In the past, the insurance industry has had an image problem with younger talent. Top prospects have often migrated toward flashier industries like technology. But as the long-term economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic remain unknown, stable industries, like insurance, might have a recruitment advantage that independent agencies can capitalize on. 

There has been much discussion about how younger generations are changing the work environment. They want a flexible schedule, capability to work remotely and work/life balance. But they also want to have opportunities to be contributing team members. They want to create value and have their ideas heard. 

The insurance industry—especially independent agencies—are well suited for offering employees the ability to provide impact. Every day, agents help their customers have protection when the worst happens. The industry is also continuing to innovate and transform. Digital native young talent has an opportunity to lead the charge and help employers evolve. 

But agencies need to take the first step to show that they are committed to adopting technology and implementing new solutions. Agencies need to have tools that increase productivity. Frustrating old systems that only work on Internet Explorer – a web browser that Microsoft discontinued – won’t cut it. 

Here are five technology solutions agencies should consider using to make their business more appealing to young prospects.

1. Take your agency to the cloud

Key platforms that agents need to use every day such as agency management systems and customer relationship management systems should be accessible in the cloud. Up-and-coming generations don’t want to be tied to a desk. And in a post-COVID-19 world, where there may be lingering hesitations about going into crowded offices, being able to work from home might be a common expectation. Cloud-based applications allow more flexibility and give employees more freedom to work remotely. 

2. Add automated solutions like online rating and CRM to your cloud-based agency management system

Any solutions that help reduce redundancies and rekeying will help make your agency more appealing. For example, online quoting tools that automatically pull in customer information and can get multiple quotes from a variety of carriers using a single form can save valuable time. Solutions like these give agents more time to do meaningful work like servicing clients’ unique needs rather than typing the same data into different places. 

Also, look to see if there are integration capabilities between your different technology vendors. For example, your agency management system could be partnering with your CRM provider and online quoting solution so customer information passes from one platform to the next, so agents don’t need to reenter the information. 

See also: Keys to Finding and Nurturing Talent  

3. Use data analytics to help target customers

The next generation of workers never knew a time when information was not readily available at their fingertips. They rely more on facts rather than hunches or “the way we have always done things.” Agencies should implement customer relationship management and agency management systems that gather data, can analyze trends and give you a 360-degree view of your clients. For example, using analytics from your CRM system, you might see that emails to small commercial prospects about workers’ comp had a higher open rate than ones about business owner policies (BOP), suggesting you do more detailed outreach on a particular offering. 

4. Be like e-commerce – incorporate online bill pay, e-signature and SEO

e-Commerce has forever changed consumers' expectations when dealing with companies. They want on-demand service, and agencies need to adapt. They should look to reduce the amount of paper needed to complete transactions by implementing solutions like secure online payments and e-signature technology. 

Whether a prospect is looking for an agent to help with their insurance needs or a top recruit is looking for a place to begin a career, all searches begin online. People are not going to scour through multiple Google pages to find an agency, so those with the top rankings will win. Agencies need to invest in an SEO strategy that will elevate them in searches. This includes regular postings on social media, using keywords for key product offerings in website content and updating the website with thought leadership. 

5. Take face-to-face into the virtual world with video conferencing 

Even before the global pandemic, people were changing the way they interacted with companies. While customer relationships are important to any agency, agencies should go beyond in-person interaction. Video conferencing tools like Zoom and Skype allow agents to still meet face-to-face with clients but provide more flexibility. Agents can have more impromptu discussions or virtually meet with customers when they are not in the office.

Young talent wants flexibility and the ability to have an impact. With the right technologies, agencies can provide recruits with these experiences --- and even offer them more – the chance to help the business evolve. Agencies should be doing everything in their power to recruit these workers. Not only can young agents help your business transform, but they will help build your book of business with the next generation of insurance customers.

While we all long for a return to normal once we tame the coronavirus, when it comes to healthcare in the U.S., we can't go back to normal. "Normal" didn't work.

It will take a while for the new contours of healthcare and health insurance to appear, because the focus must stay for now on the acute, short-term dangers to our physical and economic well-being. But the policy fights will come.

When they do, they will have to produce at least a national layer of public health capabilities so that, next time (and we all seem to now realize that there will be a next time), individual states and healthcare systems won't have to fend for themselves so much. The fights will also accelerate trends in the healthcare world that are moving toward health care, rather than sick care, and will change the roles of many of the players in the industry, likely including the mammoth health insurers.

The need for more public health capabilities is obvious from just a cursory look at how the U.S. experience with COVID-19 compares with that of many other developed countries. Taiwan, for instance, has had only seven deaths. (I'd tell you what multiplier to use for that total to account for the difference between Taiwan's population and ours, but what's the point when Taiwan has had so few deaths that some people can probably name them all?) South Korea, with about a sixth our population, has had 263 deaths and is down to nearly zero new cases. Germany, with more than 8,100 deaths, at about a quarter of our population, has done far worse than South Korea and Taiwan, but has fared much better than the U.S. and is seeing almost no new cases. The country has only 5.8% unemployment, while economists say the U.S. is on its way to 25%, so Germany, like South Korea and Taiwan, has seen far less economic disruption than we have. Yes, Spain, Italy and France have done worse than the U.S. in deaths per 100,000 people, but all have their curves headed to zero for daily new cases while the U.S., despite recent progress, is still above 20,000 new cases each day. Only the U.K., among major European countries, has both performed worse than the U.S. in deaths per 100,000 and has failed to drastically reduce the number of new cases.

So, even in today's hyper-politicized world, it's hard to escape the conclusion that the U.S. has handled the pandemic poorly. The questions for the future will be: Why? And, more importantly, what can prevent a recurrence?

A significant chunk of the blame will accrue to the federal government, which received increasingly strong signals of danger through January but did little to build testing capability or to take containment measures until well into March. But there's also a systemic problem with our healthcare system, at least in terms of our ability to respond to a pandemic.

While South Korea responded to the pandemic almost immediately by setting up drivethrough centers in parking lots where anyone could be tested for free, the U.S. system is, "Call your doctor." That doesn't work especially well under the best of circumstance, because individual doctors and their health practices have to figure out what guidelines to use for testing and have to fight for supplies, while interacting with health insurers and local, state and federal authorities. The process just takes too long when you're dealing with a virus so contagious that one case can produce 59,000 new cases in less than two months (based on the R0, or R-naught, of three that seems to be the rule of thumb for the coronavirus at the moment).

