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Building and Maintaining a Strong Employer Brand

In today’s competitive labor market, a strong employer brand is a key differentiator in recruiting top talent, reducing costs, enhancing the candidate pool, and retaining high performers by instilling pride in their roles and company. 

View our latest white paper for tips to ensure your company represents itself as an employer of choice.

Q3 2024 Insurance Labor Market Study Results

The Jacobson Group and Aon conduct a Semi-Annual Insurance Labor Market Study to examine industry hiring and revenue trends and projections. The findings of our Q3 2024 iteration reflect a relatively stable labor market, with modest job growth.

Download the results to explore 2024’s staffing forecasts and hiring plans for the insurance industry.

Combatting the Finance and Accounting Talent Shortage

Faced with a shallowing pool of emerging talent and a workforce nearing retirement, finding qualified accounting and finance professionals has been an intensifying challenge for the industry. A comprehensive multi-prong approach is necessary to cultivate a workforce that can meet evolving demands and ensure operational continuity.

Read our blog post for insights on staying ahead of the growing finance and accounting talent crisis.

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Economically Speaking…

(a follow-up post to the 2010 Impact Survey results) Much like our actuarial friends, my comfort level is greatest with the ‘evidentiary’ or hard sciences – this is why I obtained a degree in mechanical engineering in my younger days. I am least comfortable with the softer social sciences and am certainly not by nature an economist. I do, however, consider myself a student of politics, current events and of history; and I truly enjoy hearing many sides of an issue. Like many among us, back in 2007, as Northern Rock was toppling and the credit market was beginning to seize up, my interest turned to the economy and its fundamental drivers. Thus, I have read and watched and listened to quite a bit about what we are currently going through. For the most part, this post is going to be my recommendations on where one might find some interesting (and I feel compelling) perspectives; but first I will provide an update from the front lines of the insurance industry labor market with no suggestions that our view has broad implications. Back in October, I mentioned this study by the American Staffing Association and the statistical links between GDP performance, temporary staffing growth and employment growth. Well, from the micro perspective of one mid-market firm, the links are holding up this time around again. In October, I referenced the marked increase in order activity that began in September within our three temporary staffing business units. Aside from an expected lull around the holidays, this higher level of activity continued through December and then accelerated quite a bit in January. Interestingly, January also saw a significant improvement in our executive search and professional recruiting businesses. In fact, our new search bookings reached their highest level in 18 months. So far, the script is playing out as one would expect based upon the historic patterns as evidenced in the ASA study. For other, more accomplished perspectives on the economy and where we go from here, the following are my recommendations: One of my survey participants referenced Nassim Taleb’s "The Black Swan” and suggested that Mr. Taleb would believe I had asked the wrong question – ironically this was one of the first books I tackled back in 2007. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it as a unique and thought-provoking perspective on the world in which we all live. Mr. Taleb also has an ongoing blog, though I understand that he is not currently posting in part due to his frustration over the recent reconfirmation of Ben Bernanke. I found Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff’s “This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly” to be a very readable, data-driven survey of financial crises. Their approach is to lay out the data facts in clear terms with very little unsubstantiated opinion. Their follow-up into what happens after financial crises serves as a stark warning of the dangers of mistaken policy over the next several years – we cannot allow a consumer debt crisis to simply be replaced by a sovereign debt crisis. If you are looking for a more narrative overview of financial crises and their aftermaths, “Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation” by Edward Chancellor was very readable and educational. Back in May of 2008, as the ‘subprime crisis’ was morphing into something much larger and uglier, NPR’s “This American Life” ran a show entitled “The Giant Pool of Money” that provided a very well-researched overview of what had happened and was happening in the subprime market. I believe this became one of the most popular episodes of an incredibly popular radio series (“TAL” is currently the most popular podcast in the country). From this episode, NPR spawned a new podcast in late 2008 called “Planet Money,” which is a non-economist look at all things economist. Some episodes are lacking; but overall this is a well-researched and worthwhile podcast and they have had some very accomplished guests. Finally, if you want to see an entertaining overview of the competing Keynesian and Austrian School viewpoints, take a look at this very funny video. I’ll finish up by saying that I have heard, read and learned many different viewpoints on where we go from here (the above is only a small sample). There are some very bearish views with very compelling stories. I am aware of these perspectives and give them their due respect; but personally I am very optimistic that this great country is on the mend and that the brightest days for our economy are in the future. Challenges lay ahead, but so does opportunity. I welcome comments and any of your recommendations.

