Member Agencies Talk About WorkCompEdge

Maybe you're in an agency that's considering WorkCompEdge. Or maybe you're already an agency member. Integrating WorkCompEdge into your sales and service processes is admittedly a task that takes some thought and - that dreaded word - change. WorkCompEdge member Garry Watts of the Winona Agency acknowledges it isn't easy. "I'm a producer," he says, "and we don't think 'process-oriented.'" But, in a new audio interview available here on our corporate website and as a podcast feed, Garry also goes on to offer encouragement for - and his experience with - implementing WorkCompEdge.

Today's blog marks the first time we've published the blog as a podcast. Would you like all WorkCompEdge blog entries delivered as a podcast? Let us know!

"WorkCompEdge seemed to be a missing link for us," he says. "We think the return on investment is very high."

WorkCompEdge contributor Frank Pennachio, another agency owner and work comp trainer, also lends his thoughts on how WorkCompEdge helps agents lead and engage employers and how various work comp training programs integrate with WorkCompEdge.

(For our Member Agencies, Frank and Garry will be continuing this discussion in more depth in a web-enabled roundtable discussion in July - watch your inbox for more details.)

Thanks to Jack Burke, president of Sound Marketing and host of the popular insurance programs "Audio Insurance Outlook" and "Insurance Talk Radio," for conducting the interview.

For you podcast subscribers out there, this blog marks the first time we've pushed audio to a podcast feed. Be sure to subscribe, and let us know if you'd like all blogs available as a podcast! It won't always be Jack's professional voice, but we're willing to give it a try if the interest is there!

Play the audio interview now

Subscribe to the WorkCompEdge podcast feed

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WorkCompEdge Interview with Garry Watts and Frank Pennachio

Jack Burke, president of Sound Marketing and host of the popular insurance programs "Audio Insurance Outlook" and "Insurance Talk Radio," interviews WorkCompEdge member agents Garry Watts of the Winona Agency and Frank Pennachio of WorkComp Partners about the challenges and benefits of integrating WorkCompEdge into their agency processes.

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http://www.workcompedge.com/

Virtual Conference on Return to Work Now in Progress

Workers compensation consultant, writer and trainer Margaret Spence of Douglas Claims and Risk Consultants has founded National Return to Work Week and is observing it now (May 11-15, 2009) for the first time with a free virtual conference. Here are a few of the seminar topics coming up in the remainder of the week:

• Physician Where Art Thou - Medical Management
• Best Practices - Workers Compensation and Beyond - From a Defense Attorney’s Point of View
• I'm Injured and I Can't Come Back to Work
• Engaging Employees With Disabilities - Getting Them Back to Work

No packing needed - attend the inaugural conference for "National Return to Work Week" virtually. And free! And even after it's over!

"Kory," you might say, "it's a whole week of free events. And this is Wednesday afternoon. Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"

"Well," I would say sheepishly, "that might have something to do with me not opening every email I receive in the most timely manner. Not yours, of course."

But all is not lost! The seminars we've missed are recorded and also available. These include:

• Disability is a Daunting Task - Right?


• The Flip Side: Attorneys and Return to Work


• Vocational Retraining: a Viable Return to Work Option

and many more. Speakers include attorneys, an ergonomics specialist, a medical doctor, human resource professionals, Ms. Spence, WorkCompEdge contributor Frank Pennachio, and others.

Visit www.brighttalk.com/summit/nationalreturntoworkweek to view in-progress, upcoming, and recorded sessions. Registration is free and easy. I had a little trouble the first time I tried to view one of the seminars (my browswer bombed), but on my subsequent attempt, everything worked fine.

This initiative mirrors many of the principles we advocate in WorkCompEdge, and we congratulate Ms. Spence on her leadership and vision.

http://www.WorkCompEdge.com
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The Power of Intentionality, Part 4: Missiles, Juggling, and Whole System Intelligence

Part 4 of the series "The Power of Intentionality": Part 3

Those of you who are regular readers know that my early career was spent as a systems analyst in the defense industry. If you’ll bear with me mentioning it again, that job taught me something that applies to today’s blog: focusing on one piece of a large, complex system can easily lead to weakness in other parts of the system. And, elements that will challenge a system – such as ballistic missiles - will find the weak parts of the system and potentially take advantage of them.

Is your work comp focus too narrow?

With work comp being as big and complex as it is, it hardly feels like I left defense systems. Many of the same principles apply, and here's the principal weakness I see with how employers try to manage work comp: During the past several decades, employers and the risk management industry have focused on safety as the ultimate solution to lower workers compensation costs. But despite the tremendous effort put into safety training – and the significant gains in work place safety – many employers still struggle with workers compensation losses as a significant and often unpredictable expense.

What work comp missiles may strike your vulnerabilities?

Even if you have a good safety program in place, there’s plenty to thwart your overall defense of low costs and optimal productivity, such as:

• hiring someone with a medical history that comes back to bite you


• having the attitude that accidents are inevitable


• assuming that human resource and medical personnel communicating with an injured employee is enough


• not understanding how important it is to get an employee back to work, even if on modified duty


• being satisfied with a mod of 1.0


• buying work comp insurance with a “low bid” mentality


• and so much more!

The employer must understand how these many components weave together to form an incredible synergy that's more effective than simply applying only one or two strategies. In my mind, that moves us from the defense metaphor to a juggling metaphor: how can an employer gain and maintain whole system intelligence when there are so many moving parts?

How do you keep all those balls in the air?

Prior to my career in defense, I fueled planes at an airport, where there would sometimes be fairly long delays between flights destined for our terminal. During the downtime, I taught myself to juggle. I still keep beanbags in my office to entertain and relax myself (and to challenge our blog editor Kory Wells, who has yet to get the hang of it).

Editor's note: I'm here to confirm that Tim really can juggle, although as far as I know, he's exaggerating about the flaming sword routine. However, if you talk to him, ask him about his unicycle!

The principles of juggling apply to managing many components of a big system such as work comp:

1. You have to touch each object on a regular basis. In other words, you can't focus just on safety, or just on return-to-work, or just on the mod. There are 15 WorkCompEdge modules, and eventually, you should be using all or most of them.


2. You have to manage your speed. For example, this is why we recommend quarterly reviews of data in the Verify Your Mod module and workbook. This is why your actions in the first 24 hours following an injury are so important.


3. You have to manage your accuracy. If your payroll isn’t classified correctly, you may be paying too much in premiums. If your losses aren’t classified as medical-only when applicable, your mod may be much higher than you deserve. If claims aren't closed in a timely way, it can affect your mod. These are just a few examples.


4. The right kind of object will make juggling easier. You don't start out juggling flaming swords (I'll post the YouTube video of me doing that soon.) The right tools and automation are going to help you maximize your success. Enough said!


5. Starting with a small number of objects is easier. This is why we have our Getting Started quiz, to help you prioritize which issues you should consider first.


6. Of course, you get better – and can juggle more - with practice. This is why module after module in WorkCompEdge urges you to come back and reassess on a regular basis.


7. And finally, at any given time, you have to have a mind's eye view of where each object is. As you practice more, you develop this ability - and even an intuition - that helps you continue to improve.

Through experience, decisions, conversations, and review of what all is happening within your organization, you will begin to see and understand how these many components operate together. It’s a rather abstract concept, but it’s truly what differentiates a workplace environment and leads to dramatically lower workers compensation costs.

More in this series "The Power of Intentionality": Part 3

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