Women in Workers’ Compensation Hits a Nerve

The 2015 Women in Workers’ Compensation Forum at this year's NWCDC in Las Vegas promises to attract even more attendees than last year's popular event.

By: Nancy Grover | November 5, 2015

The panel at the 2014 Women in Workers’ Compensation (WiWC) Forum. From left to right: Eileen Ramallo, Elaine Vega, Nina Smith-Garmon, Nancy Hamlet, Michelle Weatherson, Nanette de la Torre, Danielle Lisenbey.

What happens if you plan an event hoping for at least 50 attendees and more than 400 show up? It’s an enviable problem that faced the cofounders of Women in Workers’ Compensation last year. Indications are this year’s event won’t be any different — except perhaps larger.

Created to support and promote current and emerging women leaders in the workers’ comp industry, the organization’s inaugural leadership forum was held just prior to last year’s National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference® & Expo, and it will again this year. The organizers had lined up an author to be the keynote speaker, put together a panel, and booked a small room.

“We really did start the conversation with a much smaller plan in mind,” said Elaine Vega, senior vice president of account management at Healthcare Solutions. “It really evolved. We realized we really struck a nerve.”

Together with Nancy Hamlet, senior vice president of marketing at Healthcare Solutions, the two saw a gap in which the majority of the workforce is comprised of women but there are more men in leadership positions. Following last year’s success, they now plan to take their effort to a whole new level.

“We’re really trying to lay the foundation for truly turning this over to the industry so it’s owned by collective women in the industry,” Hamlet said. “We have 13 corporate sponsors and expect that will continue to grow, and so will our impact and ability to touch and affect more women.”

Background

Since last year’s forum, the pair has been inundated with questions about exactly who and what WiWC is. “It’s about something so fundamental yet impacts so many: to support and promote existing and emerging leaders in our industry,” Vega said. “While the focus is predominantly on supporting and promoting women leaders and emerging leaders, a lot of topics ironically can apply across any gender. We’ve tried to bring in as many men as possible because they too can benefit from the topics and some of them manage women or have young daughters or wives at home and might benefit from learning.”

“We’re really trying to lay the foundation for truly turning this over to the industry so it’s owned by collective women in the industry.” — Nancy Hamlet, senior vice president of marketing, Healthcare Solutions

A distinguishing characteristic of the organization is keeping things in perspective in terms of success. The word means something different to everyone.

“You don’t necessarily have to become a CEO to find success in your career path,” Vega said. “Leadership is not defined by title. Many people are accomplished. As long as they feel comfortable — if they are happy, we are happier. Success is defined many ways for individuals.”

Feedback

More than half the 400 attendees from last year filled out questionnaires. The responses were “overwhelmingly positive” with several subjects topping the list.

In addition to advice on negotiating and work/life balance, guilt was cited as one of the overarching themes expressed in the questionnaires. The forum included extensive discussions on the subject as it affects “a lot of women in our industry and people overall, women particularly, who are traditional primary caregivers and are required to travel and have very stressful things at work and are required to stay late,” Vega said. “We as women tend to beat ourselves up more than our male counterparts, or [focus on] perceived failures. We impose a lot of that on ourselves. That was a point last year that struck a nerve with members of the audience — how do we manage that guilt.”

Many attendees were interested to learn that other women in successful positions also feel guilty and wanted to know how they manage that. Other topics related to things such as “taking the big risk and how to navigate your career,” Hamlet said. “Studies, for example, show many women won’t apply for a job if they feel they don’t meet 100 percent of the criteria, whereas men will apply if they feel they meet 60 percent. A lot of discussion was around that.

Year Two

Among the changes they’ve made since last year’s forum has been to increase the involvement of additional companies. The advisory board is comprised of women from several different employers, and the 13 sponsors represent organizations in all facets of the industry. They also are welcoming input from competing organizations.

“When we talk to competitors about this topic, everything melts away,” Vega said. “We just have this comradery and agreement that this topic will be isolated to this one goal.”

The advisory board members, sponsors, and last year’s attendees have all contributed input to this year’s forum. Feedback from attendees, for example, indicated a desire for more audience/panel discussions.

“We’re making it more interactive with more time for audience participation to ask questions and comment,” Hamlet said. “The second session will include role playing different scenarios to help with soft skills, for example, how to ask for a position of more responsibility. We’ll do some role playing to show some of the challenges we fall into about not having strong negotiating skills and show best practices. I think that’s really going to hit home. Overall, we are trying to make it more engaging and more interactive.”

Nancy Grover is the president of NMG Consulting and the Editor of Workers' Compensation Report, a publication of our parent company, LRP Publications. She can be reached at [email protected].

How a Carrier Partner Can Help Navigate a Challenging Management and Professional Liability Market

A combination of a choppy economy with increased claims frequency and severity could lead to rate increases in the Management & Professional Liability market.

By: Risk & Insurance | April 3, 2024

Rates in the management & professional liability (M&PL) markets were on the rise from 2020 to early 2023 and are now falling rapidly.

M&PL divisions manage a number of different insurance products including management liability (D&O), professional liability (E&O), employment practices liability (EPL), fiduciary liability policies, cyber, etc. In 2023 and into 2024, a big influence on the marketplace has been the extremely aggressive and softening public company D&O market.

