Below is an article originally published on Arch's blog. Visit Arch's company page on PowerToFly to see their open positions and learn more.
Have you ever heard insurance professionals say they never intended to be in this industry? I’m one of them! I graduated from SUNY Oneonta where I studied Business Administration, Economics, and Accounting and played Division 1 soccer. After graduation, I went to work for an insurance company as a temp. With my degree in Business and Accounting, I started in the accounting department. This was in 1987, just before computers were commonplace: we had a manual general ledger that we entered each transaction into. We had one computer in the general accounting department, and everyone had to book a time to use it to enter things into the system. A lot has changed since then!
Building Better Relationships
I started at Arch in February 2005 managing the Specialty Programs financial operations. The Specialty Programs represents a significant book of business that is marketed, underwritten, and processed on our behalf by Managing General Agents (MGAs). I enjoyed doing this because I got to work with the business partners who generate our revenue, building and maintaining relationships such that, if we needed something planned or unplanned (e.g., audit requests, last-minute quarter close information), we would receive a timely response. This happens more often than you think. Insurance is highly regulated, and our business needs are constantly changing, which makes it necessary sometimes to go back to a partner and ask for more or different information. Having a strong relationship makes a difference when working in this type of industry.
In April 2021, I moved into my present role: Business Process Management Lead, Delegated Authority. Within this role, I work with individuals across Arch to onboard new programs; review and modify end-to-end processes, working closely with business partners; lead projects assisted by project managers, and working with business subject matter experts. Also critical in my new role is to provide teams, including senior leaders and external stakeholders, with regular communications regarding project status, outstanding issues, and necessary next steps.
Leveraging Technology to Strengthen Communication
The insurance industry has changed a lot in the time I’ve been working, mainly in how we use technology. The industry has had the reputation of being behind. Over the past few years, Arch has improved communication using technology. We have made it easier for customers to interact with us, and have gone digital with historically manual processes. It’s a real win-win situation for our customers and us.
Communicating with clarity and intention is key to our success. All of this is supported by processes and a commitment to daily continuous improvement. Asking ourselves, “What is a need we can meet for our customer tomorrow that we aren’t fulfilling today?” helps us improve.
Growing with Intention
One of Arch’s values is to continually pursue innovation and improvement. We’re always evolving. We listen to what’s going on in the world, consider how these events impact our customers and use it all to come up with new products or processes to address the changing needs of the world. We want to be nimble, and want to bring our customers along with us. For example, our MGAs believe our onboarding data feed request is too voluminous and creates potential inefficiency with data elements that can defaulted but are being requested. We listened to our business partners' feedback and as a result, BPM has initiated a project, led by me to address the onboarding data feed issue.
Bringing Arch Values to Life
Another Arch value is striving to make a difference. Arch lives its values by making an impact in our community. We constantly donate to organizations in need, and Arch gives employees two days off to volunteer each year. I use mine at a local charity where we feed sick people in New York City. We are part of this world and are trying to do our part to make it a better place.
Tapping into Talent
As an industry, we’ve all realized insurance doesn’t have a lot of minorities. Women are starting to break through, but not all minority groups remain visible. I’m part of an Arch outreach program where we visit various high schools and talk to minority students about careers in insurance. This is important because a high school student might think a career in insurance means being a door-to-door salesperson, and not legal, IT, HR, finance, communications — basically any career you can think of. We also try to get young people interested in insurance careers by sharing relatable examples. For example, I tell them about famous athletes who want to get their arm insured because they need that arm to play their sport. Young people tune in when we speak to their interests. We are also addressing this by stating our needs to our HR teams who are always looking for the best talent.
Best Business Advice
My best business advice is to create an environment where you and your customer BOTH win. A short-term victory may end up being a long-term loss, so redefine victory to include you and your customer both, and it will pay you back for years.