Then you add in that many people who don't have a doctor to call. Some 44 million Americans don't have insurance, and a further 38 million have limited enough insurance that they likely don't have a strong relationship with a doctor. Because about half of Americans get their insurance through employers, even those with insurance become vulnerable as a pandemic devastates the economy and people are laid off -- like the 36 million Americans who have filed unemployment claims since the pandemic began. How can you do testing through a "Call your doctor" program when maybe a third of the country doesn't have a doctor to call?

The U.S. briefly tried a South Korea-like system of mass testing. You may recall the Rose Garden announcement in mid-March of a website that Google was supposedly developing that would soon direct people across the country to testing centers in parking lots of major retailers. But the problems were just too hard, and the administration quickly moved on from the plan. The last I read, the website was still just a test in a few counties in California, and testing centers had been set up in only five parking lots.

It seems clear that, where future pandemics are concerned, there needs to at least be a national overlay on the current system. That overlay needs to include detailed planning ahead of time so we can go straight to the South Korea model of widespread national testing, no matter who someone's doctor is or whether the person has insurance. The funding needs to be ample and permanent -- no raiding the cookie jar even if we go 15 or 20 years before another crisis. It seems we also need to agree on what kinds of restrictions on business and individual movement are philosophically acceptable, so we avoid a repeat of the current situation, where a health crisis has somehow become a partisan issue devolving into debates about who's more patriotic.

I hope we can get to the sort of "germ games" that Bill Gates has been promoting for five years, as he has repeatedly warned that a pandemic would show up soon enough. His idea is that, just as the military conducts war games, why wouldn't we conduct similar exercises to make sure we're ready for the viral threats that, as we're now all painfully aware, can cost the lives of many tens of thousands of people just in the U.S. and create trillions of dollars of economic damage?

I hope, too, that we won't just stop with planning for the next pandemic, because the current crisis has brought into sharp relief some major problems that we can start to solve even as we're throwing trillions of dollars at the acute, short-term issues. I saw, up close and personal, how this can work when I was involved in a Stimulus Act project at the Department of Energy in 2010. The leaders were charged with getting $36.5 billion into the economy as quickly as possible but took a very strategic focus and, in the midst of the chaos, made a series of investments that have helped drive prices way down for solar, wind, batteries, electric vehicles and more in the ensuing decade. The same strategic approach can be taken now with our healthcare system.

In particular, it's clear that we have to do something about "health equity," which may finally get the attention it deserves because of the hugely disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on minorities. Because of some occasional work I've done with the American Medical Association, I've heard for a while about "the death gap" -- the fact that people born in one part of Chicago have a lifespan 30 years longer than those born just eight miles away -- and it's nice to see that unconscionable disparity get national attention, including on the editorial pages of the New York Times. There's no simple solution, because so much of the disparity relates to what are known as the social determinants of health. (Even if you have access to healthcare, what does it matter if you don't have the money to buy a refrigerator and can't afford to eat well?) But we can start by building on the need for pandemic coverage to make sure everyone has access to a minimum standard of care.

If the dominoes start to fall, then we can look at a broader issue: the need to switch from sick care to health care. At the moment, healthcare providers get paid for each service or medicine they provide, so they focus on sick people and help them get better. But the goal with the pandemic is to keep people from becoming infected in the first place, and some of that prevention thinking needs to infuse the whole system. Healthcare providers are actually much more inclined at the moment to get away from fee-for-service, because so many people are avoiding any interaction with the healthcare system that they can, for fear of coming in contact with those infected with the coronavirus. That fee-for-service income has dried up. If doctors were paid a sort of subscription fee for keeping patients healthy, medical practices wouldn't be suffering so much. In addition, the pandemic has helped telemedicine finally come into its own. It offers a way to keep doctors in touch with patients easily, going well beyond that seven-minute annual visit that is the way many of us experience healthcare now.

Switching away from fee-for-service and increasing the use of telemedicine means changing payment models, which finally brings us to the health insurers.

They take a beating these days for two main reasons. First, the insurers catch much of the blame for the fact that the U.S. spends twice as much per capita on healthcare than other major economies while getting average care. Second, while everyone wants and needs health insurance, nobody likes it. Dealing with health insurance is simply painful.

In this case, they have the potential to lead the way. While they can't be expected to do anything deliberately that would cut into their lush profits, they can easily drive adoption of telemedicine and use that as the tip of the spear in efforts to move away from sick care and toward health care, earning good will without much change to their business models.

Even if insurers choose not to lead, the pandemic will drive others to demand change, so the insurers might end up following.

Cheers,

Paul

P.S. Here are the Six Things I want to highlight from the past week:

Firms' Top Priorities During the Pandemic

Change management, flexibility and risk management have exposed their critical importance.

How to Adapt to a VUCA+V World

In a world they haven’t seen before, insurers must do what they haven’t done before if they want to stand a chance to succeed.

Access to Care, Return to Work in the Pandemic

Beyond the pandemic, claims teams will need to know how to prioritize medical care for injured workers.

Hurricane Season: More Trouble Ahead?

As if COVID-19 isn't tough enough, the Atlantic hurricane season looks to be active, with a higher probability of named storms making landfall.

Getting Back to Work: A Data-Centric View

By the time the world gets to the new normal, insurers must have created an "information mesh."

The Pandemic and a New Ecosystem

As much as we all wish coronavirus had never happened, it has supercharged innovation in the insurance industry.

As the U.S. experiences a sudden rise in remote work self-isolation and health-related anxiety, there has been a general sense of unease for many people and exacerbated existing mental health issues for many more. Following a surge in anxiety caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, managing and supporting mental health at work has never been more crucial as research by Pews Research Center shows 73% of Americans reported feeling anxious at least a few days a week.

How Businesses Can Support Employee Mental Health Right Now 

With some team members working remotely and others off ill, quarantined or self-isolating, it is more important than ever for businesses to retain talent, reduce presenteeism and maintain morale. 

Break the Culture of Silence: There is still a stigma around mental illness that makes employees more likely to suffer in silence than share information with their managers or bosses. Around 82% of employees with a diagnosed mental health condition do not confide in management, and 40% of employees have given a false reason when taking time off for mental health. 

Now is an ideal time for leaders within businesses to talk more openly about mental health and create a culture that encourages conversations around these issues. Taking a mental health day or asking for support should never affect an employee's reputation or how the employee is perceived. 

