Striving for Greatness

Motivation, progression and planning are the key elements for those who want a “Choose Your Own Adventure” style career at Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc.

Employees can sit down with their supervisors or a human resources representative, or log onto the company intranet, and chart their career. Like a roadmap, this service enables employees to understand where they can move within the organization and what qualifications are required to do so. As a result, they can make informed decisions about their future with Crawford. There is the option of moving through the technical or the managerial stream and the end result is, ideally, happy, fulfilled employees who enjoy their career.

Improving loyalty

In an industry where finding new employees and sometimes keeping existing ones is proving to be more and more difficult, Crawford is focused on improving the employee experience and ensuring its employees are enthusiastic, energetic and engaged.

“I think as a corporation, we need to make sure we are giving our people the tools and training necessary to do the best job they can for our customers,” John Sharoun, CEO of Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc., says.

Crawford is constantly changing and evolving, Sharoun says. “The company is focused on providing employees with the opportunity to perform, to provide input into best practices and to remove potential roadblocks in delivering on our customer service promises.”

In addition, training programs — such as Crawford Educational Services and the newly rolled-out e-learning platforms — are being reenergized in order to provide further emphasis on employee development.

Employees who are happy, challenged and highly motivated are focused on providing the best product and service they can, which helps the company further its mission of quality, customer service and teamwork.

“Right now at Crawford, it’s a very energized and highly-paced work environment,” Pat Van Bakel, vice president of claims operations at Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc., says. “We’ve got a lot of people that are dedicated to moving our business forward and we’re keeping an eye on those things that improve the product for our customers or the work environment for our employees.”

Synergy and teamwork

The company is focused on internal factors such as synergy, teamwork and bringing Crawford’s business units together to ensure they are working collectively.

“When you have such a diverse group, it can be a challenge,” Stephen Anderson, senior vice president of corporate markets and administration at Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc., says.

Helping these groups better understand how each can support the other in a formalized process is crucial, which is why the company focuses on key outcomes that can shift month-to-month, as the organization improves.

“We are really focused on growing market share and on delivering the best possible quality product to our customers in all of our business lines,” Sharoun says. “At the same time, our job as senior managers is to try, as best as we can, to make our employees as successful as they can be in their careers and in delivering on our goals as an organization.”

For a company that hired more than one employee a day in 2007 — and is on pace to exceed that in 2008 — creating training and job opportunities for all of those employees is a challenge.

“We have worked hard to create, support and promote succession and progression planning within the organization,” Anderson says. “We also have employees who have taken the initiative, have seen areas for improvement and created their own niche within the company.”

To enhance Crawford’s employee strategy across the country, the company also has a staff member dedicated solely to recruitment, whose job it is to reconnect with industry groups, colleges, universities and other unique associations that represent a diverse workforce.

Other avenues of interest

The search for best practices has taken Crawford beyond the insurance arena to look at companies in other industries. These company’s are known for creativity and innovation in process change or improvement, not only in terms of the products and services they provide, but in the way they try to create a people-focused environment. As a result, Crawford’s healthcare management, auto appraisal and class action services units, as well as its contact centre, CLAIMSALERT, have brought some leading edge solutions to their client groups.

Part of the reason for this shift in mindset is the increasing performance requirements of the industry segments Crawford serves. Over the past several years, there has been an ever-increasing demand for enhancements that improve the customer experience.

“The measurement of everything we do, particularly on the property and casualty side is commonplace these days in the industry’s battle to win the hearts and minds of the consumer and to add value to the process,” Sharoun says.

Anderson adds that, “the ability to take a customer request and turn it around into reality in a very short period of time is something that puts us ahead and we’re very proud of it.”

This year, the company is focused on making a serious contribution to the province of Qubec. The expansion of an already established contact centre and the implementation of a regional claims centre will go a long way in improving quality, streamlining processes, simplifying workflows and expanding and strengthening Crawford’s field branch network, Van Bakel notes.

Despite Crawford’s focus on quality, however, the company is still on the road towards a culture of quality. There is a huge difference between the two, Sharoun points out.

“We’ve got a heightened awareness, but when you take a look at those businesses known for quality around the world, their people live it, breathe it, feel it, every day,” Sharoun says. “When you’re interacting with a customer, the only thing you are thinking about is ‘how do I make this customer the happiest person that has ever dealt with us?’. We’re not there yet, but we’re getting there pretty quickly.”

Where it all began

Moving quickly seems to be par for the course for a company that opened its first Canadian office in 1966 and by 1996 had 35 branches and more than 300 employees. During that time, the company opened their first Canadian branch of Crawford Healthcare Management Services, providing rehabilitation coordination and disability management services to insurers and employers.

Further expansion came in 1997 with the opening of CLAIMSALERT, followed by the acquisition of ACI Adjusters Canada Inc., which boosted the company’s presence to 87 offices and 850 employees in Canada.

Garden City Group Canada, now Crawford Class Action Services, which specializes in class action settlement programs, was introduced in 2000.

Last year, in order to streamline the organization and allow all of the company’s divisions to be united under a single brand, Crawford changed its operating name from Crawford Adjusters Canada Incorporated to Crawford & Company (Canada) Inc.

But despite the changes and growth, Sharoun says the journey isn’t finished.

“We’ve made great strides, there’s no doubt about it. To see the quality of people that we have and their commitment not only to Crawford but to their community is a real pleasure.”

This commitment to community is another cornerstone of Crawford’s employee culture, one that naturally extends to their support of the CIAA.

“I can’t imagine not being a CIAA member,” Sharoun says. “They represent the best and the brightest in the industry and we’ve contributed as much energy, knowledge and leadership as we can on various committees and we’ve always been very supportive of the organization.”

In addition to being involved in licensing standards and codes of conduct among the independent adjuster industry, CIAA members promote professionalism and a re strong proponents of industry and community involvement.

“This is one way to allow our employees to give back to the industry by participating in these different committees and executive panels,” Van Bakel notes. “It’s having a voice to influence and form the future of our industry.”

Sharoun adds, “We encourage our employees to be active in industry organizations and many of our people make us proud to have them on our team by their various contributions to the community.”

This extends to being active in Crawford’s charitable initiative, Crawford Cares, which, since its inception in 2004, has raised over $200,000 to benefit WICC. “This accomplishment has only been possible through a lot of hard work, dedication and volunteer hours on behalf of our employee group,” Anderson says.

Sharoun adds, “I’m very proud of the job we do within all facets of our industry — we make a difference in our community, we respond in people’s times of need and at the end of the day we help people. That’s what it’s really all about.”