by Kory Wells, WorkCompEdge Blog Editor
(Part 1 of the Series “Getting Started with WorkCompEdge”)
Although I originally joined Specific Software as the programmer for ModMaster, nowadays I write words more often than I write code here at work. After I write and edit usage instructions, marketing pieces, educational information, web pages and endless emails – I then do the unthinkable, to some: I go home and write for fun. In all its forms – novel, memoir, poetry, etc. – I’m addicted to the written word.
How does this relate to you and work comp, you might ask? Well, one of my favorite books about writing is Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott. Believe it or not, some of the lessons in this book easily transfer to the process of improving your work comp picture. Bird by Bird got its title from an episode that Lamott relates in the book: when her brother was 10, he had to write a report on birds. He’d put it off and put if off, and now it was due the very next day. Lamott writes,
…he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”
Bird by bird. Doesn’t any big project – whether it’s writing a whole book, building a high-rise condo or planning to host the Olympics – loom large and unwieldly until you start breaking it into pieces? I hope that making changes to improve your work comp picture doesn’t feel quite as overwhelming as those tasks, but let’s face it: as the sheer number of modules (15) on the WorkCompEdge site attests, there are a lot of places you could start. How do you decide where?
Whether you’re an employer or an insurance professional, here’s what you need to do:
Step 1 – Start by learning what the mod can tell you
You probably already know that the mod is a number somewhere around 1.0, more or less, and that less is better. You hopefully know that the higher your mod is, the more you are going to pay in workers comp premium. If you’re in an industry like construction, you know that you may not be eligible to win contracts unless your mod is at least 1.0. But an analysis of your mod, which your insurance agent can do in our ModMaster software, will show you information such as:
- Your controllable mod – the amount of mod points you could save if you had no losses – and the corresponding money you could be saving on premium
- How much money you could be saving in premium for every point you trim from the mod
- How the number and severity of your losses compare to standards for your industry
- How your losses are trending, and therefore what you may anticipate for your future mod(s)
The strong WorkCompEdge Proposal report from ModMaster will show you or your client the top 5 or 6 areas of concern to prioritize when evaluating work comp improvement opportunities.
These factors and more are presented in the new, handy-dandy WorkCompEdge Proposal report in ModMaster, which then goes on to do some analytical behind-the-scenes crunching of that data to present the top 5 or 6 areas of concern that you should consider first. For example, if your analysis shows that loss severity is an issue, then this report is going to recommend you look at the Clock Is Ticking, Expedite Return-to-Work and Before and After an Injury modules first. If you have a frequency issue, it’s going to steer you towards the safety modules. If your mod is already great – either at or very near the minimum possible mod – then it’s going to steer you toward optimizing your costs through modules like Avoid Low Bid Mentality, Wellness, and others.
Here’s a sample of the WorkCompEdge proposal report in ModMaster. If you’re an agent, be sure to run it for your clients. If you’re an employer, be sure to ask for it from your agent. It’s a great way to decide – based on analytical data – which “bird” deserves your attention first.
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Filed under: Getting Started with WorkCompEdge