Keep Socializing With Your Teams: Remote working has its perks, but a lot of people are feeling isolated right now. Office banter is missed most about work since lockdown, with a recent study by Vodafone showing that 41% say they miss the daily jokes. 

See also: 15 Keys to Mental Health Safety Net  

Environmental psychologist and wellbeing trainer Lee Chambers says dealing with a lack of social connections during the outbreak is a massive challenge for a lot of people: "In these turbulent times, social connection is vital to our wellbeing. Without the ability to go out and socialize in the way we usually would, we have to be more creative and have more intention in our connection with others during this lockdown scenario. In some ways, the enforcement of rules around movement have caused us to slow down. This actually gives us the chance to connect on a deeper level." 

Lead By Example: With many employees working remotely, managers need to be more conscious of the challenges that different households are facing. Encouraging flexibility, self-care and regular check-ins is key to reducing presenteeism and stress and ensuring that employees facing any issues can be identified and supported. Encourage transparent conversations and put action plans in place for team members who need help. 

Introduce Team Activity and Training Sessions: With employees using tools like Zoom to connect with the office remotely, now is a great time for businesses to encourage morning catch-ups, remote Friday drinks, yoga sessions or even company training sessions. Encourage team members to take a class they've always wanted to try, or to attend industry-related webinars. This is a great way to support employees looking to upskill themselves and stay busy. 

More work needs to be done to ensure businesses take care of their most valuable assets – their employees. Encourage employees to self-advocate and seek early intervention before their mental health requires more stringent measures, like having to take stress leave or resign.

The COVID-19 pandemic is upending the way employers conduct regular business operations. Most industries now face a wide variety of challenges, including dislocation of their workforce, lost revenues, changing priorities and employee safety, to name a few.

Three industry experts joined us for our special edition Out Front Ideas COVID-19 Briefing Webinar Series to discuss the major issues facing each of their industries: 

• Shaun Jackson – executive director of risk management, Panda Restaurant Group
• Rich Reynolds – senior manager of workers’ compensation, Providence St. Joseph Health Shared Services
• Steven Robles – assistant chief executive officer, Los Angeles County

PUBLIC ENTITY

Public entities face a host of different issues based on their location throughout the COVID-19 crisis. One of our guests explained the significant issues facing public entities currently:

Resource drain on risk management. Risk managers who typically handle workers’ compensation, liability, finance, safety, privacy and contracts for public entities are being outsourced to function as disaster service workers, making resources limited. Up to 60% of Los Angeles County’s risk managers are being used for disaster management.

Cyber and privacy challenges. Some employees are working remotely, but most public entities were not set up for a large portion of the workforce to shift to remote work. Currently, counties are learning how to manage security concerns associated with this shift by adding layers of privacy, like VPNs.

Workers’ compensation presumptions. The resulting costs of presumptions for first responders and other essential employees within the public entity realm could increase costs by 30% to 50%. If post-traumatic stress disorder is included in presumption laws, it could result in an additional 10% to 15% increase. Public entities are cutting back budgets to mitigate expenses, but additional costs could lead to potential layoffs.

See also: Business Continuity During COVID-19  

Employees returning to work. Public entities consist of both frontline and remote employees. Plans are being developed to phase in remote workers while still reducing possible exposure for both groups of employees. Concerns like childcare access and shielding more susceptible populations like the elderly and immuno-compromised are all being considered.

HEALTHCARE

Employees in healthcare, one of the most drastically affected industries, have to adjust to the constant challenges of COVID-19. One of our guests shares the most pressing concerns facing the industry:

Personal protective equipment (PPE) shortages. The healthcare industry is enlisting other businesses and organizations to fabricate masks and ramp up production of protective gear as they face a lack of necessary protection for frontline employees caring for COVID-19 patients.

Uncertainty about the future. Without enough information about COVID-19, there are many questions to be asked. Are states reopening too quickly? Will we face a second wave of cases and deaths? Do we have the testing capabilities that allow a return to our normal daily lives?

Financial impact of elective procedures. Due to the massive influx of COVID-19 patients, elective procedures are temporarily on hold. This pause has created a financial strain on a healthcare system that relies on these procedures.

Telemedicine development. One of the positive outcomes of COVID-19 has been increased access to telemedicine. If this becomes a more cost-effective alternative, it could mean a decrease in brick-and-mortar healthcare locations and a possible change in overall business models. 

RESTAURANT

The restaurant industry is facing one of the most challenging times in its history. Still, some with overseas operations were preparing as early as December, knowing the U.S. would eventually be affected. One of our guests discussed the industry’s challenges and how they are adapting:

Reworking business continuity and crisis response programs. Due to the state-by-state and county-by-county differences in stay-at-home orders, all crisis responses had to be retooled. Most of these plans had a great framework, but, because of the variances per jurisdiction, the industry could not replicate and impose these plans. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) have made it easier to track COVID-19 hot spots, allowing restaurants to manage location openings. 

Defining the essential workforce. Restaurant employers are working with local health officials to identify which employees within a restaurant are essential. Because employers are at the mercy of the latest emergency guidance per jurisdiction, these efforts to comply help build relationships within each market.

PR and media response. Because many jurisdictions are requiring guests to wear face masks in public, restaurants are now having to learn how to respond to those opposing these restrictions. Knowing possible confrontation with these guests could occur, employers are responding by educating employees on how best to respond in these situations. Health departments are now also publishing lists of locations where five or more employees have tested positive for COVID-19, so restaurants are now facing possible damage control if deemed an “outbreak location.” 

See also: COVID-19’s Impact on Delivery of Care  

Contact tracing. Restaurants are moving forward with their own models of contact tracing for cases of COVID-19, knowing that a government model could take time to develop. They have set up their own process of quarantining and monitoring to prevent further transmission of the virus, knowing that any outbreaks could damage their reputation. 

Change management, flexibility and risk management have exposed their critical importance in business operations throughout this pandemic. Knowing this, all organizations will need to rethink their continuity plans as they address the complexities of reopening and returning to work. Because we know businesses will never again operate under the same model, there is an ever-increasing need to think differently and to work together across multiple industries to share insights and develop the best plans for the future.  

To listen to the full Out Front Ideas with Kimberly and Mark webinar on this topic, click here.

