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featureAdjuster Pay StymiedA Field Adjuster’s PerspectiveFor this issue of Exclusivefocus Ithought I would touch on a fewof the subjects that are raw pointsfor claims employees. First, there is anew way that the company believes willhelp the company grow – we call it the“Act Like an Owner” concept. Keep inmind that we in the claims departmentare all employees, so acting like an owneris foreign to us. We didn’t come to workat Allstate to become entrepreneurs; wewere hired as employees, who wantedsecure jobs helping Allstate customerswith their claims. Of course, we wantedbenefits too, which is another reason wedidn’t opt to become independent adjusters,most of whom are independentcontractors without benefits.The Act Like an Owner program hasseveral things the company wants employeesto do. Before we go any farther,however, you should be aware that thisprogram is tied to our pay. If we can’t accomplishthe items they want us to do, itnegatively affects our pay.Here is the downside of the approachto which they have mandated for claims.They want ideas from us, but they arenot interested in them unless it makesthe company lots of money and costsnext to nothing to implement. I guessthis is good for profits, but the employeesget nothing for their ideas except asmall thank you. Also, tying this to anemployee’s pay has created problems becausemanagers are shifting their ownresponsibility for coming up with ideasto lesser claims employees by expectingpeople to volunteer to do the work theyshould be doing. If you don’t participatewith ideas to share, it affects your pay.For one thing, idea sharing counts as50% on your performance review, so ifyou haven’t been a “team player,” its notlikely you’ll get a pay increase.This predicament has prompted somepeople to volunteer to do some of theirmanager’s work. When this occurs, theemployee who “volunteers” is not workingon the job they were hired to do. Say,for instance, they are field adjusters, assignedto inspect damage for customers.When they concentrate solely on theirjob, it improves customer satisfactionand retention. But if they are doing littlethings for their manger, they are turningin some assignments unfinished.When they don’t complete the normalwork schedule for the day, it slows thingsdown. The assignment could be set foranother day, delaying the inspection.The assignment could also be given toanother adjuster to handle even thoughhe or she has a full schedule. Either way,it has a negative affect on the customerand other employees.There is no way this should be happening!Upper management in the companyagain has failed to see what is goingon. They think the concept of being anowner of the company is a good thing.It might be, if it were applied correctly.But it should not be tied to wages nortied to doing extra work for managers.Instead it should be a program that looksfor better ways to enhance the customerexperience. This includes listening andempathizing with them as well as doingyour best to help them. This alone willhelp the company grow. It will also helpthe agents also who work hard trying toget and retain their customers by creatingmore good will in the communitieswhere they do business.Claims management thinks us in termsof teams. Everything we do in claims dois measured and compared to others inour peer group, or “team.” Managementestablishes arbitrary numbers that theyexpect us to reach. If you don’t reachthem, it affects your pay. They wanteach of us to help others so they willalso achieve good numbers. But, if yourpay is based on peer performance howmuch should we be willing to share? Ifyou share all you know then maybe yourpeers will begin to outperform you. Theperson you helped might now be out performingyou and then your assessmentfor performance pay is adversely affected.I know this sounds crazy but it is howit works. Instead of acting as the incentiveit was intended to be, this program ishaving the opposite effect for many of us.Another thorn in the side for fieldadjusters is the re-inspection process,which is another way the company controlsyour pay. Here’s how the re-inspectionprocess works: After the adjusterhas completed an assignment it could beassigned to another adjuster who looksat how the estimate was written. There-inspectors scour the original estimatelooking for any and all errors made bythe first adjuster, which is how they justifytheir jobs. They don’t have to answerto the customer or the repair shop, onlyto their boss. They can look at what youdid and make arbitrary calls. Sometimesthey’ll say you paid too much to have thecar repaired and other times they’ll sayyou didn’t pay enough.Here’s the rub. If a re-inspector saysyou paid too much, he doesn’t have to goto the shop and get an agreed price forthe “right” amount. If the first estimateis off and you are overpaid, wouldn’t itmake sense for the re-inspector to try toget the overage back? But as nonsensicalas it sounds, they don’t have to. Thisis why everyone knows the re-inspectionprocess has nothing to do with the estimateor dollar amount; it only has to dowith wage control. Maybe it’s their wayof keeping the adjusters honest, but it46 — Exclusivefocus Summer 2012
