent employees. Within insurance, it is estimated that 30,000 temporary professionals are currently employed. As the industry faces a continued talent gap, temporary staffing is proving to be a valuable solution to workload needs. In fact, 76 percent of organizations participating in the recent survey responded that they are planning to maintain their use of temporary employees, a slight drop from the 77 percent reported in July 2014. Despite this dip, this remains the second highest rate in survey history. With more and more individuals opting for a career as an interim employee, organizations are able to find highly skilled individuals to help them with their high-priority projects and demand spikes. From entry level all the way up to subject matter experts and executives, these individuals are enabling organizations to manage their increasing workloads. As the recruitment climate tightens and organizations feel the pinch, temporary staffing will continue to play a pivotal role throughout the industry.

Connectivity is Key to a Successful Telecommuting Program

So, you’ve purchased the extra laptops, invested in remote workspace technology and developed a flexible work schedule. You’re all ready to take a step back and let your organization’s telecommuting program take off, right? Wrong. Simply putting the technology in place and enabling your employees to work at home will not automatically result in a productive business. In order for your flexible work initiative to be successful, your organization requires effective and engaging management. With team members in and out of the office, it is extremely important that leaders create a sense of connectivity and comradery. How can your organization ensure its telecommuting program is a success? What can managers do to keep their team members connected even when they aren’t sharing physical office space? Encourage virtual meetings: Effective communication involves nonverbal cues and body language. Fortunately, video calls go a long way to re-create an in-person experience. Being able to actually see the members of your team helps build a level of rapport that is vital to creating true comradery. Consider substituting standing calls and team meetings with video conferencing to help facilitate strong teamwork. Teleconference programs – such as Skype, WebEx, and GoToMeeting – make having a virtual face-to-face meeting easier than ever before. Collaborate and share documents and files: Sharing documents is a great way to keep your entire team in the loop and on track with ongoing group projects. With Google Drive, every team member can view and edit documents at the same time. From project lists to spreadsheets, your employees can collaborate remotely without missing a beat. Schedule an in-office day: Online meetings, chats and video conferencing can only go so far. Your team still needs to spend some amount of in-person time in a common space. Develop a schedule where once a month—or whatever timeframe works best for your organization—the entire team is in the office. It is important to ensure that your team spends a portion of their working time together physically. Take a team retreat: It can be as simple as a quarterly lunch out of the office or as elaborate as a weeklong retreat. Either way, it is essential that you provide your team with an opportunity to spend time together away from the office. This is a great way for the team to learn more about each other, improve rapport, and develop more personal connections. Telecommuting can be a great opportunity for your organization to increase employee engagement and retention. However, it is vital that team leaders consistently interact with their staffs and encourage a culture of kinship and comradery in order to build a flourishing team. Connectivity is the key to ensuring the success of your remote employees.

Open Enrollment: Is Your Organization Prepared?

It is my pleasure to introduce a guest blogger for this latest post. Abbe Sodikoff is a senior vice president and health sales manager here at Jacobson, providing leadership to our subject matter experts health services team. Her insights into open enrollment are worth a read. Enjoy… The 2016 healthcare open enrollment period is nearly here. Slated to run from November 1, 2015, through January 31, 2016, this year’s enrollment season marks the third year since the introduction of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Despite having two enrollment periods already completed, insurers still struggle with how to handle the influx of new customers during this peak period. During the 2014/2015 open enrollment period, insurers responded to 15.8 million calls to the marketplace call center, while HealthCare.gov saw nearly 1.86 million visitors to its website on just its peak day. Despite months of preparation, a number of insurers found themselves unable to keep pace with the demand. Even outsourcing venues were tapped out as a staffing resource. In 2014, nearly 8 million individuals were insured using the healthcare exchange. In 2015, that number increased to 11.7 million; and the high volume trend is expected to continue in 2016 with estimates at 21 million. A key driver of the expected increase is the “individual mandate tax,” which will raise the cost of remaining uncovered to either 2.5 percent of an individual’s yearly household income or $695 per person. As a result, health plans are looking to increase their sales call center staffs by as much as 20 percent. In fact, the PPACA has created massive employment gains in the health insurance industry. Last year, the industry grew 2.23 percent compared to the anticipated growth rate of just 1.77 percent. The health industry now stands at record high employment, with 515,000 professionals currently employed—an increase of 37,500 since the initial launch of PPACA. Despite the increased employment, insurers are concerned that they will once again find themselves overwhelmed and unable to handle the expected historic enrollment volumes. Customer service, sales and enrollment continue to be areas of tremendous need. In order to successfully prepare, savvy insurers have already begun exploring ways to mitigate a staffing shortage during this busy period. As part of their contingency plans they are developing partnerships with local, contract and healthcare staffing resources to ensure they can fill talent gaps with trained professionals who can hit the ground running during the peak of enrollment.  Here at Jacobson, we, too, are already ramping up for the 2016 enrollment period. Our staff is filling our pipeline with qualified candidates who can help health insurers meet their timely needs. Is your organization prepared to tackle the 2016 open enrollment period?