Though these rates have been softening for management liability, that may change over the next few years as companies continue to adjust their business models motivated by economic uncertainty. Layoffs were up nearly 200% last year, Forbes reported, even as other recession indicators, like the inflation rate, improved. A recession could lead to an increased claim activity and force carriers to raise rates.

“Whenever there is a meaningful downturn in the economy, we tend to see claim frequency pop up,” said George Schalick, Jr., senior vice president of the Management and Professional Liability Division at Philadelphia Insurance Companies (PHLY).

With continued fiscal uncertainty, businesses potentially already burdened with pandemic-related claims should seek a carrier with a long history in M&PL products. They will provide much-needed risk management guidance and be better positioned to support their insureds during market fluctuations.

Why Insureds Might See an Uptick in M&PL Claims

George Schalick, Jr., Senior Vice President of the Management and Professional Liability Division, Philadelphia Insurance Companies

The current soft market might come as a bit of a surprise as it does not track with previous underwriting cycles and economic conditions. Afterall, many privately held and non-profit organizations struggled during the early days of the pandemic with shutdowns and rapidly declining revenues. But the Government assistance programs, like the Paycheck Protection Program loans, helped keep many afloat during the tough times.

“During COVID many organizations stopped doing business until they were able to sort out all of the health and safety challenges,” Schalick said. “They were forced to lock down, but then all the government assistance programs allowed them to keep people employed. The increased volume of claims we anticipated we would see coming from the lockdowns and restrictions that were imposed upon businesses in the U.S. didn’t manifest at first.”

“Just because there wasn’t an onslaught of reported claims at the beginning of the pandemic, doesn’t mean the circumstances that would give rise to a claim being reported didn’t occur. Courts and the judicial system were closed or slowed and now that they are back open, we’re starting to see the circumstances that occurred during the COVID lockdowns becoming claims today,” Schalick said. “Litigation is progressing.”

Added to the delayed pandemic litigation is a concern over newer claims that might be filed as the country inches toward an economic downturn. Though a recession was avoided in 2023, experts think a soft dip could occur in 2024, with 76% of economists saying there’s a 50% or less chance of an economic downturn this year — that almost always results in more management liability claims.

“During the Great Recession in 2008, we saw an almost immediate spike in claims because of the economic conditions and the pressure it placed on organizations. They were making personnel changes with significant belt tightening almost immediately.” Schalick said.

What’s in Store for M&PL Policy Rates in 2024?

Despite an uptick in claims and increased economic uncertainty, management liability rates haven’t increased, resulting in market-wide pricing levels that may not meet the increased pressure of rising settlements and jury verdicts.

“Rates are going the other direction and settlement values are not falling,” Schalick said.

The mismatch between rates, claim frequency and severity is, in part, because carriers experiencing the dramatic soft market in the public D&O market are seeking premium gain in the private and non-profit market.

“In the public company market, the rates have been decreasing significantly. The rates were increasing in the private, not-for-profit market, and rightfully so, but there’s a desire to supplement overall mid-size D&O for carriers who also write private not-for-profit, and they see that as an opportunity to aggregate premium,” Schalick said. “So the always competitive landscape in the private, not-for-profit market has dramatically increased in the last 18 to 24 months.”

Still, companies of all sizes and types should be concerned about management liability rates in the future. Legal system abuse is resulting in increases in both the amount of litigation and the size of verdicts plaintiffs are receiving.

Certain areas of the country are particularly vulnerable to this type of legal system abuse. As a result, insureds in these localities are likely to be vulnerable to rate increases.

“The environment is so positive for the plaintiff that forces premium increases so carriers are able to stay in that market long term,” Schalick said.

Why a Tenured Carrier Partner Can Help Insureds Navigate An Uncertain Market

It’s clear that insureds are facing an uncertain M&PL market over the next few years. Fortunately, carriers with a long history in the M&PL space will be there to offer stability.

Philadelphia Insurance Companies has been supporting this market for 35 years. PHLY is committed to offering long-term rate stability, even as economic and claims trends start to push premiums upwards. They have an appetite for all sorts of companies, large and small, for-profit and nonprofit alike.

“We’ve been at this game for a long time and are one of the most tenured underwriters in this space,” Schalick said. “We like to stay very consistent.”

PHLY has worked with both for-profit and non-profit on management liability policies. With dedicated M&PL teams throughout the company’s 13 regions, PHLY provides the support agents and brokers are looking for on behalf of their clients. The teams know their regions well and can respond to local trends. They’re also dedicated to making the renewal process as easy as possible for their partners and policyholders.

“We have real confidence in our results, so we focus a lot on making the renewal experience as painless as possible for all agents and insureds,” Schalick said.

The company is also investing in tools to help insureds avoid losses. Earlier this year, they launched a new online risk management platform, PHLYGateway, which offers resources for insureds on how to create an employee handbook and trainings on issues such as recognizing workplace sexual harassment and discrimination.

If insureds have questions, they can consult a Best Practices Help Line, provided via the platform. That way, they can get on the spot risk management guidance to help them prevent claims.

To learn more, visit: https://www.phly.com/mplDivision/managementLiability/default.aspx.

This article was produced by the R&I Brand Studio, a unit of the advertising department of Risk & Insurance, in collaboration with Philadelphia Insurance Companies. The editorial staff of Risk & Insurance had no role in its preparation.

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