Insurance Professionals are the Most Dynamic

This is an article about making a difference, doing good work, and achieving great things. But it doesn’t start that way, so bear with me.

Recently, an industry acquaintance was referred to as ‘that claims girl,' and it instantly struck a chord with me – and not in a good way. It sounded condescending, misogynistic, and narrow – and all too familiar throughout my career; as someone who has spent decades trying not to be defined as a ‘claims person,' I wanted to unpack why it has always bothered me to have the insurance and claims management profession minimized in this way.

Setting aside the misguided use of gender-defining terms, I realized this ‘claims person’ label packages her and everyone like her (and me) into a small and narrow box and does not acknowledge the multi-faceted nature of this admirable career choice. I immediately think of Pixar Animation Studios’ The Incredibles. Mr. Incredible, sitting in an ill-fitting cubicle at Insurecare as a miserable claims adjuster by day, with Mr. Huph, his overbearing, greedy, and uncaring boss, questioning every payment he makes.

That is the image I want to dispel.

While I’ve had a variety of leaders with an equal variety of dispositions, The Incredibles' portrayal is contrary to my actual career and industry experience. I consider myself lucky to have come up through the industry as we shifted our focus to empathy and advocacy-based claims management, became more aware of the impact of adversarial language, and realized the value of education investment for lifelong professional learning. My years managing claims and working in the insurance industry helped shape me into the person and leader I am today. I would further argue those who work in the claims management profession, 'Claims People,' if you will, are some of the most technically diverse and accomplished people I have had the opportunity to know and work with.

‘Claims People’, if you will, are some of the most technically diverse and accomplished people I have had the opportunity to know and work with.

Choosing a career in the insurance industry, and more specifically, claims, is anything but a small-box career move. It is a fantastic first-career opportunity, particularly for anyone out of college and unsure of who they want to be or what direction they want their career journey to take. Few careers call upon so many distinctly diverse areas of focus. Whether your interests are in the legal realm, you have an interest in the medical or nursing field, love numbers, actuarial sciences, or accounting, see yourself giving back through social services, enjoy negotiation and debate, or love to plan and execute strategy, claims, and insurance provide ample opportunity to figure out what you like, and more importantly, what you do not like. As an entry point, the diversity of occupations in claims and insurance reaches far beyond claims adjusting.

Having started my career as a claim assistant, ultimately moving into several different roles, my biased view is claims, and insurance professionals are the ultimate fixers everyone should want to have on their team. They are the people who step into the storm, pick up the metaphorical papers that have blown in every direction, sort them, divide fact from fiction, and objectively work to transform chaos into calm. They command critical business skills where no two days are ever the same, where keeping a positive demeanor under pressure is both a skill and an art form.

Problem-solving, critical thinking, objectivity, and empathy are not just essential skills; they are the vital job functions claims and insurance professionals apply to their work. The growing demands of state and federal regulatory compliance, legal and procedural timelines, questions of policy limits and coverages, financial assessments and estimations, and all matters of issue management require a uniquely qualified person to choose to enter the claims and insurance industry. And, as businesses have changed with lines blurring between coverage types, an ability to differentiate black and white questions while uncovering nuances of grey requires a heightened level of curiosity – one of the most sought-after leadership and business attributes across industries.