Claims Management: Is Outsourcing the Right Strategy for You?
One key challenge for today’s insurance industry is how to retain claims management talent, especially as losing this type of specialized asset can cost additional money related to operational downtime, hiring and re-training. A November 2011 article by Phil Gusman for Property Casualty 360, entitled ,”Industry Loses Over 7,000 Jobs from Aug. to Sept.,” illustrated some key challenges for the insurance industry.
Claims Departments in Crisis
The articled provided the following statistics and reasons for claims management employee churn:
- The insurance industry lost 7,400 jobs from August to September, following a trend of declining employment during this period that goes back to 2001.
- Employment at P&C insurers was down by 800 jobs. P&C insurer employment stands at 452,900. Year-over-year, P&C carrier employment is down by 11,100 jobs, or 2.4 percent.
- Reinsurer employment fell by 300 from August to September to 27,500.
- Agent and broker employment fell by 3,400 jobs from August to September to 638,300.
The reasons for the losses are somewhat unclear with much of the statistical data being noted as typical for this part of the year. However, it has been noted elsewhere that this type of employee turnover and job loss typically relates to job dissatisfaction or cost-cutting measures by companies that do not realize that they are actually making a mistake when cutting people in the claims department. If anything, they should be figuring out how to keep their claims talent and make their processes more efficient.
A Claims Management Solution
Interestingly enough, the one area that showed growth in employment is also the specific strategy that could help more companies increase efficiency, lower their costs, and retain their talent. As the same article noted: "From all of the subsectors measured, third-party administration was the only one to see positive August-to-September employment numbers, adding 700 jobs for a total of 128,200.”
This growth comes from more companies understanding how an outsource provider for their claims copying could provide the solution that they have been looking for while they then refocus their internal talent on the core business. This change can provide more job satisfaction than handling time-consuming rote tasks, which in turn can increase a company’s service and satisfaction levels amongst their clientele.
In Review
Here are the key points from this blog post:
- The insurance industry has recently lost many jobs and seen a shift in talent.
- The one area that experienced growth was in third-party administration, also known as outsourcing.
- This area has been recognized as offering insurance companies with a way to refocus their talent on the core business rather than on rote tasks, which may not interest them or use their capabilities to their full potential. With a focus on core business issues, there is the potential to raise service levels and satisfy customers to a greater degree.
Fig Gungor is CEO of OneSource Document Management, a New York based company that offers a broad range of customized copy and scanning services that translate into a significant savings for insurance companies, hospitals and large medical facilities.