Survey Says...

The Survey Says…

The above was said in my best Richard Dawson voice (which is not very good). Thanks for the terrific response to the survey; we ended up with a pretty good response rate – nearly 20% – which our marketing department tells me is not bad for a blog survey. I broke down the results by showing the average position for all respondents and then the average by industry. Here are the results: All HC P/C L/D Healthcare Reform 3.2 1.4 4.7 4.6 Fiscal Policies 4.7 4.8 4.7 4.5 Monetary Policies 4.9 5.4 4.5 3.8 Other Regulatory 5.3 3.8 6.5 3.1 U.S. Economic Performance 2.6 3.6 1.9 2.6 U.S. Labor Market 3.6 3.0 4.2 3.7 Catastrophes 4.6 7.0 3.0 7.5 Access to Capital 4.8 4.8 5.2 4.9 Other (specify) 5.3 6.2 1.9 N/A * On the scale used for this survey 1 stood for the most impactful. The ‘Other’ category skews the data a bit because most respondents did not include this category in the rankings and those that did all had different specific issues. I should also qualify this by saying that less than 10% of the respondents were from the life and disability industry, so the results are based upon a handful of opinions. Thoughts on the Results It is not surprising ‘U.S. Economic Performance’ was the clear winner among all respondents. I found it a bit more surprising that ‘Monetary Policy’ was rated as low across the board, as it was considering the impact of investment performance on the returns of our industry. Within the industry groups, there were no major surprises, though the anticipated impact of ‘Other (non Healthcare Reform) Regulatory Changes’ within healthcare was notably strong. Because I wasn’t very specific in my descriptions, I am not sure where we draw the line between healthcare reform and other government regulation; though I imagine that the 2011 deadline for Private Fee-For-Service plans to develop networks and the 4% anticipated reduction in Medicare Advantage reimbursement both played significant roles in the high ranking for ‘Other Regulatory.’ As one would expect, we saw a big disparity between the healthcare perspective and the property and casualty perspective, as ‘Catastrophes’ were of significantly higher concern and the labor market was considered a lower impact issue. I imagine that the current 5-6 year soft market for most lines is considered of high impact, and it was mentioned in different manners a few times in the ‘Other’ category. In the life and disability industry, we saw a higher level of consternation for ‘Monetary Policy’ decisions as expected given the fact that this is the most investment driven of the three industries. While I hesitate to read too much into this very unscientific poll, I found it intriguing that ‘Access to Capital’ was of little expected impact. Over the next few months, I will offer my take on many of these subjects and try to summarize what we are hearing in the market as we talk to clients and candidates. I will also be watching the returns in the MA Senate race with great interest this evening – the impacts on current health insurance reform could be significant. As always, I welcome your comments.