Today’s Business Mandate: The Search for Authentic Leadership

There is a growing movement within the business world toward authentic leadership. Just what is this emerging new style of leadership and how can business leaders adopt it?  As we discussed in our latest edition of Compass, employees are looking for a new kind of business leader. Having experienced drastic labor cuts, dishonest business practices and more, there is a growing feeling of distrust in business leaders. Professionals are demanding trustworthy leaders who they can put their faith in.  Employees in today’s highly digital, inter-connected and rapidly changing world crave authentic engagement and leadership. They are turned off by leaders who are disconnected from the realities of the workplace and are unable to connect with others, human being to human being. With the movement toward flat organizational structures, positive and trustworthy relationships are critical. Authenticity in leadership is a mandate.  Authentic leadership is often mistaken as a focus on just being yourself and “letting it all hang out.” In reality, authentic leadership is a concept that calls on leaders to access the best of who they are and embody it in the service of others. In essence, a truly authentic leader knows and embraces who they are.  But with no real standard or formulaic model to emulate, how can we drive our attempts at becoming authentic leaders? What steps can those already in a leadership position take to become more authentic?  If you would like to learn more about the search for authentic leadership and the strategies for increasing your authenticity in the workplace, download Compass.

Is “Job Hopping” No Longer Passé?

Once considered “career suicide,” having a resume with multiple short tenures was a sure fire way to get your job application immediately discarded. However, the volatile business climate of the last few years has resulted in a permanent mindset shift away from job longevity. Some of today’s professionals are touting “job hopping” as a form of strategic career enhancement, allowing them to attain more prestigious positions with higher salaries in a much shorter span of time. Changing jobs, and being promoted in the process, allows today’s young professionals to move past traditional “dues paying” and quicken their ascent up the corporate ladder. In addition, job changes provide an opportunity to build a background with diverse employers, cultures and experiences. Now more than ever, professionals are embracing a culture of “job hopping.” Organizations who continue to harbor outdated perspectives will struggle in the encroaching war for talent. However, keeping an open mind and embracing “job hopping” applicants will open up insurers to a wide pool of talent who are poised to make an impact. Want to learn more about the shift toward “job hopping” as a strategic career move? Download our white paper for insights.

Compass 8.3: Today’S Business Mandate: The Search For Authentic Leadership

The difficult economic climate of the last decade has created a feeling of distrust in organizational leaders. Today's employees are looking for a new kind of business leader to take the helm. Jacobson shares insights on the positive impact authentic leadership is having on organizational productivity and success. This edition also includes our regular overview of the industry's current labor market and recent executive-level job changes.

Keep Your Employees Engaged as the Temperature Heats Up

The dog days of summer are here and with them come ice cream socials, trips to the beach, softball games, and backyard barbeques. As the weather heats up, many organizations are seeing their employee engagement drop. According to Captivate Network, the “lazy days of summer” often have a significantly negative impact on the workforce. Organizations report a 20 percent drop in productivity and a 15 percent increase in project turnaround times. In addition, there is an uptick in distracted workers by 45 percent and a drop in attendance by nearly 19 percent. How can your organization beat the summer slump? How can you boost employee engagement in the summer months? Participate in volunteer activities: We already know that volunteerism and corporate citizenship can play an important role in increasing employee engagement. With the summer months making it more difficult for employees to be truly engaged at work, participating in a charity event or volunteer program is the perfect solution. In fact, summer is a great time to take advantage of the weather and give back to the local community. By enabling employees to get out of the office for a day, volunteer activities are a great way to boost morale, re-energize staff, spark productivity and increase workplace engagement. Offer increased flexibility: Summer is the perfect time to embrace work/life balance. Providing even a minor adjustment to work hours can go a long way toward increasing morale. Consider introducing an option to come in later or leave early a few days a week. Let employees kick off the weekend sooner with summer Friday hours. Here at Jacobson, we have implemented a summer Friday program where staff is allowed to leave the office two hours early on one Friday a month in order to enjoy the season. Plan a summer outing: While having an “out-of-office day” may sound counter-intuitive, when trying to increase workplace productivity, it has actually been proven to work wonders for organizational energy—both short- and long-term. A fun event can give employees the opportunity to get to know each other and boost their levels of camaraderie and communication. Look into planning fun activities such as a trip to the ballpark or even a biweekly happy hour. For years, Jacobson has offered employees the chance to participate in a summer outing and has seen a positive impact on employee engagement. Recent trips for Jacobson have included a day at a horse-racing track and a cruise on Lake Michigan. Enjoy a change of scenery: Sitting in the office day-in and day-out can start to wear on any professional. Especially when the thermostat hits 75 degrees and the sun is shining bright. Take advantage of the great weather and provide employees with a change of scenery. Have a team lunch at a local park, reschedule a meeting for the outdoor patio or take a trip down to the local farmer’s market. Getting outside and enjoying the nice weather is a great way to rejuvenate and refocus. Set summer goals: Don’t let the summer months turn into your slow season. Set specific goals for those three to four months to encourage and motivate employees to be more productive. Pinpoint a few key areas you want to work on and create fun challenges and rewards for accomplishing each task. Make sure to align your goals and projects with the overall organizational mission. Employee engagement spikes when individuals understand how their contributions affect the big picture. Summer doesn’t have to be a bust for your organization. Work on providing fun and engaging activities to keep your employees motivated. With a focus on increasing employee engagement, your organization is sure to see a boost in its summertime productivity. What activities are your organization doing to keep employees engaged this summer?