Unemployment is rising due to COVID-19, and some of the top risk management firms in the industry have indicated that fraud will also quickly increase. While claims fraud, inflated repair invoices and other common scams are probably the first that come to mind, roadside assistance fraud is another issue to which insurers should pay attention. It’s more common that one might think.

Especially as insurers increasingly offer ecosystem services such as roadside assistance to strengthen customer loyalty and generate additional revenue, it’s important that they ensure their roadside assistance partners are taking measures to protect against fraud, which can range from customers abusing the aid to get free gas, to tow operators sending fraudulent invoices. 

Here are some of the ways to protect against roadside assistance fraud:

Fast Payments Promote Trust

The adage, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” holds true in roadside assistance fraud. Instituting policies that reduce the incentive to commit fraud is far less painful than attempting to recover a loss, and one of these measures is to pay tow operators quickly. Especially in difficult times, those who issue payment within minutes instead of the standard Net-30 will foster loyalty that cuts down on fraud, especially while many companies are struggling to keep operations running. 

Tow operators balk at complex billing that deducts difficult-to-understand fees from their payment. The fees create unpleasant surprises that can make the difference between a profit and a loss. So, make sure that roadside assistance partners offer clear and transparent billing.

Transparency in Invoicing

With fraud on the rise, be on the lookout for roadside vendors that will attempt to bill you for “ghost” services. One way to mitigate this type of fraud is by asking your roadside vendor to provide transparency into completed services, ideally in real time. Require your roadside vendor to provide an unfiltered view into jobs, as well as customer confirmation that the job was completed. This kind of transparency makes it far less likely that you’ll be inaccurately billed or overcharged. Plus, this level of transparency gives you a better view into the customer experience. 

See also: 3 Ways AI, Telematics Revolutionize Claims  

Transparency in Operations

History tells us that, during times of high unemployment, we are likely to see more bad actors entering gig economy jobs. But fraud is often easily caught at the background check level, which can prevent bad actors from getting into the system in the first place. While it's easy to provide a false name, it’s more difficult to provide a false Social Security number and matching drivers license. So, it’s important to have transparency in how tow operators are onboarded into your roadside assistance partner’s network and the methods they use to verify the identity of each driver and the person's background. Ask about the types of checks they’re using to ensure identity verification, proper licensure and insurance compliance. Ideally, you want visibility all the way down to the driver level of who is servicing policyholders.

You need transparency because, while background checks have been an industry standard for years in roadside assistance, they may not be conducted at the appropriate level. For example, it’s common to accept a prior, third-party background check for a new contractor, a practice that leaves critical gaps in a contractor’s history and doesn’t necessarily report on charges or information relevant to the position. A “clear background check” usually does not tell you that the driver’s license is suspended, for instance. 

Background checks should be run annually at a minimum, but there are now next-generation background check services that will run in the background to provide live monitoring of arrest feeds, county reports and other proprietary information sites. This kind of continuous monitoring can flag events that could signal trouble, providing the opportunity to prevent fraud before it occurs.

The Importance of Analytics

Some policy holders may look to their roadside policy to help get what they see as “free fuel” as many times as possible. It’s a common scam, where drivers purposely avoid filling up and, when they run out of fuel, call the roadside assistance service to get some for free. 

This kind of fraud is most effectively detected through technology, specifically artificial intelligence, machine learning and analytics. Data analysis can identify previously overlooked trends to catch these kinds of issues and resolve them quickly. Insurers save money when machines and automation do the work instead of adding to headcount or finding problems only after the damage has been done. 

Even as fraud is anticipated to increase, roadside assistance many times has been overlooked. Don’t settle for passive fraud detection. Demand transparency and encourage the use of technology to mitigate risk, which will both reinforce your reputation and drive your bottom line.

The plague that is coronavirus continues to threaten our way of life and our very existence.  

And while we wait for our best scientists and Big Pharma to develop and deliver the vaccine we so desperately need to begin the return to some semblance of our prior lives, it is notable that finance and insurance – the nation’s third-largest industry – is coping better than most would have ever imagined, thanks to the technologies that have been gradually but surely emerging for at least the past two decades.

Now, with few if any acceptable choices, these technologies and the benefits they offer participants in the insurance ecosystem are being more eagerly embraced and adopted by insurers in the battle they are waging for their survival. Artificial intelligence, in all its manifestations, drives many solutions. It helps us transform the digital rivers of data flowing between us and our many connected devices and facilitates effective real-time decision making. As noted on April 30 by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, “We saw 2 years of digital transformation in two months.”

WFH (work from home) is a perfect example and, defined more broadly, encompasses video conferencing, distance learning, educational and training sessions and internal business communications platforms. Platforms such as Zoom and Slack are well-known solutions, but dozens of similar services have proliferated. Artificial intelligence powers all of them and allows for total individualization of communication preferences. Insurers have been able to leverage them in operations, and in a matter of just weeks have redeployed thousands of inside employees from corporate buildings to their own homes, hardly missing a beat. In many cases, customer experience has actually improved as distributed workflow algorithms ensure better matching of customer profiles with staff expertise and skill sets, while also reducing the associated potential risk of litigation.

The claims process has become another major beneficiary of artificial intelligence and other new technologies, including computer vision, machine learning, digital customer self-service and electronic claim payments. Contactless (or touchless) claims is now a reality, with some large insurers reporting up to 50% use of this method across all claims.  

In a world where claims are submitted and paid without physical inspection and validation, fraudulent claims detection becomes an even higher priority, and here again solutions incorporating artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and computer vision are being deployed effectively. The recent partnership announced between Shift Technologies and Snapsheet is a perfect example, and there are many more in the works and underway. 

See also: COVID-19 and the Economic Downturn’s Effect on P&C Insurance: An Opportunity for Technology? 

Analytics also plays a critical role in streamlining claims settlement, which is recognized as a primary driver of customer loyalty and retention. This includes the current rapid adoption of digital claims payments, which speeds up the process while removing significant processing costs for carriers and getting money owed more quickly to customers; for many, cash flow has become more important than ever. The speedy settlement of claims has previously meant higher costs and a risk of overpayment, especially in high-volume catastrophes but by employing AI technologies these risks are now being mitigated.

