Is the sustainability of the insurance sector under threat?

With Heads of major insurance companies voicing their concerns in the media recently, you might be left wondering what is happening in the insurance industry. 

According to the Australian Financial Review, Global re-insurer Reinsurance Group of America reported a loss of $300 million in the Australian life insurance market in the three months ended June 30, 2013. 

As a result it suspended all new group Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) business indefinitely on the basis that the market 'was not stable'. 

Certainly alarming figures and statements.

Other relevant points around causes:

• Claims are souring largely due to an increase in stress related illness such as mental health and back pain
• A weaker economy has contributed to high stress and depression
• The greatest majority of claims are being made by higher income, white collar workers
• People cancelling their policies has increased 20% a year over the last four years, due to financial stresses and fee increases of up to 10% per year for people over 40 (Source: Australian Financial Review).

Insurance companies are looking for solutions to address this dire situation. 

Solution for the insurance sector = innovative, central communications platform

Not much can be done about the volume of claims being lodged, however there are solutions that can be implemented quickly to reduce the time to process claims.

Additionally, insurers need to identify where claims officers are spending their time to reduce time spent on tedious administration and refocus their efforts on addressing questionable claims, quickly resolving valid claims and freeing up significant reserve capital.

A central communications platform that facilitates communication to all entities relevant to a claim external to the Insurance companies' claim system is one quick way to initiate this turn around quickly. 

Such innovative solutions are already positively addressing similar problems in other industries, such as Human Resources.

Insurance companies should not delay making decisions. New low risk solutions that leverage cloud based technology can be up and running within months.

For a free report that suggests low risk, affordable solutions to these challenges in more detail, contact Affirm on info@affirmsoftware.com.au and request Affirm's insurance whitepaper. 

Potential (Perfect) storm brewing for insurance companies

Over the past month there has been an increased media coverage surrounding the potential storm brewing in the insurance industry. 

Adding fuel to these stories are huge profit downgrades from the large insurance companies. AMP recently stated that its fourth-quarter earnings could take a hit of up $65 million.

This has been largely due to:

• Significant rises in income protection and Total and Permanent Disability (TPD) claims as a result of greater acceptability and prevalence of stress and mental illness

• Growing presence of no win no fee lawyers

• Policy terminations due to the ageing population and tough economy.

It is uncertain as to what lies ahead, which is concerning many of the big players.

High end advisers are being engaged to find solutions to these significant threats.

So what can be done quickly to minimise the impact of this situation? 

The more progressive insurance companies we are talking with are seeking to address costly inefficiencies associated with the more complex claims processes such as income protection and TPD. 

Through our engagements we are observing:

• Transformation projects are underway to implement claims systems and other disruptive technologies to evolve 

• Claims processing need to speed up to cope with demand and address servicing of unnecessary claims

• Inefficient paper based practices being replaced with solutions to streamline processes, focused on the end customer

• Termination of policies could be addressed through improving communication and service to the customer.

If you're a progressive company who wants to ride ahead of the storm, feel free to contact us.

Keen to avoid manually processing forms every month?

A large Australian State Government Department urgently needed a solution to manage their casual overtime and travel expense claim forms, used frequently by their 1600 employees.

The Department implemented Revolve eForms. 

The solution has enabled them to efficiently process hundreds of HR forms electronically each month. 

Employees login to the system via their intranet and the eForms portal provides them with a fully branded interface for a seamless user experience.

Upon creation of a new form, fields are pre-populated with known data. The form is then automatically sent to their Managers’ dashboard for approval. 

Our eForms solution supports customised notifications to employees and managers so that users are kept informed of the progress of an eForm/claim.

Completed forms data is exported and sent onto our clients’ system for further processing. 

Additional benefits from moving to eforms include:

- Improving customer satisfaction

- Eliminating compliance risks

- Going green and reducing a company's carbon footprint; and

- Being innovative

The Department have been extremely happy with the results achieved by moving to eforms and intend to automate additional forms in the near future.

“Easy to use... it’s just what we needed. It’s brilliant!”

- Senior Manager, Large Government Department

5 ways to guarantee a successful onboarding project

1. Create a solid business case with clearly outlined cost savings and the return on investment (ROI) that electronic onboarding will deliver.

• Affirm have an onboarding ROI calculator which we can use to help define all your manual onboarding costs and the potential savings (around 80% of you manual costs), which can be used to build your business case

2. Ensure Legal are comfortable with electronic signatures on contracts and that all employment contracts are up to date.

• Complete this review process prior to starting your project to avoid any delays with getting started

3. Appoint Senior Management as project owners and educate them so they support a fully paperless solution, including electronic signatures 

• Educate Management that electronic signatures are legally acceptable
• The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is comfortable that our system is fully compliant and use HROnboard to approve their contracts, policies and Tax file declarations, all electronically. 

4. Form your working groups early

• Actively engage and gain buy-in with IT and Facilities Management and other service providers to discuss how everyone will benefit from the onboarding project
• Involve marketing resources to ensure marketing messages andcorporate collateral as part of the onboarding process, are all in line with the company’s brand. 

5. Audit your current onboarding processes and contracts

• Use your onboarding project as a way to audit and streamline your onboarding processes, procedures, contracts, brochures and policies
• Check that all HR policies are up to date for the business before moving online and that you have all the latest documents including the latest Fair Work statements. Appoint an owner of these artefacts to ensure they are kept up to date and compliant
• Review all employment templates used and reduce these down to the core employments contracts necessary
• Map out stakeholders and providers within the business and confirm if any are impacted by different work place agreements, regional contracts or health and safety regulations, and factor these into your contracts. 

A little bit of planning upfront will ensure you are onboarding new hires in no time. 

Contact us for any further information or to help you build your business case for electronic onboarding.