Where have all the underwriters gone?

Insurers are having a difficult time finding and recruiting underwriting talent. But what exactly is to blame for this growing talent shortage?  Insurance underwriting unemployment is nearly four times lower than the national rate and nearly half the overall insurance rate. With virtually non-existent unemployment, the pool of potential talent is tightening, making it more and more difficult to find and recruit underwriters.    In addition, demand for this highly specialized professional is already high and expected to only increase drastically in the coming years. Experts are predicting that the demand for underwriters will grow at a rate of 6.3 percent during the next 10 years.   Add in an aging workforce, impending industry retirements and a turnover rate of 15 percent, and insurance organizations are faced with a severe underwriting talent gap. 

Can Work-At-Home Benefit Your Organization?

The work-at-home movement is taking off within the business world. Already, it is estimated that 30 million professionals in the U.S. are working from home at least once a week. According to a study by the Telework Research Network, that number is expected to increase by 63 percent in the next five years. While The Jacobson Group has had a few employees working from home for over a decade, we just officially launched a companywide telecommuting program.   Jacobson has come face to face with some immediate growing pains after expanding far beyond what we originally anticipated when we signed the lease for our new Chicago headquarters a few years ago. While this is a good problem to have, the reality is that we are running out of desks for all of our exceptional employees and are implementing a work-at-home policy for qualified staff.   So what are the organizational advantages of introducing a telecommuting program within your organization? Here are four ways work-at-home can benefit your company:  Growth in employee morale: From the grinding commute to the struggle for work life balance, a number of challenges are affecting employee engagement. With a Gallup survey reporting that 63 percent of American workers are unhappy with their jobs and 24 percent actively hate their jobs, increasing employee happiness is a critical issue for many employers. Fortunately, the opportunity for telecommuting—whether full-time or just a few days a week—has shown to reduce stress and provide a tremendous boost in employee morale. In fact, employees that are given the option to work-from-home are 73 percent happier with their employers. That morale boost often results in employees becoming more invested in the companies they work for! Improved recruitment capabilities: Flexible work options top the list of requirements for many job seekers. For Millennials, in particular, having a flexible workplace is a highly sought after job perk. Professionals who have experienced telecommuting programs are more likely to seek out these work arrangements in their next opportunity. Having a work-at-home program allows your organization to better position itself among today’s candidate pool. In addition, telecommuting allows organizations to choose from a much larger talent pool, as they are able to look outside of their current city and recruit talent regardless of physical location. Higher employee productivity: Contrary to popular belief, employees actually increase their productivity when they are allowed to work from home. According to a study from the University of Texas, telecommuters worked 5-7 hours more than their in-office counterparts. Both employees and supervisors report that they are more effective at home, where they are away from common interruptions and distractions. For positions that require some face-to-face time, instituting a work-at-home policy with days split between home and the office allows the organization to reap the same productivity benefits while enabling staff to maintain professional and social relationships with their co-workers. Increased cost-efficiency: Organizations are poised to save big money when implementing a telecommuting program. With telephone routing capabilities, VPN networks and cloud computing, the cost of starting a work-at-home program is minimal. It is estimated that a company can save $11,000 a year for each employee who works at home. Organizations have even reported up to 30 percent reductions in overhead after instituting a telecommuting program. With office space ranking high on the list of top business expenses, being able to cut back on the space and furnishings required for in-office staff is an immense cost savings for organizations utilizing telecommuting. Recognizing the numerous benefits that result from work-at-home programs, many organizations are instituting their own practices. Whether your company is looking to save costs or increase morale, a telecommuting program may be a great solution.   Have you instituted a work-at-home program? What benefits are you seeing from this initiative?