Maybe meetings are like the weather–everyone talks about them but nobody ever does anything about them. Poorly run meetings are productivity and morale vampires afflicting a claims operation. One problem is that claim managers and supervisors get little training in how to run effective meetings. Higher ups assume–if they consider the topic at all–that claim managers and supervisors somehow know how to get things done with powwows among the claim staff. Or maybe they think that running effective meetings is just so easy that, well–a caveman could do it!

Wrong!

As a result, someone technically competent at claim handling is promoted into management and expected to be an effective meeting leader as well as a manager. This is unrealistic. A key management skill is the ability to run effective meetings with the claim staff. For many claim supervisors and managers, their training in this area has been … zilch. They fall back on prior meetings they endured with their bosses. Often, these are terrible examples of how to run meetings. Plugging the knowledge gap is beyond the scope of this discussion, and like many skills, one gets better not just by reading, but also by doing. Nevertheless, let us look at seven ways to improve claim meetings:

1. Give ample advance notice. No drive-by meetings! Ever hear this: “Hey claim staff , drop everything. I just had a blinding flash of brilliance!” Unless there is an absolute emergency, give at least a week's notice of your meeting. Scheduling days that are convenient for everyone on the claim staff is a maddening task. One approach: set a meeting for every Thursday at 9:00 AM, or every other Friday at 1:00 PM. The upside is that people don't have to guess the date of the next meeting. The downside is that there evolves a philosophy of, “It's Tuesday, so we must meet,” even if there is no good reason to meet. Meetings should occur because there is a compelling reason to meet, not because “we always have one on Monday mornings.” Are you meeting out of habit or because you genuinely have a compelling list of claim topics to discuss with your staff?

2. Start on time. If you wait on latecomers, you reward the stragglers but penalize the punctual. How fair is that? Send a message that you expect meetings to start on time. Let the stragglers catch up. Some managers address this by making latecomers pay a nominal money “fine,” which goes into coffee or snack fund. Few things are as irritating as showing up for a meeting, only to have the start delayed while you wait for the stragglers. Worse still is when the person who called the meeting is late for his or her own meeting! Both of these practices show disrespect for the time of others. Instead, set a good example and start claim staff meetings on time.

3. Know your aims. What do you want to accomplish in your claims meeting? Do you want to inform your staff of recent client or home office changes? Exhort and motivate them to put on a big push to close cases in the second quarter? Get feedback on a new defense firm that has recently joined the panel of approved counsel? Inform them about a recent state supreme court case on bad faith that has implications for the operation? Discuss early budget planning for next year? Quite likely your claim meetings will involve a blend of these functions. Make sure it does not become a one-way street of communication, with the claim manager or supervisor spending most of the time talking. (Note to bosses: if you are doing almost all of the talking, that is a bad sign!)

4. Circulate a written agenda in advance and seek input. People attending meetings do not like to be surprised. Although you need not tightly script every word at a meeting or be a “control freak,” lay the cards on the table. Draft an agenda and send it out via e-mail or hard copy a few days in advance. Invite the claim staff to nominate other topics that they want to discuss. This accomplishes multiple aims. First, it gets your claim staff thinking about the meeting topics. This increases the odds that the meeting will be a fruitful exchange. Second, it avoids people feeling “sandbagged” by surprise topics–which may keep them from being able to focus on the real issues. Third, it acts as a gentle reminder of the upcoming meeting. Finally, it makes the claim staff feel like part of the process by giving them a chance to contribute discussion topics. They feel a higher sense of “ownership” in the meeting.

5. Respect staff time and finish on time. Discipline yourself to start meetings on time but, equally important, set a target time for finishing and stick to it. Beware of any meeting agenda that has a start time but no ending time. Time is the adjuster's scarcest commodity. Compute the salaries of your claim staff, work it out to a per-hour basis and start figuring out the “cost” of tying up your staff in meetings. If they are meeting, they cannot be investigating, evaluating, or negotiating claims. They cannot be servicing policyholders. If you really want to impress your claim staff, wrap up the meeting ahead of time. No one ever got upset because of the meeting took less time than expected. In fact, consider budgeting more time then you really think you need for a meeting, to increase the odds that you will either end on time or ahead of time.
6. Close with a list of action items. One reason why many meetings fail is because of a sense of bafflement when they end. (The bafflement is exceeded perhaps only by the relief that the meeting is over!) Before disbanding a meeting, go around the room and write a list of all of the commitments and actions that meeting participants individually and collectively have agreed to take. Assign a name or names to each commitment and action. Assign a target due date or completion date for each commitment and action. Make sure that everyone in the meeting is on the same page, understands, and agrees. A successful meeting is one in which no participant wonders, “What am I supposed to do when I leave this meeting?” A successful meeting is one which provides the basis for launching specific actions that can be reviewed and discussed at the next meeting. These provide a framework for the next meeting and perhaps for the first agenda items for subsequent claim gatherings.

7. Follow up on action items! Execute! The first agenda topic for the next meeting should be recapping action items from the last meeting and assessing completion or progress on those items. This reinforces a healthy accountability ethic to your claim staff on commitments made in meetings and the need for follow-through.

These seven tips should boost the effectiveness of claim meetings. I would continue, but I really need to get to a meeting right now!

Kevin Quinley, CPCU is an insurance executive in the Washington D.C. area. When not in meetings, he can be reached at kquinley@medmarc.com or through his web site, www.kevinquinley.com.

Special Reports /

Seven Habits For Highly Effective Claim Meetings

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