Developing staff is arguably one of the greatest challenges toeffectively managing a claims organization. It’s a delicate balanceto please customers, shareholders, board members, and executiveswhile executing basic blocking and tackling maneuvers in anincreasingly litigious environment often wrought with fraud.

So what steps can managers take to effectively improve theirorganization? As discussed in my new book, Re-Adjusted: 20Essential Rules to Take Your Claims Organization from Ordinary toExtraordinary, focusing in on hiring can fundamentallytransform an organization.

Hire the best and the brightest. In a day andage when doing more with less has become the new norm, it isimpossible to move your organization ahead with mediocrity. Whilethis may seem overly simplistic, consider how many times hastyhires have been made simply to fill an open seat before a new hirerequisition is pulled due to inactivity.

Retaining your talent. While the economy may bebad now, it won’t be forever. By rewarding the best and thebrightest, you are almost guaranteed that your talent won’t fleewhen things improve. Rather than being the company that takesadvantage of the situation today by skimping on compensation,consider innovative ways to reward employees. Also keep in mindthat rewards don’t have to be monetary in nature; but do have toreflect the importance of the individual and their value to theorganization.

Tenure doesn’t necessarily equate to talent. IfI had a dime for every time a supervisor asked permission to hiresomeone based solely upon their experience, I would have retiredyears ago. Truth be known, many of my best hires had no insuranceexperience whatsoever. Rather, they had a positive attitude, awillingness to learn, and an insatiable curiosity that served as afoundation for success.

Get rid of the whiners. Nothing does more toundermine the success of an organization than whiners andcomplainers. In a typical organization, there is a 20/60/20 rule.Twenty percent of the staff are leaders and producers. These areyour A players. Another 20 percent are whiners. They complain aboutmanagement, long hours, and excessive inventory while neverproviding a solution. These are your C players. The remaining sixtypercent wave in the wind. With weak management, they gravitatetowards the whiners and hinder production, quality, and results.With strong management, they move towards the A players, providinga catalyst for success. Simply getting rid of the whiners providesthe very foundation upon which a successful organization can bebuilt.

ReadMore: Previous Blocking & Tackling BlogPosts

As former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once said, “I’drather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot ofexperience and a little talent.” Given Wooden’s immense success,it’s hard to ignore this sage advice.

While we can teach claims, we can’t teach attitude. While we cantrain on processes, procedures, and techniques, we can’t get rid ofbad habits that so often accompany poor performers. If given achoice between taking over an office of highly tenured employees orstarting up an organization comprised of trainees, my money is onthe latter to be far more successful.

This isn’t to say that there aren’t good, qualified, experiencedcandidates. There are. But like a dominant football organization,dynasties are built through the draft; not free agency. By adoptingthis mindset, the identification and hiring of the right peoplebecomes ingrained in the corporate culture.

So how does one find the A players? While there is no magicalformula, there are steps that can be taken. I am a big proponent ofpersonality testing, especially as it pertains to insurance claims.Not everybody is suited for a career in claims. There are certainpersonality traits — and perhaps even flaws — that lead tosuccess.

Identifying people with experience in organizations that have areputation for hiring the best and the brightest is a great way tofind talent. Generally speaking, candidates with this type ofexperience are highly motivated, hard working go-getters. By thesame token, one must proceed with caution when consideringcandidates from organizations with a reputation for hiringmediocrity.

As an organization adopts this hiring paradigm, it will seelong-term benefits as those being hired move into management andhire like-minded individuals with the traits necessary for success.Consider this approach as building your team using the draft, abusiness proposition with results borne out by Indianapolis ColtsPresident Bill Polian, who has used bold vision to build championsthroughout his career. As general manager of the Buffalo Bills, heused young talent to build a team that participated in fourstraight Super Bowls. He then took on the challenge of creatingchampions in the Carolina Panthers, arguably one of the mostsuccessful expansion teams in NFL history.

Attaining the top takes not only vision, but the ability tobring together players and processes in a manner than embodies awinning attitude. Instilling a culture that is dedicated to qualityand results while frowning upon mediocrity creates a mindset thatbeing the best is of utmost importance.

It is this mindset, brought about by winning attitudes that givecompanies across the business spectrum an incredible competitiveadvantage. The common denominator, without fail, is people and aculture that doesn’t accept mediocrity, even if there is a highercost.