Here is a partial list of the many additional ways in which AI and technology will play an increasingly critical role;

• a solid working knowledge of AI and technology will become a prerequisite for even entry-level employees and most certainly for organizational advancement
• the nature of risk has changed, and AI allows carriers to respond in real time (e.g., several large life insurers ceased issuing new policies on those over 75 almost immediately after COVID-19 altered mortality rate tables
• data allows management to navigate change, and AI is an important tool in generating operational road maps
• remote work forces present new management challenges in maintaining morale, motivation and corporate culture; AI enables automated monitoring and appropriate development and testing at the individual level
• in a world of limited resources, partnerships will become more critical, and, for those that incorporate AI, relevant corporate expertise will be mandatory 
• continuous learning and technology development will help meet carriers’ long-term needs and goals

In an impressive example of the power and potential for technology in the insurance industry, conference production companies have quickly pivoted scheduled live events to virtual alternatives. (Insurance Nexus by Reuters Events has reimagined its “Insurance AI and Innovative Tech USA” conference scheduled for Chicago and is presenting it as a free, conference and meeting platform on May 27-28. The conference features over 30 speakers, 20 case studies, thought leadership discussions and fireside chats with key insurance decision makers, interactive sessions with live panels, Q&A and polls. A digital exhibition will feature over 20 solution providers and a one-on-one meeting service will connect participants sharing common interests. You can register here.)

As much as we all wish coronavirus had never happened, it has supercharged innovation in the insurance industry. Some changes are welcome, many of which are likely to be permanent, and which will benefit all stakeholders in this critically important industry.

The ability to micro-census – that is, to gather granular data about individual homes and businesses and use it to inform underwriting – will lead to the biggest changes in flood insurance since the launch of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) in 1968.

Most visible among these changes will be the transformation of NFIP policies and the rise of private flood insurance, which micro-censusing makes possible (read: potentially profitable at scale) for the first time. Here, I’ll examine the rise of micro-censusing in insurance; its likely applications in the flood market; and the potential impact on NFIP and private products, the agents selling them; and the Americans they’ll protect.

The Rise of Micro-Censusing and Its Applications in the Flood Market

In the last two decades, innovation in the insurance industry has been powered by better data. Data collection from smart devices is changing how health and auto insurers price policies, and data from services like Google Maps is changing how underwriters assess business insurance applications.

In homeowner’s insurance, providers are pulling publicly available, address-specific data – from roof type to proximity to a fire hydrant – and feeding it to algorithms to assess risks.

All of these can be considered examples of micro-censusing because they use data at the individual rather than demographic level to determine risk, which makes for much more accurate assessments.

Now that readily available tech makes micro-censusing possible and practical, it’s become wildly popular. With micro-census data, insurance providers can price policies more accurately and manage risk far better than was historically possible.

This is a boon for markets like flood, where existing risk models are often outdated. Micro-censusing makes it possible to assess risk on a property-by-property basis in something close to real time. 

In practice, this means, for example, that the houses on the lower-lying part of a street, where water tends to pool during heavy rainstorms, could receive vastly different quotes from those at the top of a modest hill, where puddles typically don’t form. Homeowners at both locations would receive more precise quotes.

Risk Rating 2.0: How NFIP Is Leading the Way

FEMA is redesigning its flood insurance products, thanks in part to micro-censusing breakthroughs. In October 2021, the NFIP plans to roll out Risk Rating 2.0, an all-new rating methodology.

While not many details about Risk Rating 2.0 are public, the update is expected to change NFIP policies in a few fundamental ways. 

First, micro-censusing capabilities are expected to introduce property-specific risk assessment capabilities, which will make way for flood insurance policies that are tailored to each household.

The new rating engine is also expected to help agents accurately price and sell policies. More rating clarity will help policyholders better understand their property’s flood risk and how that risk is captured in their cost of insurance.

Perhaps most importantly, NFIP’s rating characteristics under Risk Rating 2.0 include the cost to rebuild a home, which means that NFIP will aim to give more affordable quotes to owners of lower-value homes. In other words, the system will be able to provide fairer policies to all homeowners.

See also: Flood Insurance: Are the Storm Clouds Lifting?  

The Impact of Micro-Censusing on Private Insurance

In addition to changing the way the NFIP rates policies, micro-censusing technology is also drawing private insurers to enter the flood market. The new availability of data means they can now more confidently assess and underwrite risks around the country. 

The implications of this are significant: With private insurers entering the market, there’s sure to be an increase in available products, which means greater opportunity for Americans to protect their homes and greater opportunity for agents to grow their books and better serve their customers. 

Greater product availability will also put less strain on federal disaster funds. Today, 20% of all NFIP claims come from properties that aren’t in high-risk areas. Those properties receive a third of all federal disaster assistance for flooding, in part because they’re not required to carry flood insurance.

In other words, the impact of micro-censusing (and other technology) on flood insurance can’t really be overstated, especially in an era where FEMA’s official position is “anywhere it can rain, it can flood.”

See also: 5 FAQs on Private Flood Insurance  

Micro-Censusing Will Bring Macro Changes to America’s Flood Insurance

Today, the typical homeowner faces a 10% chance of fire loss over the course of a 30-year mortgage, but a 30% chance of flood loss. Still, 85% of homeowners have fire insurance and just 15% have flood insurance. These are clear indicators that flood insurance in America needs a makeover.

Micro-censusing has the power to spark dramatic change in the industry. The granular data it provides will lead to the entry of more private insurers and the improvement of NFIP policies, which will increase agents’ ability to find appropriate coverage for their customers. Overall, this will mean better flood protection for at-risk Americans.

As businesses around the country prepare to reopen, there is a concerted effort made to prioritize the safety of the workforce. Employers are also preparing to face more leaves of absence than ever as they account for employee childcare needs, at-risk groups with pre-existing conditions and possible employee COVID-19 cases. So, how do we approach reopening the economy with these concerns in mind? Furthermore, how does the workers’ compensation industry provide access to care for injured workers throughout this crisis and in the future?

Three industry experts joined us for our special edition Out Front Ideas COVID-19 Briefing Webinar Series to discuss access to care and the return to work during the COVID-19 crisis: 

• Bryon Bass – senior vice president, workforce absence, Sedgwick
• Michele Hibbert-Iacobacci – senior vice president, regulatory compliance management, Mitchell International
• Jennifer Ryon – chief revenue officer, Prime Health Services

Leave of Absence and COVID-19

Sweeping changes to leave of absence laws are rapidly occurring at both the federal and state levels, helping employers adjust to the needs of their workforce. They are also expanding our industry’s terminology of “return to work,” as it applies to how employers are adapting their efforts through the pandemic. 

