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...n seem hard. In our 20 years of consulting in the insurance industry, we’ve se...

Staffing & Productivity: How Do You Measure Up?
STAFFING & PRODUCTIVITY: HOW DO YOU MEASURE ...wman is the president of Phaze II Consulting, Inc. (Ft. Myers, FL), a management consulting firm for the insurance industry....

...res issues, company information, staffing changes, work in progress, and it re...available for in-house training or consulting. For contact information on facu...

... With the amount and speed of change occurring and the significant pressure on profit margins, the financial manager is having to do much more than ever in the past. In the past, financial managers tracked the agency's overall performance. Today, operating performance is needed on every profit center, department, book of business, and producer. Decisions are made every day on marketing strategies, producer compensation, staffing, and so on. Consequently, detailed and accurate information is required on every aspect of the operation. With the pressure on profit margins, an agency must effectively manage revenues and expenses. As a result, the financial manager is not just tracking receivables, investment income, and expenses, but is also finding ways to negotiate better agreements with carriers, financial institutions, and other providers. ... these questions, many of your Best Practices competitors can. If your responses are no' or I'm not sure, ' maybe you need an audit of the financial management function of your agency, some additional training for your financial manager, or the services of an outside CFO to complement their efforts. Angela Bemiss is a senior vice president and principal of Reagan & Associates, an independent Atlanta-based management consulting firm working with insurance agents, brokers, and companies. Before joining Reagan & Associates, she served as chief financial officer for two of the most successful regional brokerage firms in the country. Reagan & Associates developed and annually produces the Best Practices Study' in conjunction with the Independent Insurance Agents of America. They also provide a wide range of services, including financial management audits and outside CFO ...

... development of working relationships to ensure productivity and security among the founders and partners. &# 160 3. MARKETING PLAN. Reaching your markets is critical. Your plan could be (1 ) distributed through a national restaurant association, (2 ) endorsed by the association as we approach clients accessed by the association's mailing list, (3 ) based on a systematic marketing campaign, and (4 ) staffed (internal and production) by people who are experienced in the restaurant business. &# 160 4. CARRIER CONTRACT AGREEMENT. Focus on finding carriers that demonstrate commitment, financial integrity, market stability, communication skills, and coverage flexibility. &# 160 5. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE. With operational and automation plans in mind, consider determining the organizational structure of the agency. &# 160 6 ... value? &# 160 3. MARKETING PLAN. An agency marketing plan should be revisited, tweaked, or seriously revised at least every six months. Continued monitoring is often planned but seldom carried out. If that's your agency's case, is your sales program less successful than it could be? &# 160 4. CARRIER CONTROL AND AGREEMENT. These agreements should be reviewed at each renewal. Consultants and national agents' associations will be happy to review them for you to be sure the deal is fair and in line with other carriers' contracts. Do the contracts reflect, for example, hold harmless provisions that relate intelligently to new ways of doing business-for example, interactive interface and download? &# 160 5. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE. Is your agency's organization current with technology? For example ...

...fied and acquired.   10. STAFFING. Factors important would include: (1...accommodate carriers?   10. STAFFING. As your agency evolves into a ma...

...ts? It’s also likely that agency staffing patterns will change. Staff changes ...

...ndustry for 23 years and in the consulting business for the past 13 years. Jim...eagan & Associates is a management consulting firm working with organizations ...

... of business or measurable responsibilities, the third state of the ICP will allow you to differentiate employees by productivity. In this stage, productivity measures (usually revenue per employee) trigger compensation growth. If an employee handles a $300,000 book of business and can increase it (by cross-selling, higher premiums, or more clients) to $330,000 in the following year without additional staffing requirements, that employee deserves a raise based on the ratio of the department or agency profit increase to the goal set (as in the example above) . This final phase will assure that the most productive employees are paid at the highest levels and that all employees will see growth in their books of business as a vehicle for higher compensation instead of simply greater workloads. It also redefines the ... of employees to use systems and procedure enhancements (such as scanning and agency management systems) to their fullest in order to maximize productivity before staff additions are needed. CONCLUSION The ICP forms one of the keys to the growth and success of motivated agencies. If you'd like more information about this program or schedule a consultation to get an ICP started in your agency, please call us at (800) 779-2430. E. Al Diamond is president of Agency Consulting Group, Inc., 507 North Kings Hwy., C., Cherry Hill, NJ 08034. You can reach him at (856) 779-2430, (800) 779-2430, toll free,fax (856) 779-6224, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.agencyconsulting.com . Login or Register (for FREE) to gain access ...

... practices, we have identified 17 key claim functions that must be managed properly to achieve good results. All of these areas of performance must be evaluated if a claim auditor is to be effective in identifying areas of weakness and making recommendations to reduce the employer's costs. Any audit that claims to be comprehensive and thorough must include a review of the following areas of claim handling and administration: 1. Staffing. The auditor must evaluate adjuster/examiner training, experience, overall competence, and the appropriateness of supervision. 2. Reporting. The audit should determine whether reports are made promptly and not delayed for any reason. 3. Caseloads. Regardless of the competence of claim adjusting personnel, their performance will suffer if caseloads are too high. Cases assigned to each examiner should be limited to a ... PM by CompleteMarkets Editor , George Kingston This content has not been rated yet. KEY ELEMENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE WORKERS COMPENSATION CLAIM AUDIT by George Kingston During a recent review of a large corporation's insured Workers Compensation program, we interviewed the insurance broker to determine services provided. The broker was proud to tell us that they regularly performed audits of the insurer's claim files. We were told that the broker's claim consultant recently audited 40 claims in approximately four hours. Our experience in conducting hundreds of workers' compensation claim audits leads us to conclude that it is not possible to thoroughly audit 40 claims in four hours. This raises the question, What constitutes a thorough claims audit? Based on many years of exposure to good and bad claim-handling practices, we have identified 17 key claim functions that must be managed ...