When it comes to salaries, it's frequently how some determine their success or lack thereof. But as the annual Claims Salary Survey shows, there is more to being happy or successful than just a paycheck.

The survey provides a thumbnail sketch of what's going on in the industry — who's happy, who isn't, what benefits companies provide, how many hours most claims employees are working and what do they see for the future of the industry. Satisfaction often depends on one's perspective — kind of a glass half full view versus a glass half empty.

A majority of respondents (26% and 30% respectively) worked for either small companies (two-to-nine employees) or large companies (over 100 employees). Fifty-nine percent of the companies had annual sales under $5 million, 8% had sales over $50 million and 22% of respondents didn't know their annual sales.

Who responded?

With 25% of industry professionals preparing for retirement in the next two-to-three years, Claims wanted to know how many years survey respondents had until retirement. Their responses mirrored what the industry is seeing — approximately 15% of the respondents said they were retiring within the next five years, including 10% who were retiring this year alone. Several respondents said they'd either already retired but were still working as consultants and others didn't really plan to retire altogether.

Not all perks are created equal

Full-time employment usually means working more than 40 hours a week — somewhere between 45-50 hours in most cases, but it isn't unusual for some adjusters to work up to 70 hours.

Some companies allow up to five hours of overtime a week, but the majority of companies did not allow or pay for additional hours worked over 40. The good news is that the number of hours claims professionals are working seems to have remained pretty stable — probably in large part because of a quieter catastrophe season. Here's how their hours have changed over the past year:

When it comes to benefits and perks, staff adjusters were more likely to have life insurance, medical insurance, dental insurance, supplemental life insurance and a pension plan than those working independently.

Air travel expense reimbursement, tools such as cellphones, laptop computers and home internet access were provided to the same degree by both insurers and independent adjusting firms.

Slightly more staff adjusters (98%) work full-time compared with independent adjusters (90%), but this gives the independents more flexibility to work part-time (almost 11%). Fifty-five percent of the respondents said their companies allowed telecommuting and 45% said their companies still did not allow this option, although they wished their companies did.

Money isn't everything

While 70% of the respondents said that they would recommend this profession to other people, only 49% said they saw the industry's outlook as positive.

Most of the concern stems from the anticipated number of retirements the industry will realize as experienced claims professionals leave altogether or scale back their hours. Many feel that there is not enough mentoring of newer staff members and a great deal of industry knowledge will be lost.

While technology will help to mitigate some of the losses, the number of millennials entering the industry will not be sufficient to balance out the experience or reduced number of bodies in the field.

Others, however, see this as an opportunity for workers looking for a profession change or college graduates who are looking for a field that offers a variety of opportunities. Many also believe that while automation will enhance the insurance experience, it will never be able to completely assume all of the responsibilities of a human claims professional.

There weren't any major surprises with this year's survey, although there seems to be more frustration with the workload adjusters and claims supervisors are carrying and the continual need to do more with fewer resources. While salaries seem to be acceptable for the most part, the workload is not, as multiple respondents said there was plenty of overtime to work, even though a company may not allow it. The size of the company may have some impact on the salaries, as multiple respondents from smaller companies said their salaries were lower than their counterparts at larger firms.

Employees who had seen a reduction in benefits such as 401Ks being cut, fewer raises and bonuses, while more claims were expected to be handled had the most negative outlook for the industry, which isn't surprising.

One thing is certain, the next few years will provide a variety of challenges for insurers and claims professionals alike as both the workforce and technology change more than ever before.

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Special Reports /

Highlights from the 2015 Claims Professional Salary Survey

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