In today's market, insurance providers are under pressure to cutcosts and deal with a multitude of issues that are threateningoperational efficiencies. Claim departments are being pressured toreduce operating costs even further while minimizing leakage andimproving customer satisfaction, cycle time, and compliance. Thisis changing the approach to hiring, training, and managingknowledge, which is sending providers on the hunt for newsolutions.

In the past, because of the nature of what is sold — riskmitigation — the insurance industry has been a conservativetechnology adopter. However, new pressures and trends show that ashift is occurring. Driving business innovation and findingflexible solutions through technology is becoming increasinglyimportant. Highest priority investments are those that provideincreased efficiency and productivity.

One of the new technology buzzwords in the industry isperformance support, an advanced knowledge-management approach thataddresses major training and knowledge-management concerns of claimdepartments globally. In a nutshell, the system gives employeesaccess to information that they need to assist them with theirjobs. This means new employees hit the road running faster, errorsin claim processing are minimized, and the process of dealing withcustomers is faster and smoother.

Unlike previous knowledge management approaches that requireemployees to search for information about processes, systems, orpolicies in paper or online manuals or attend lengthy, upfronttraining sessions/simulations, performance support is all aboutdelivering pertinent, moment-of-need information to each employeeaccording to their roles and the tasks that they are engaged inwhen they request assistance.

Why Performance Support?

With a hardening market looming but a soft market continuing,cutting operating costs can no longer be done by reducing analready reduced workforce. Current staff are nearing overload leveland there is a fear that further cutbacks in operating costs willsignificantly impact quality. Therefore, the focus has turned toboosting employee efficiency.

A recent study on the U.S. insurance industry found that threemain issues are challenging the efficiency of insurance providers'workforces: the need to maintain relationships with customers evenas claim systems increase automation; the retirement of baby boomerworkers coupled with an influx of Generation-Y employees; andmaintaining compliance in a complex regulatory environment.Performance support is emerging as a key tool to address theseissues, and the approach is being adopted by numerousproviders.

So how is performance support influencing each of these concernareas?

Maintaining Customer Service

While the efficiency of claims is constantly being improved bytechnologies such as straight-through processing, predictiveanalytics, and electronic case management, there is a limit towhich the function can be automated. That's because claim adjustingis a customer service. The ability of claims to deal with theclaimant's loss in a personal way is an important factor in drivingcustomer satisfaction and therefore customer retention and positiveword of mouth. Furthermore, there is a limit to which automationcan replace an adjuster's instinct for fraud or his ability toassess more complex or unusual claims.

When it comes to training and efficiency, this manual grey areacan be a difficult one to teach and monitor. The time it takes toreach competency for beginners can be lengthy, and often involvesweeks of instructor-led training, which is not necessarily the mosteffective method for ensuring on-the-job fluency and competency.This is especially relevant in highly regulated environments suchas insurance, where familiarity with detailed policy and procedureinformation is required, along with the ability to apply theknowledge to varying situations.

Claim situations by nature tend to be emotionally charged, so itis essential that even the least-experienced adjusters be wellversed on policy and procedures to be able to satisfy the customerand provide the best possible experience. These days, customers canbe more self sufficient, and this often means inquiries are morecomplex by the time they contact an insurer.

In this area, performance support solutions provide a knowledgebase of information in a form that is easily navigated so thatemployees can complete their jobs and deliver content sensitively.It is designed to provide accurate information at the moment ofneed so as to not interrupt the natural flow of a work process orcustomer interaction, which ultimately ensures that the bestpossible customer experience is achieved. With a performancesupport tool containing all of the information and details on howto work in a system or application, training can focus conceptuallyon how to deal and manage more complex inquiries.

Facing Retirement

Baby boomers have been a stable part of the workforce for thepast 30 years, but within the next five years the majority will beretiring. This will cause a significant brain drain in many claimoperations, especially since much of their knowledge has not beenrecorded for later use by less-experienced personnel.

The second issue is the influx of the Y generation into claims.This group has two very distinct differences from the Boomergeneration. Generally, they are more impatient and want to get onwith the job so they can advance their careers. Many have beenthrough college and do not feel they need to sit through moretraining before they can start working. They are also used to amore self-directed style of learning than Boomers, who expect to beput through structured training before commencing their roles.Generation-Y members are often less loyal to their employers thanBoomers, which means the average claim adjuster will not seethrough the first three years of employment with his firstemployer.

These changes not only mean that there is increased competitionbetween providers for experienced adjusters, but also that theapproach to training must change because of different learningstyles and a need to decrease the time to competency for newemployees. Higher turnover means less time and money can beinvested in preparing a new employee for their role, so six weeksof starter training followed by intensive supervision for sixmonths is now proving to be an expensive option.

Performance support is allowing the industry to capture as muchinformal knowledge as possible from retirees and makes thatknowledge available to new recruits so they can perform as well astheir predecessors as soon as possible. It assists new employees tocomply with policies and procedures and take full advantage ofsystems and best practices, which reduces the need for up-fronttraining and increases efficiency. Errors are also reduced. With anincreased amount of inexperienced adjusters, there has been a sharpincrease in leakage. Easy access to procedural information canensure claims are settled in accordance with company policy. With aworkforce that is more knowledgeable and has access tomoment-of-need skills, an insurance provider can be more flexible.There's no longer a need for teams of advisors to be dedicated tocertain products or specific customer accounts.

Above all, performance support delivers information in a waythat is appealing to the new generation of workers. What makessense to the multi-tasking, fast-switching Generation Y-er who isau fait with abbreviated communication, likes high-level overviews,and only dives into detail if and when it is needed? The answer isjust-in-time, just-enough knowledge solutions that provideinformation at the moment it is needed and in the context of thetask that is being performed. That is performance support in anutshell.

Compliance

Claims is the department upon which compliance falls mostheavily. There are appropriate forms to complete, timeframes toadhere to, and information that must be supplied to the customer.Claim adjusters have to deal with a lot of information and constantchange, which makes training an incomplete solution.

Performance support is an ideal solution for complex and highlyregulated environments. It assists employees in complying withpolicies and procedures and helps them take full advantage ofsystems and best practices. The approach can provide adjusters withall the information they need about accurate estimating, settlinglosses, guidance on regulatory compliance, and how to use casemanagement, estimating, and other business systems.

With performance support, help is always at hand. Adjustersunderstand and comply every time and spend less time sweating thedetails and more time helping more customers. The need for up-fronttraining sessions is reduced because on-the-spot, up-to-datecompliance information is provided during the course of work.

What is the moral of this story? As the workforce and industrycontinues to change, insurance providers will need to adaptaccordingly. Training approaches that appeal to the new generationof workers must be context sensitive, and they will driveefficiency in an extremely complex, high-turnover environment to besuccessful in the industry in the coming years.