Named as one of the "Best Places to Work" three times in 2009, Assurance Agency, Schaumburg, Ill., has a lot to brag about. During the past 10 years, the agency's organic growth rate has averaged 17.8 percent, exceeding the industry average; employees have a 90 percent pass rate for continuing education courses; and over the past 3 years alone, the agency's claims advocacy professionals have gained $60 million in claims "wins" for Assurance clients.
"Our most important competitive advantage is our people and our focus on education," said Steven Handmaker, vice president, marketing and communications.
Assurance Agency Ltd., located in Chicago's northwestern suburbs, focuses on tough risks: contractors, staffing businesses, manufacturing, short- and long-term care facilities, waste and recycling and food industry business.
Placing value on employees has helped this strategy remain intact and the agency successful. Assurance's roots date back to the summer of 1961. Brokerage executive Jim Blackburn launched his own company with the goal of providing highly personalized insurance services to local businesses. He called his fledgling operation Assurance Agency, and almost immediately began writing business.
Over the next 2 years, Jim Hurley and Jerry Powell would join Jim Blackburn as partners in this growing enterprise. Together, they incorporated as 3-J Co., though their business was continuously conducted as Assurance Agency. In time, the official corporate name would formally be changed from 3-J Co. to Assurance Agency Ltd.
Assurance began with only a few employees working out of a one-room space. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Assurance began to expand rapidly, both in revenue size and number of employees. The following decades would prove to be very productive. Several specialty niches were developed during the 1980s and 1990s including manufacturing, construction, senior care, staffing services and transportation.
In the fall of 1995, as part of a perpetuation plan to remain independent, ownership in the company was spread out among a number of key employees. The spread in ownership helped to spur the company's growth.
Assurance is now led by CEO Anthony Chimino, who joined Assurance in 1996 and formally assumed the role in 2001. Dan Klaras serves as president and is responsible for all of the company's property-casualty insurance practices, as well as the overall sales management. He joined the company in 2005.
In 1998 Assurance had a total of 60 employees and revenues were just under $8 million. Today, Assurance employs more than 200 professionals with revenues of $40 million. The total number of shareholders in the company has continued to increase, with all shareholders remaining active employees of the agency. Currently, there are 23 shareholders, comprised of a mix of producers and members of the executive management team.
Assurance brought in $450 million in premium volume in 2008 and its gross revenue was a little more than $39 million. The agency is mainly a commercial brokerage–personal lines currently account for just 1.3 percent of total commissions–and 20 percent of its revenue comes from employee benefits. Assurance represents more than 100 regional and national carriers, including Aetna, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Chartis, Cigna, CNA, Humana, The Hartford, Indiana, Travelers, United Heartland, Wausau, West Bend Mutual and Zurich.
"Best Place to Work"
Assurance places great value on its employees, and its efforts have been noted. In 2009, the agency has been named the No. 8 Best Place to Work in the Chicagoland area by Crain's Chicago Business. The trade newspaper acknowledged Assurance's employee perks, including a prize wheel, luaus and visits from the ice cream man, which "maintain a fun, energetic environment that breeds results." In addition, the staff is rewarded each year with a special Employee Appreciation Day, which could feature anything from a river boat cruise through Chicago to a private show at Chicago's Second City or Howl at the Moon–a dueling piano bar show.
Also in 2009, regional business newspaper Business Ledger named Assurance to its top 20 small to midsized companies for Illinois; and the National Assn. for Business Resources, which declared Assurance one of the 101 Best Places to Work in Chicago, also gave Assurance its Elite Award in the category for Employee Education & Development.
"Assurance offers multiple avenues for employees to expand their insurance and business knowledge to provide the best service and solutions possible for our clients," Handmaker said. He notes that 73 percent of the agency's employees are working toward a professional designation or other certification. "Not only do we reward employees for taking the initiative to enhance their skill set, we try to make it easy for them. Our in-house designation classes are held during lunch or after work hours exclusively for Assurance employees," he said.
Handmaker also states that Assurance employees have a 90 percent pass rate for continuing education courses. Because the agency goes a step further to provide multiple avenues for its employees to enhance their industry knowledge, Assurance has the most creative and talented individuals working for its clients. "Smart people produce creative solutions," Handmaker said.
The agency encourages its employees to adapt to a paperless system, and provides each desk with dual and often three computer monitors, scanners and an online fax system to increase efficiency. Similar to a paperless environment, one monitor serves in much the same way as an open file on the desk, while the employee uses the other monitors to manage the file by working within the agency management system or accessing online tools.
Assurance uses a variety of leading industry systems to manage data include Vision, Zywave, Enwisen, BenefitPoint, CSR-24 and others. Assurance was an early adopter of the Vision system, which is specifically designed for larger, high-production agencies, and the agency is now used as a performance model in user groups throughout the United States.
To provide a competitive differential, Assurance has created a defined service platform to specify its service commitments and offers clients detailed reporting demonstrating it has met its obligations. The agency also puts extensive effort into managing carrier relationships, making sure it's positioned for the most competitive pricing and programs available.
"We believe in being as transparent as possible to clients and employees. And we wholeheartedly promote the decentralized marketing of insurance to ensure all insurance decisions are made at the broker and client level," Klaras said.
In today's economy, it's easy to adapt to traditional brokerage market trends and cut services. However, Klaras asserts that Assurance wouldn't be as successful if it went that route. "We've added services, staff and proprietary solutions to provide the best-rounded and most robust client service platform available," he said.
As for the future, the agency expects over the next 5 years to expand its employee size by 100 individuals, increase revenues by at least $30 million and continue to win by providing measurable results for its clients.
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