The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) bill, introduced in mid-March, requires employers with 500 or fewer employees to provide their workforce with paid sick leave or expanded family and medical leave for specified reasons related to COVID-19. The bill requires up to 80 hours of paid sick leave at the employee’s regular rate of pay when an employee is in quarantine or experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and seeking a medical diagnosis. If an employee needs to take care of an individual subject to quarantine, or care for a child whose school or childcare provider is closed due to the pandemic, the employee is entitled to 80 hours of paid sick leave at two-thirds of the regular rate of pay. An additional 10 weeks of paid expanded family and medical leave at two-thirds the employee’s regular rate of pay must also be provided if an employee must care for a child whose school or childcare provider is closed due to reasons related to COVID-19. While the requirements only apply to businesses with fewer than 500 employees, the majority of businesses with more than 500 employees have instituted additional paid family leave or allowed their workforce to use their paid leave for COVID-19-related reasons. 

Many state and statutory paid leave policies have extended rights that are similar to the coverage offered by the FFCRA. Some of the nuances of these extensions include additional unemployment benefits for individuals who have been furloughed or laid off. Some states also allow for accrued paid sick leave for employees and are allowing employees to use these benefits for reasons related to COVID-19. Employers need to understand that some of these state and federal changes may run concurrently with offerings from self-insured plans. Some policies have offset provisions that allow benefits like short-term disability or workers’ compensation to be offset by benefits offered at a state or federal level. For example, if an employee is taking leave to care for a child whose school is closed due to COVID-19 reasons, they would benefit from the FFCRA, but not be able to take advantage of short-term disability. Self-insured benefits should be used as supplemental coverage, instead of being used in addition to federal and state benefits, so the employee is receiving 100% of standard pay in total.

See also: Pain Management, Wellbeing in Pandemic  

Business Reopening

As businesses consider their reopening plans, they should consider three components: preparation, deployment and sustainability of employees’ return to work. These components should be guided by principles that include the safety of the employees, visitors and general public, compliance from public health organizations and government agencies, collaboration across the organization and agility that enables a swift response to changes that may occur. Many questions require answers for each component of the plan, including:

Preparation 

• Have you considered both community readiness and facility readiness? 
• If employees return to the office, can you ensure social distancing? Is it being enforced within the community?
• Have you adjusted the footprint in your office to allow for safe social distancing? Is it possible while still maintaining productivity?
• Do you have testing capabilities? 
• Will you require personal protective equipment (PPE) to be worn? Can employees buy their own, or will you supply items, like face masks, to your workforce? 
• Have you allowed for flexibility in the workforce, especially for groups more vulnerable to the illness, and employees needing to care for children?

Deployment

• Are employees adapting to the changes, or do you see a decline in productivity?
• Have employees made use of flexibility policies? Is there an increased demand for leave?
• Do employees feel safe with the return to work, or is there significant apprehension?
• Are you adapting to the needs of your workforce?
• Are you enforcing the use of PPE? Are employees encouraging others to maintain safe social distancing?
• Is testing working, or are you seeing a rise in employee transmissions?

Sustainability

• Have you been able to phase more employees back into the physical workspace?
• Are employees more productive than they were when working from home?
• Do employees still feel comfortable coming into a physical workspace?
• Is the community prepared for a possible second wave of the virus? Has a vaccine been established?
• Are you able to pivot back to a work-from-home model if necessary?

Access to Care

With hospitals not offering elective surgeries due to the pandemic, we may be considering how our injured workers are getting the care they need. It is also important to consider how we are handling these changes operationally between employers and claims teams. Are we considering which patients are more at risk? Can we use analytics to understand which patients should be recovering? Are there significant milestones tracked in a patient’s recovery? What are the expectations of your claims teams? Through this crisis, it is crucial to take a personalized approach to understand both the functionality of the team and the injured worker within a claim. 

Preferred provider organizations (PPO) work as a network for connecting workers’ compensation resources (hospitals, primary care specialists, occupational health, etc.). Some are providing their clients with a real-time listing of what providers are currently available, including operating hours and telehealth capabilities. While serving both the client (third-party administrator or carrier) and the provider, the challenge lies with how to provide better help to the client. TPAs and carriers are currently working with claims teams on their workflows to act as a liaison for communication between the payer, provider, employer and employee. This need for improved communication will increase as businesses around the country reopen and there is further demand to locate a provider.

Regulators are assisting in healthcare needs through efforts to push telehealth legislation. With patients fearing possible exposure from in-office visits, demand for telehealth is increasing. Harvard reported a 60% drop in in-person visits, with a 10% increase in telehealth visits. Due to increased demand, some physicians have rushed to offer telehealth capabilities without understanding regulations first. States are addressing issues related to telehealth, such as limitations on prescriptions that can be prescribed over the phone and the scope of care being provided. 

Provider Access 

There are concerns about on-hold elective procedures because there are restrictions on which providers are allowed to operate and which patients they can see. Dentistry, for example, can only see patients with infections or pain, which may result in more expensive procedures in the long term. However, patients are missing wellness visits that are crucial to the recovery process. For instance, serious procedures like biopsies, removal and replacement of orthopedic devices or hardware and cast replacements may result in further long-term damage to the patient. There may be an increase in the expansion of benefits in the instances where an injured worker needed care but could not receive it.

See also: Impact of COVID-19 on Workers’ Comp  

With elective surgeries being canceled or postponed, providers are adjusting through reschedules based on pain levels and how likely a patient may be to resort to an emergency room visit. With a decline in patients, some private practices are being acquired and consolidated by larger healthcare systems. Some satellite physicians are being reassigned to hospitals to help with pandemic needs. With healthcare staff adjusting to current needs, it is vital to assess how quickly they can be reassigned back to their original roles when we return to a state of normalcy, and the demand for elective procedures increases. 

Preparing Claims Teams

As we plan for the future beyond the pandemic, there is a need to address the impact on claims teams. They will need to know how to prioritize medical care for injured workers. Do they understand how social isolation has affected the injured worker? How has this crisis affected recovery and the injured worker’s level of functionality? Do you have tools at your disposal to suggest help for those affected more severely? Developing a communication plan for your claims teams and emphasizing data collection on current claims will create a more streamlined process while creating a better understanding of the patient population. 

To listen to the full Out Front Ideas with Kimberly and Mark webinar on this topic, click here. Stay tuned for more from the Out Front Ideas COVID-19 Briefing Webinar Series, every Tuesday in April and May. View the full list of coming topics here.

