More agency principals are considering "going paperless." When talking with them, I am reminded of my own agency's efforts to design our first disaster-action plan. We imagined a variety of scenarios and tried to plan for each; but when an actual disaster struck our office years later, we realized we had overlooked several important issues.
Preparing an insurance agency to move from a paper-based filing system to a paperless one is similar to preparing a disaster recovery plan–the planners must consider how the agen-cy will operate in a different environment. When faced with the prospect of eliminating paper from their daily routine, agency employees typically worry about how they will fare once papers have been discarded. Although they may focus intently on procedures for scanning documents and the type of scanners to be used, these are not the most important issues.
Moving to a paperless environment causes a cultural shift as the agency staff begins to move–and view–information differently. They soon realize how easily and efficiently they can store and retrieve data in an electronic format and how the new system helps prevent E&O claims.
Of course, storing and retrieving information is one thing, but reading it is quite another. Recently, a successful, experienced producer told me that her agency had gone paperless, but she had little faith in the process. She kept all documents relating to her municipal accounts in a clandestine desk drawer because she needed access to several detailed worksheets to re-market the accounts for renewal. Apparently, going paperless meant something different to this producer than it probably did to her agency's principals.
A paperless agency doesn't necessarily shun all paper, which can still be suitable for displaying or conveying information. Anyone who uses bifocals can understand the frustration and discomfort of tilting the head back to just the right angle to read text on a computer screen. Multiple monitors allow more information to be displayed at once than does a single screen, and increasing font sizes or magnifying the display may seem like possible solutions, but the view of the entire document usually suffers.
Ironically, one remedy for the perceived disadvantage of a paperless agency lies with–of all things–printers! If your agency is preparing to go paperless, you may need to rethink the number and location of your printers–especially if you have only centralized or work-group printers that require employees to leave their workstations to retrieve the documents they print. That can be almost as inefficient as retrieving paper files from file cabinets. Installing a printer at every workstation allows documents to be printed for easy display and review, and then discarded or shredded. Customer service personnel can print documents and hand them to clients without leaving their chairs. To further save time and energy, staff members can "gather" digital documents into electronic "stacks" and collate large print jobs before printing them as a single job.
Another reason for printing certain documents is that hard copies typically are easier to proofread than are screen displays. More than once, our employees have created meeting agendas or other documents for customers but failed to print hard copies for proofing beforehand. When they did print the documents just before client meetings, they suddenly saw errors, including misspellings that spell-checkers had not caught.
At my agency, we print almost as much today as we did before going paperless nearly five years ago, but now we discard the documents we print for our internal use. If more agencies' employees were given this option, I'm sure fewer of them would resist the move to a paperless environment and hide secret stashes of paper files, "just in case."
Printers play an important role in a "paperless" office. If you are thinking of making the transition to a paperless environment, buy enough printers so people likely to need them will have one within reach. Staff members will adjust more easily to the new system, and the savings in time and effort will rapidly offset the printers' cost.
Edgar J. Higgins Jr., CPCU, is the owner of Progressive Management Consulting and the Thousand Islands Agency in Clayton, N.Y. Readers may contact him at ed@edhiggins.com.
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