Welcome to Interesting Times in the Labor Market

The commonly-held story is that the Chinese have a set of three curses of progressively-worse consequence that predate written history: May you live in interesting times May you come to the attention of those in authority May you find what you are looking for While the attribution of these curses to any specific culture – let alone the Chinese – is of dubious nature, they each represent an interesting circumstance that, upon reflection, can be viewed as either a blessing or a curse, depending upon your perspective. That, of course, is the point. The industry (the three collective insurance industries) that we are part of is living through the first two of the above curses – I don’t think I need to explain using the curse vs. blessing label in this context. There is however a ‘blessing’ perspective: the organizations that come through this tumultuous time will emerge stronger and with less competition. Even the gaze of authority may very well end up expanding the market without (hopefully) doing lasting damage to the market. Here at The Jacobson Group, we are going through our annual budgeting and planning process; and the uncertainties we are attempting to evaluate are more complicated and more numerous than those we have seen in our past. What affects our industry and its labor market, affects us. But we, too, believe that we will emerge stronger with deeper relationships. We are already seeing a great paring of competition as one of our larger competitors has been sold and is undergoing a dramatic restructuring process. It is the last and purportedly most dramatic curse/ blessing that could prove the most impactful. There are two ways the statement can be evaluated: “May you find what you are seeking” or “May you find what you are expecting.” While I am quite sure the original intent was the first interpretation, the second flows much better with my purpose in this entry, which is to solicit industry opinion. What do you expect in 2010? More narrowly, which of the items that I have listed in the 2010 Impact Survey do you expect to have the biggest impact on the industry in 2010? I invite you to participate in this 2-question survey by clicking here. Once we have some feedback to compile, I’ll revisit the highest-rated topics, and we can delve into their values as curses or blessings.

Healthcare Reform: Untouchable Malpractice Issues and its Effects

My wife and I spent the weekend in Los Angeles and had dinner with friends we met this summer on a family trip to Israel. It was a welcome reunion because the last time we saw these friends was during a near-tragedy. After spending the day on a bus, traveling from the Dead Sea through the desert to the Red Sea resort town of Eilat, we arrived at our hotel. As we were checking in, the fourteen-year-old son of our friends collapsed. Fortunately, our group included an anesthesiologist who immediately began CPR. The young man was unresponsive until the hotel staff brought out defibrillators, which were used by the doctor to resuscitate him. During the subsequent ambulance ride and that night at the hospital, he arrested several more times. It was an extremely traumatic event that none of us will forget; however, the story has a very happy ending as the young man is now in great shape with no discernible lasting impacts from the event. Here’s the connection to our healthcare reform discussion: Our friends spent 8 days in a hospital in Beersheba, during which their son was housed in the ICU. After 7 more days in Tel Aviv, the family was able to return to their home in LA. Upon returning, the young man came under the care of a well-respected cardiologist, who – after a battery of tests – recommended an implantable defibrillator. A second opinion came to the same conclusion. The young man’s mother called the cardiologist who had overseen his care in Israel, because she had developed a deep respect for his opinion and he had maintained care of the young man in the early hours of the crisis. This cardiologist strongly urged her not to have an implanted defibrillator, as he was quite certain that the cause was a virus that had attacked the young man’s heart or pericardium (I am unsure of the specific diagnosis) – he further felt that the suggestion to implant was based upon ‘defensive medicine.’ I am not a doctor and do not pretend to know which camp was correct in this situation. I do know that I have heard quite a few of these stories, and many of them from doctors themselves. My wife and I had dinner a few months ago with a couple, both of whom practice internal medicine, who told us that a full 40% of the tests they prescribe are done out of the need to cover all the bases so that they do not open themselves up to a hungry medical malpractice attorney reviewing their decisions. Take a look at the June 2005 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association. One insight I have garnered from speaking with doctors is that the true cost of a malpractice claim is much greater than the potential claim itself. The reputational capital cost associated with simply being sued – win or lose – is very steep, and that reputational risk may account for a large portion of the defensive decisions that are made. Saturday evening, the House of Representatives rejected an amendment to include malpractice reform in the healthcare bill they have passed to the Senate. Why? Certainly special interest groups have sponsored their own studies to show that malpractice costs are a minute contributor to the cost of healthcare, but many studies have shown that defensive practices contribute a significant amount to our nation’s annual health bill. I have seen studies showing total contribution of between 5% and 10% of total healthcare costs. Anecdotally, I have heard higher numbers. Regardless, the impact is clearly significant enough that our representatives should be pushing hard to include this issue in any healthcare reform that has a goal of impacting costs. What do you think?

