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Success Stories
Temporary Employment Agency
Achieves Permanent Results
In December, 1999 Western National underwrote the workers' compensation coverage for 1st Choice Employment, a temporary employment agency in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. This relationship commenced with many insurance goals and loss control service needs, as reflected by an experience modification rating approaching 2.5, a sizeable scheduled debit, and the challenge to turn this into a mutually profitable business relationship. Today - five years later - our customer boasts a workers' compensation premium that is less than half paid in 1999 and a credit experience modification factor below 1.00, with a continuing, favorable trend. Is this outcome the exception or the rule? Our dedicated loss control staff believes this to be the rule - because of what the employer does right.
First, the business owners Steve and Dee Larson and their Agent were seeking an insurance relationship to turn the trend around; few businesses can survive a sustained modifier that high. They were willing to learn to manage the company's workers' compensation program like any other aspect of their business that required prudent management. Responsibility for claim reporting and injury management was assigned to a designated person. Second, our loss control staff helped develop a program to truly manage injuries, beyond claim reporting. Training was provided to key staff and management - assessing the real cost of claims, responding to injured workers, working with doctors, monitoring medical outcomes, and setting up a communication protocol to track cases. We also identified convenient, effective medical clinics for injury care and developed an early-return to work program which eliminated all lost work time. Steve Larson also started investigating accidents and personally addressing these with his own clients - where employees were hurt while working. Regular physical plant walk-throughs and on-site inspections were undertaken to ensure safe workplace conditions while preplacement and on-the-job training efforts were increased to reduce the unsafe acts which had led to claims in the past. We adhered to a strict schedule to meet to review claims, regularly and often. Claim trends were tracked and reviewed with 1st Choice's contract employers so contracts could be terminated if safety remained a problem.
"Our work with Western National got us going in the right direction. I don't know where we'd be today if we hadn't teamed up with Western. They provided a consistent team, regular claim reviews and dedicated staff to help us in this process," says Dee Larson.
Do employers expect their insurance company to handle claims? Absolutely - that's what we're here for. Longstanding relationships, however, depend on more. With our value-added Loss Control Service Program, we strive to make our customers better risks. Nothing is more important to preserving strong, mutually rewarding business relationships no matter what class of business you consider. If a businesses' top-management and its insurance carrier are committed to improvement- as with 1st Choice Employment and Western National - the results will pay off quickly, yet reliably for years to come.
Additional Success Stories
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