sure looks like overkill to those of us inthe field.Just think how much Allstate couldsave if they didn’t have re-inspectorsfollowing the field adjusters around. Itwould not be just their pay, benefits andexpenses, but also that of their managersand all of those above them. The amountof money the company spends for pay,benefits and expenses for these people isin the millions of dollars. Does the re-inspectionprocess really save the companyenough money to justify the expense?The re-inspection process is broken.It slows the claims process down, whichcan affect customer retention and satisfaction.The re-inspectors don’t have toworry about that because it all falls backonto the laps of the field adjusters. It isvery demoralizing for the adjusters whoare working as hard as they can to keepthe company profitable and help the customerat the same time. And just likethe Act Like an Owner program, there-inspection process affects the fieldadjuster’s pay. The re-inspectors makesubjective judgments with no one to answerto and the results are subject to peercomparison, which determines if a payraise is merited or not. But now, it seemsthe only way for a person to get a payraise is to kiss your immediate manager’sbackside.I, as well as many others, hope Allstatesees the light and throws out these processes.If the company wants to grow andbe prosperous, it needs to treat the employeeswith respect. Don’t demoralizethem. Changing these processes wouldbolster our spirits and smiles would replacefrowns, which would make the customerexperience all that much better.Many of us understand that the companyis going though some difficulttimes and wants to implement new ideasto become more profitable, which is inthe best interest of all of us. All of us atthe bottom are in this together. We wantwhat is best for the company, the customerand the employees. My question iswhere is upper management – why aren’tthey onboard?I didn’t vote my shares of stock for Mr.Wilson or the current board of directors;I don’t know anyone who did. Needlessto say, those I know are disheartened bythe prospect of his continued tenure. Heconsistently misses his objectives andthen he is handsomely rewarded. Thatdoesn’t happen when you are a field adjusterno matter how good you are, andit certainly doesn’t happen if you’re anAllstate agent. EfhumourWords with AllstateBy Brian SpillmanIenjoy words. I like playing Scrabble, Wordswith Friends, and crossword puzzles.Words have meaning and connotations.Sometimes words have two different meanings,but they definitely mean something.You can’t just throw words togetherand make up your own meaning. Youcan’t say something like, “I walked tothe carrot yesterday and glued a poodle.”That would make no sense. Allstate, onthe other hand, seems to enjoy throwingwords together that have no meaning.They do it often and with great relish.Here’s a fun quote that was just sent outfrom the company to our region with regardto a new PUP policy being introduced: “Weask that agents do not write customers intothe new policy until it is available.” Okay,how could we? It’s NOT AVAILABLE!Am I the only one who sees this?Another recent entry for the MostMeaningless Quote award is this gem:the RMBC is bringing us “enhanced decisionexcellence” this year. What? Whatin the hell is that? Although I believe Imay have achieved enhanced decisionexcellence when I chose a high-fiber cerealover Sugar Corn Pops this morning.So maybe I’ll let that one slide.Here’s one I don’t understand: “Webest protect our customers when we collectthe appropriate premium to reflectthe risk.” Huh? I would say that thecompany best lines its pockets when itcollects the “appropriate” premium – butthis has nothing to do with protectingour customers. Perhaps it was just atypo. Maybe they really meant to typethe word “shareholders” in place of theword “customers,” it would have mademuch more sense. We best protect ourcustomers when we pay out claims in afair and consistent manner.This next example is old, but it’sone of my favorites. Our underwritingguidelines read as follows: “We willaccept up to 2 incidents per operator.A not-at-fault accident counts as oneof these incidents.” So someone with2 tickets would be accepted – right?Wrong! You see, one of the two incidentsMUST BE a not-at-fault accident.I had no idea that “counts as” and“must be” meant the same thing. Awshucks, that Allstate is so tricky!So next time you want to throw somewords together to form a meaninglesssentence, just call a company representative.They’ll be happy to help – fromthe Philippines, or Ireland, or… EfSummer 2012 Exclusivefocus — 47
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