GDP Growth and the Return of Employment

Wall Street is celebrating today. The strongest GDP growth in two years has the bulls battling back after a rough four days. Unfortunately, the latest from the BLS wasn’t quite as positive, as the preliminary figures show another 530,000 people filed new unemployment insurance claims last week. The better news that was found in the continuing claims data is viewed skeptically, as the source of this data is state unemployment rolls; so those who have been unemployed long enough to have exhausted all of their state benefits are no longer counted (these individuals continue to receive unemployment benefits from the federal government). Staffing firms are harbingers of the future. If you are interested in the relationship between staffing and the economy, the American Staffing Association published a landmark study back in June. Basically, the study found: A very high correlation between GDP growth and temporary staffing Temporary staffing growth to be a coincident indicator of GDP growth Temporary staffing to be a strong two quarter leading indicator of nonfarm employment growth Given the above, you will not be surprised to hear that I am often asked how we are doing. In the eight years leading up to and including 2008, The Jacobson Group’s revenues grew at a compound annual rate of 32 percent, landing us on the list of fastest-growing staffing firms for two of the past three years. Needless to say, this year has been a bit more of a challenge. That said, our temporary staffing business units all saw a marked increase in activity in September and October. Furthermore, our activity levels seem to be accelerating. I hesitate to read too much about the general economy. In our experience, the insurance industry is not representative of the entire market and our firm is only partially representative of the insurance industry. However, based upon the strength of the increase in demand, I am optimistic that we are seeing an inflection point. I also have heard recent optimism from others in the more general areas of the staffing community. Given that, if the ASA study relationships hold up, we could see a sharp uptick in employment come early 2010. No doubt, we all would smile at that news. I’ll keep you posted.

MMSEA Section 111: Reporting Requirements for Non-Group Health Plans

I’ll apologize upfront for the acronyms – they are direct from CMS. As most of you are aware, the implementation of Medicare Secondary Payer Mandatory Reporting for liability insurance (including self-insurance), no-fault insurance and workers’ compensation is well under way. The registration period for NGHP on the Coordination of Benefits Secure Website (COBSW) began on May 1st, and hopefully by now all Responsible Reporting Entities (RRE) are registered and ready to begin the Claim File Testing process on January 1st. While the first Claim Input Files are not due until the second quarter of 2010, the reporting requirements extend to claims for which ongoing responsibility for medicals (ORM) exists as of July 1, 2009. We are hearing a wide range of reactions to the upcoming reporting requirements and changes to Medicare resources. While we know that Section 111 will have some sort of impact on every GL, WC, and auto carrier and all TPAs, there seems to be little consensus as to the size and breadth of the impact. I would love to hear from you - How are you preparing your staff to handle the upcoming requirements? Will your systems support the new processes? Are you anticipating increased workload to identify ORM claimants who are or may soon be Medicare beneficiaries? How will your settlement process change?

The Right Healthcare Reform?