Although the speed of recent changes for us all has been breathtaking, learning how to be productive when working from home is not new.

Given that so many leaders, perhaps including you, are suddenly facing the challenge of working from home as a new normal, it seems only fair to share what I've learned in the nearly six years since I launched this blog and my business.

I’ll start with the basics. What I’ve learned about creating and protecting a productive place to work in a home that you probably didn’t buy or furnish for this purpose. Let’s think about your working space and behavior.

1. Environment matters

Once you start to work for prolonged hours at home, you notice how different your environment is to the office. Noise, interruptions, distractions, discomfort or too much comfort – all can be issues.

Your working space

I can recall early on learning that just trying to use the dining room table was a bad idea. Too many distractions and through traffic. As we learned from Cal Newport in his book “Deep Work,“ it is vital to have a working space that is conducive to concentration and minimizes distraction.

My next location was working in one of my children’s old bedrooms (fortunately we’ve reached a life stage when they’ve all moved out). This was better, but still had the feel of a bedroom. A room designed for comfort and snoozing is not the visual cue you need when reading, writing, planning or making key decisions. 

One advantage of working in an old bedroom is the simple device of a door that closes. This is important psychologically as well as physically. I encourage you to close the door and to tell others in your household that when the door is closed you shouldn’t be disturbed unless it’s urgent. Some fellow business owners I know even use a Do Not Disturb sign.

Transforming your home office

Over the years, I have gradually invested in transforming the space around me. Aspects that have helped (in creating a space that helps me focus and get more done) include:

• Filing cabinets and bookshelves (less cognitive load if less cluttered)
• In trays and a filing system for prioritization of printed material
• A clear desk space, only containing what is needed for the current task
• Notice boards with longer-term dashboards and reminders in sight
• A wall planner with colored dots to help me see the year visually
• Clear floor space for standing and pacing to think or take calls
• Digital Minimalism

Different people will find different aspects of my approach work for them. Having chatted to many others who work from home, I don’t believe there is one right answer. What matters is that you stay aware of when you are distracted or when tasks take longer than they could. 

Be honest with yourself, and, where a more conducive environment would help improve your focus, take action. When you are going to be working in the same space for a long time, even small improvements can give you huge cumulative gains.

2. Habits and your routine matter

I’ve learned that I can’t rely on my motivation and consistency every day. It’s human nature that we have days when we feel ready to take on the world and others when we’d rather stay in bed. For me, it’s proved better to focus on developing routines and habits than to rely on motivational posters or "getting pumped" pep talks.

“Atomic Habits” by James Clear confirms much of why certain changes have worked well for me and others have not. That book will really help you develop good habits and stop bad ones.

My journey with planners

My own journey down this path started with wanting to improve on my to-fo List. I’ve shared before how my personal system for task prioritization and diary management has developed with the help of Peter Bregman and Michael Hyatt. Those principles still serve me well.

Building on that habit of planning my day and prioritizing what matters most, for a few years I invested in Michael Hyatt’s Full Focus Planner. This did help establish a number of good habits for me, including getting clear on my "big three" each day and reviewing my week. 

See also: COVID-19’s Impact on Delivery of Care  

The big three

The concept of the big three is to review everything you’d like to get done and be forced to choose which three matter most. This means considering what impact completing those will achieve (so, important not just urgent). You commit before you start your day to the idea that, if they are all you get done today, it has been a success. It’s surprising how much this helps, especially for a natural self-critic like me. There are more "win days."

A weekly review

Weekly reviews are another habit that was driven by that planner, which for me is completed every Sunday. Taking time to review wins and distractions over the last seven days, as well as what I could do differently. The review also prompts you to think about all aspects of your life.

Since those years investing in the Full Focus Planner, I found it to be too expensive a subscription for the benefit. At present, I’ve replaced it with the Lux Productivity Planner (which covers six rather than three months) and am seeing the same benefits. You’ll note I’m sure that I’ve stayed with a paper-based planner. I encourage you to think about the benefit of doing the same. Not relying on solely digital systems can help you in a number of ways. For me it helps me step back and recall better.

Establishing routines that serve you

Finally, one other habit that I have learned along this journey is the importance of establishing a morning routine and an evening routine. This will differ for everyone but should include those things you want to do consistently (so need to make into unconscious habits). Repetition and environment are your friends again here, and I encourage you to practice defining these and honing them to work for you. 

For example, my morning routine includes:

• A calm start with tea and radio
• Regular exercise
• Meditation and spiritual time
• Planning my day
• Checking with others and then going into "the office" to start work

Over time, I’ve also developed both "start of work" and "end of work" routines. These can help include aspects like managing your email, social media content, reminders/tasks and finance/CRM systems. They also help to act as behavioral bookends to my working day, making it easier for me to relax afterward.

3. Your whole self matters

It is easy to fall into the trap of only thinking about your mental activity as if you are a robot. But too much self-neglect has taught me that it is so important to think more holistically. If you are going to be sustainably productive, even in the medium term, you need to look after yourself.

Others are more qualified to talk on each of these topics than I am, but my own mistakes have taught me to take care of all these aspects:

• My physical self (exercise, diet and hydration)
• My emotional self (celebrate wins, interact with others, open up)
• My spiritual self (take time to reflect on meaning in what I do)
• My social self (keep in touch with others and not just by email)

Taking care of physical you

The first of these, taking care of your body, can also be helped by a few simple changes to how you work. Sadly, my morning routine does not now include sociable badminton, but for me still means running and yoga at home. I’ve shared before on some apps that help me.

In your home office, also beware of becoming so absorbed that you don’t notice how long you are sitting. It really is bad for your body and energy-sapping. I’ve shared before how much a standing desk helped mem and I’m still benefiting from that investment two years later. I also use my Apple Watch to prompt me to stand at least every hour (normally a prompt to leave my office to get a drink and chat with my wife).

So, I encourage you to watch out for becoming too sedentary. Of course, we should also turn to diet. Now, I would be a hypocrite if I tried to preach to others about diet – after all, I’m a middle-aged man who enjoys food and drink, which shows. But, suffice to say that I have discovered that more vegetarian meals do improve my energy levels. 

