Unlocking Opportunities and Mitigating Risks

By: Laura Noble Nate Frommelt

Apr 26, 2024 — Gallagher Bassett's Nate Frommelt, Area VP — Risk Management Sales, and Laura Noble, RVP — Risk Management Sales, sat down to share their insights on the key opportunities for the risk and insurance industry, the evolving risks that risk managers need to pay attention to, and how risk managers can meet changing customer expectations.

What do you think are some of the key opportunities for the risk and insurance industry?

Laura Noble (LN): The risk and insurance landscape is more complex than it has ever been, which creates greater exposure and opportunity for costs to mount and damage the bottom line. I believe taking a comprehensive, proactive approach to claims and risk management has the power to transform an organization's ability to succeed. Gallagher Bassett is the only partner that truly provides a team of experts across disciplines. Whether it is risk management, cyber, specialty liability, technical services, or another focus area, we have the capability to deliver comprehensive support for the unique needs of our diverse clientele and their claimants.

What are some of the key evolving risks in the marketplace that you think Risk Managers need to pay attention to?

Nate Frommelt (NF): Two evolving risks in the marketplace that significantly impact risk managers are keeping up with emerging technologies and mitigating damage to brand reputation. Emerging technologies, such as AI, automation, and blockchain, present both opportunities and inherent risks. Risk managers should take necessary steps to evaluate risks related to data privacy, ethics, and business model disruptions.

Reputation and brand risk are heightened in the age of social media, with negative publicity and ethical controversies only one viral moment away. Risk managers should proactively manage these risks by having a crisis response plan at the ready. For these reasons, it is crucial that risk managers align with trusted partners to ensure their organization is equipped with the appropriate protection and support against these exposures in the event of an incident.

LN: Controlling costs remains a top priority for our clients. In light of the rapid growth and impact of AI in our industry, risk managers want to understand how our team utilizes AI to not only save time but also enhance analytics and decision support by extracting valuable insights from data. Currently, our team at Gallagher Bassett leverages these advanced, AI-enabled decision-support tools across various key initiatives, including claims processing optimization, risk assessment, fraud detection, and customer service enhancement.

We are committed to equipping our Resolution Managers with AI-powered tools that streamline and automate tasks such as email drafting, report generation, and documentation creation all to the benefit of our clients. This automation significantly improves efficiency, accuracy, and productivity, enabling our teams to dedicate more time to strategic value-added activities. As a result, we consistently deliver exceptional outcomes to our clients while upholding the highest quality of service for claimants and injured workers.

Our commitment to investing in AI empowers our organization to address cost concerns effectively and provide risk managers with insights that can make a lasting, positive impact on their programs. By harnessing the capabilities of AI, we not only enhance analytics and decision-making support but also drive greater value for our clients.

Nate, at a time when changing customer expectations are a central theme in the industry, what opportunities do risk managers have to ensure they are meeting these expectations?

NF: Risk managers have a difficult job. It is our responsibility as business partners to leverage investments in our people, processes, and technology to ensure optimal results. How we partner to execute against these goals becomes essential. There are three specific areas I believe can have a significant and immediate impact on a risk manager's program:

1. Customer-centric risk management: Risk managers can adopt a customer-centric approach to risk management by understanding and aligning their strategies with the evolving needs and expectation of their workforce. This involves actively engaging a claims and risk management partner with not only a focus on service excellence but a set of standards that holds team members accountable for delivering on that promise day in day out.
2. Enhancing transparency, communication, and collaboration: Risk managers can improve transparency by effectively communicating risk management practices, policies, and procedures to partners. This helps build trust and confidence by demonstrating that your organization takes their risk management program seriously and your teams have a heightened focus on delivering exceptional results.
3. Embracing technology: Risk managers can leverage technology to enhance the injured worker/claimant experience and meet changing expectations. This can include developing a claims and risk management partnership that leverages user-friendly digital platforms for risk assessment, claims management, and general communication, AI to improve efficiency, and analytics to provide personalized risk insights and recommendations.

Laura, during your tenure at GB, have you observed any shifts in the type of outcomes clients are looking to achieve? Are there solutions they are gravitating toward or that you think are important to invest in?

LN: I have noticed that the focus on outcomes has certainly shifted over the years from measuring specific task completion, responsiveness, and timeliness to a more hands-off approach where success is measured against shared goals and financial outcomes. This is definitely not to say that delivering superior financial outcomes is not our primary goal, but a shift to overall satisfaction is a trend we're noticing across all of our clients.

Because of this shift, at Gallagher Bassett we ensure our people are empowered with the decision-support tools necessary to enhance their claims management. Combined with their experience, expertise, and industry-leading service standards, our team members can efficiently manage their desks without constant oversight from clients, which frees up our client partners to prioritize the overall success of their business. In addition, I have witnessed clients placing a higher value on the standard of customer service and client/claimant experience as it directly relates to program performance. Reporting back positive net promoter scores and satisfaction surveys at the claimant level is increasingly critical to our clients.