Early last year, as the presidential primary election campaigns heated up, we began to hear the details of the various healthcare proposals put forth by the different candidates. While they varied in approach, structure and cost, they all were focused around a few principle objectives: Slow Down Cost Growth Expand Coverage Improve Outcomes These objectives have not changed. I would like to take a minute to delve into each of these objectives, so we understand the issues that each attempts to ameliorate. 1. Slow Down Cost Growth According to the Congressional Budget Office, the average annual increase in the total cost of healthcare from 1965-2005 was 4.9% compared to average GDP growth over that same period of 2.1%. While this is clearly alarming and must be dealt with, it should also be looked at in the correct context. During that same period, the median age in this country increased from 28.1 years to 36.2 years. While current projections show that median age will continue to increase in the future, the rate of this increase is actually slowing dramatically – the census bureau expects the median age to level out around 39.0 years by 2030. This deceleration in population aging should act as cost growth inhibitor over the intermediate and long term. While this one factor will not in itself solve our current cost challenges, it is something worth keeping in mind because the problems may not be quite as daunting as they seem. 2. Expand Coverage There are two related issues that need to be solved. The first is hampered access to preventative and wellness care by the uninsured population. The second is financial ruin that uninsured and underinsured families face when an unexpected healthcare emergency arises. 3. Improve Outcomes The shortcomings of our system have been well-documented. I am not going to rehash them all here but clearly, when it comes to the metrics that all of us would agree are important, our system has room for improvement. Root Cause So what are the causes of these issues that we face? We have heard many ideas from many players and most of these ideas have merit. I argue, however, that many of these ‘causes’ are not causes, but rather symptoms of the problem. For instance, the ARRA included $19B for investments in health information technology, aimed exclusively at healthcare providers. The idea behind this subsidy was that the provider industry needed a kick-start to invest in technology – and that investment would lead to efficiency gains. Why is it that this huge industry needs government money to invest in technology where every other industry does so via reinvestment of revenue? I postulate that healthcare providers are rational economic players and, generally, will make decisions that are economically correct for their own interests. The reason that information technology dominates every other industry is economic Darwinism – only the strongest (most efficient) organizations survive and information technology is a key to efficiency. Quite simply, there is no economic competition for the consumer among healthcare providers and this structure provides a lack of economic incentives. The symptoms of this problem are seen everywhere in our healthcare system: in the 60-minute waiting room delays for a ‘scheduled’ appointment, in the uncoordinated approach to care among providers focused on the same patient, in the ridiculously high ‘retail price’ of hospital stays, and mostly in the runaway cost of care. If we solve the problem of missing consumerism, we make a huge impact on the cost of care and, if done right, we also make great strides towards improved care. Expanded coverage will follow. I am not suggesting that consumerism alone will bring us all the way to the ideal. There are no doubt other issues that need to be solved, including the tort system and the impacts it has on defensive medicine. However, consumerism is the best tool we have to get most of the way there. The Wrong Focus Somehow the health insurance industry has become the focus of upcoming changes. This is ironic given the fact that our industry has been one of the very few inhibitors of cost growth over the past twenty years. Attempting to solve the healthcare issues by reforming insurers is akin to creating Wal-Mart reform because the cost of food has gone up. It is counterproductive. Solution The only way to solve our healthcare challenges is to attack the problem by injecting consumerism into the process. Interestingly, with the help of the government, our industry has made great strides over the past several years. The latest generation of Consumer Directed Health Plans, greatly strengthened by the 2004 creation of Health Savings Accounts, is just now getting consumers comfortable with taking some control of the economic decisions involved in healthcare. Moreover, these plans are economically encouraging Americans to make better lifestyle decisions that will have a dramatic positive effect on our healthcare system. What is missing from the current solution set is significant. There is a massive knowledge gap between providers and consumers that makes consumerism extremely difficult. This is where government can step in and add value to the process. By defining standards for outcomes, measures of efficiency and even customer satisfaction, and by then measuring providers against those standards, the government could provide the keystone to a consumer-driven healthcare system.

Welcome to The Jacobson Group Blog!

Welcome to The Jacobson Group blog! Thank you for taking the time to explore our website and for your interest in our industry perspective. TJG (as we call ourselves internally) sits in an interesting position. Because of the depth of services that we offer to a relatively narrow group of industries – health insurance, property and casualty insurance, and life and disability insurance – we end up talking to a whole bunch of people at every level of the industry. Our clients range from Claims Managers to Chief Claims Officers, from Call Center Supervisors to COOs, from Accounting Managers to CFOs – you get the idea. Our candidate pool is just as diverse: actuaries, underwriters, statutory and GAAP accountants, claims people, finance people, and even the occasional economist. What this all means is that we have daily, in-depth conversations with professionals representing virtually all perspectives within our industries. These conversations create an incredibly deep pool of knowledge within TJG, and we feel it is our duty to leverage that knowledge to provide holistic insight back to the industries we serve. We do that in a variety of ways and this blog aspires to be one of them. I personally hope that you enjoy this forum. We will try to address a new topic biweekly. We also hope to hear back from members of our industries. Give us your perspective on the topics we discuss – help add to our knowledge base! I can be reached directly at [email protected] and would love to hear suggested discussion topics for future posts.