Developing staff is arguably one of the greatest challenges to effectively managing a claims organization. It’s a delicate balance to please customers, shareholders, board members, and executives while executing basic blocking and tackling maneuvers in an increasingly litigious environment often wrought with fraud.

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

Hire the best and the brightest. In a day and age when doing more with less has become the new norm, it is impossible to move your organization ahead with mediocrity. While this may seem overly simplistic, consider how many times hasty hires have been made simply to fill an open seat before a new hire requisition is pulled due to inactivity.

Retaining your talent. While the economy may be bad now, it won’t be forever. By rewarding the best and the brightest, you are almost guaranteed that your talent won’t flee when things improve. Rather than being the company that takes advantage of the situation today by skimping on compensation, consider innovative ways to reward employees. Also keep in mind that rewards don’t have to be monetary in nature; but do have to reflect the importance of the individual and their value to the organization.

Tenure doesn’t necessarily equate to talent. If I had a dime for every time a supervisor asked permission to hire someone based solely upon their experience, I would have retired years ago. Truth be known, many of my best hires had no insurance experience whatsoever. Rather, they had a positive attitude, a willingness to learn, and an insatiable curiosity that served as a foundation for success.

Get rid of the whiners. Nothing does more to undermine the success of an organization than whiners and complainers. In a typical organization, there is a 20/60/20 rule. Twenty percent of the staff are leaders and producers. These are your A players. Another 20 percent are whiners. They complain about management, long hours, and excessive inventory while never providing a solution. These are your C players. The remaining sixty percent wave in the wind. With weak management, they gravitate towards the whiners and hinder production, quality, and results. With strong management, they move towards the A players, providing a catalyst for success. Simply getting rid of the whiners provides the very foundation upon which a successful organization can be built.

As former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden once said, “I’d rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience 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 can train on processes, procedures, and techniques, we can’t get rid of bad habits that so often accompany poor performers. If given a choice between taking over an office of highly tenured employees or starting up an organization comprised of trainees, my money is on the latter to be far more successful.

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

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

Identifying people with experience in organizations that have a reputation for hiring the best and the brightest is a great way to find talent. Generally speaking, candidates with this type of experience are highly motivated, hard working go-getters. By the same token, one must proceed with caution when considering candidates from organizations with a reputation for hiring mediocrity.

As an organization adopts this hiring paradigm, it will see long-term benefits as those being hired move into management and hire like-minded individuals with the traits necessary for success. Consider this approach as building your team using the draft, a business proposition with results borne out by Indianapolis Colts President Bill Polian, who has used bold vision to build champions throughout his career. As general manager of the Buffalo Bills, he used young talent to build a team that participated in four straight Super Bowls. He then took on the challenge of creating champions in the Carolina Panthers, arguably one of the most successful expansion teams in NFL history.

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

It is this mindset, brought about by winning attitudes that give companies across the business spectrum an incredible competitive advantage. The common denominator, without fail, is people and a culture that doesn’t accept mediocrity, even if there is a higher cost.

Special Reports /

Forget Free Agency; Build Your Winning Team Through The Draft

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