See also: Impact of COVID-19 on Workers’ Comp  

The main lesson I’m learning is about hydration. So, my final tip for looking after the physical you is to always have a water bottle on your desk. If you feel hungry (a big potential bad habit when working at home), try drinking water, instead. If you feel tired, before you have yet another coffee try drinking water. Drinking water is really helping me as it becomes a habit.

That’s enough for now. In my following posts, I will share more on looking after the emotional, spiritual and social you. I’ll also share posts on recommended hardware, software and other equipment to help you be more productive at home.

Keep safe, and please keep in touch.

The term VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) was coined by the U.S. military as a reaction to an increasingly complex situation, with many frontiers and unknowns around the world.

For business, the pandemic crisis has taken the VUCA elements of the corporate environments to a whole new level and even suggests adding a V, for "virtual," as the world has gone virtual in literally weeks.

Introducing VUCA+V:

Successfully navigating the current VUCA+V environment, and preparing for the new normal bound to follow the end of the pandemic, require insurers to develop a wide range of new skill sets and rethink their operating models that up to now have been based on cumbersome processes, manual workflows and significant paperwork.

“It worked yesterday” does not mean it works today – or tomorrow.

Staying home, doing business, have forced us all to go digital. This has developed our virtual meeting skills, our online shopping savviness and our ability to handle our daily tasks and administration work online – we’re looking at a seismic shift of everyone’s readiness for digital products, services and ways of doing business.

The virtualization of the way we live, work, shop and interact directly affects the future demand for products and services, and people skills and competencies – we will see jobs, products and competencies becoming obsolete as the virtual ways no longer require them. As a result, companies and people will need to redefine who they are and what they offer.

The pandemic and lockdown have almost completely changed the playing field all over the world – and this means the players have to adapt if they want to stand a chance to win in the future game.

In a world they haven’t seen before, insurers must do what they haven’t done before if they want to stand a chance to succeed.

The world’s virtual habits have changed profoundly, so insurers must adapt to serving customers virtually. Now and post the pandemic.

The virtual insurer’s toolbox

Successfully competing in a new VUCA+V world requires insurers to develop a new set of tools and methods and apply them swiftly and thoroughly. Here’s a brief overview of some of the most essential:

• Strategic savviness (Vision)
• Artificial intelligence (Understanding and Clarity)
• Organizational agility (Agility and Virtual)

Strategic savviness — Vision reduces volatility

Navigating through troubled waters requires a firm leadership team, constantly focusing on the company’s North Star – the strategic direction and goal. For a North Star to be effective, it must be specific, and reaching it must be realistic. It makes little sense to have a North Star set on conquering new markets if the insurer is struggling in the current one. The North Star therefore changes over time as the insurer progresses. The key to a successful use of this concept is to make sure everyone in the company is aware of the direction and believes in it.

Scenario-based ability to analyze and forecast market developments under various circumstances is another key element in creating a sustainable company, as this enables the insurer to prepare for the various outcomes and act swiftly when required.

Swift reaction requires a fast response mechanism, an "if this happens, then we do..." preparedness.

See also: Building a Virtual Insurer Post-COVID  

Deployment of artificial intelligence — Understanding and Clarity help navigate through Uncertainty and Complexity

Predictions of trigger events identified during the strategic scenario planning can be done by using artificial intelligence to constantly gather information and analyze the market developments, thereby enabling the insurer to act faster and with greater confidence.

To extend the insurer's ability to predict market changes, artificial intelligence can be expanded to create an early warning system (EWS), analyzing key financials from the insurer and comparing the trend in these with the trends found in the market.

A simple example could be monitoring the development of claims costs for car repairs and comparing this with macro-economic parameters (import index, exchange rates, etc.) to predict changes in, for example, spare parts prices and then cascade this down to expected development in claims costs and further into the underwriting models.

Advanced analytics will therefore be able to suggest corrective actions to keep the insurer solvent and on the right track earlier, as the AI will analyze large datasets constantly at a pace humans cannot keep up with.

This information could be directly used in advanced underwriting models that, if automated, would provide customers with immediate quotes and improve the customer experience and deliver on the here-and-now expectations in the new normal.

Organizational Agility — Agility and Valor improve adaptability to Ambiguous environments in a Virtual setting

It is imperative for insurers to keep agile and flexible not only during the pandemic but also after, as several aftershocks in the markets can be expected – we’re in a recession, and it will take time before the markets stabilize, if they ever do.

One thing is clear; once the markets have returned to a more stable state, we will be facing a new normal that everyone has to adapt and adjust to.

The two most significant factors that cripple insurers’ flexibility and ability to adjust quickly to internal and external events are fixed costs and workforce rigidity, with a certain amount of interdependence between these.

It is difficult to keep profitable in a market with very fluctuating demand and price indexes – to do so, the insurer must at a minimum be able to adjust the cost base to reflect the changes, and to do so immediately. It is of little help if it takes several quarters to adjust the cost base to changes that happen overnight.

The insurers therefore have to relook at fixed costs like rent and other long-term commitments, once being the permanent staff. It is advisable that the insurer offshores as much back office and operations as possible to enable faster adjustments to the cost base – this may come at an initial cost premium, but this will be more than offset by the increased ability to adjust expenses to market developments.

Incumbent insurers are organized in silos with a high degree of independence and little direct interaction. This provides a stable organization that works like a well-oiled machine in stable times.

However, the machine is rigid and not very ready for the process changes required to keep up with constant market fluctuations, and changes will not be carried out fast. This must change if the insurers are to stand a chance to survive – and thrive – in the new normal.

It goes without saying that the future insurer must digitize all processes and ways of working and become truly virtual. It’s not enough just to "add electricity" to existing processes, as this will just digitize the old – the insurers must redesign and digitize all processes to accommodate the demands for agility and flexibility.

Supporting – or enabling – the organizational changes must be done by a new way of thinking about technology – insurers cannot get rid of their aging legacy systems overnight, so it is necessary to explore ways of working with "two-speed" IT, building a flexible layer on top of the legacy systems.

This will provide the insurers with the needed agility to adjust processes and customer- facing applications at the speed needed to keep up with the changes in consumer behavior and expectations.

Implementing changes at the scale discussed here can almost be likened to establishing a brand-new insurer – it’s not a little task and must be carried out wholeheartedly and with absolute full and unanimous support from the entire management.

Initiatives like these – that are required – are board-level material, as they will require investments and many unpopular decisions to work. It usually takes a crisis before changes of this magnitude are approved and can be done.

Now is the time.

Stay safe and good luck.