Pinnacol Employees Get in the Spin of Things...

Wednesday June 27 saw the Denver metro area celebrate its annual Bike to Work Day and as usual Pinnacol had a group of intrepid cyclists mount up and brave the local roads and bike paths as they journeyed into work. The morning was beautiful with temperatures in the seventies and it was nice, at least for one day, to be out of the rush that is normal city traffic. Depending on one's conditioning you can't but help slow down on a bicycle but it seemed that everyone made it in good order and with a smile on their face.

Denver is a great host to this annual event with morning breakfast stations strategically placed on major bike routes throughout the city. Biking to work is one heck of a good excuse for partaking of the goodies at these aid stations and its sometimes tough to get back on the bike and continue riding. Experienced Bikers to Work know that the ride in is the easy part - it's going home that can be challenging. Muscles that were made sore during the morning ride haven't had much chance to recover, and the afternoon weather can be problematic with thunderstorms and gusty winds.

Anyone who has ridden much this year has probably noticed that it seems windier than normal and yesterday, at least in the Lowry area, was no exception. Right on schedule, about the time most were thinking about riding home, the skies turned threatening and we actually got some heavy rain for about half an hour accompanied by very gusty winds. What with all the fires active in Colorado I don't think anyone was complaining about the moisture, but I know I breathed a sigh of relief when the rain and wind finally stopped and I could head out on rapidly drying pavement. Some years we have ridden home in a continuous rain so it was nice to see the sun poking through the storm clouds.

Bike to Work Day is meant to entice people to commute more regularly using alternative transportation and every year I see more and more cyclists on the roads morning and night who are obviously commuting. Some of these folks participate year round. I clearly remember driving into work in January when it had to be 10 degrees below zero. While wondering what was taking my car heater so long to warm up, I saw several cyclists who would not be deterred from their daily commute. Of course they were dressed up in so many layers that they looked like the Michelin Man, but I was still very impressed. Our brave Pinnacol cyclists on Wednesday didn't face that level of challenge, but kudos to all who participated and hopefully it won't be a full year before they saddle up once more!

Business Services Representative position now available!

We had filled one of these positions recently but due to another promotion from within we have a new opportunity for someone with outstanding customer service skills to join us as a Business Services Representative (or as we refer to them: BSR's).

Those of you who are familiar with Pinnacol know we are very much in a team structure and this position is part of one of our mutli-functional business teams that includes underwriters, claims representatives, nurses, the BSR's, and of course the Business Director who is in essence the team leader.

We are seeking seeking customer-oriented candidates to provide administrative support other members of the team and interact with our customers over the phone. As I mentioned above, this position often leads to promotional opportunities within our company.

Candidates with college degrees are encouraged to apply but a degree is not required. The position does require strong PC/software skills, math aptitude, excellent communication and customer service skills as well as the ability to type 35 wpm. If this sounds like you please complete an on-line application!

Safety Consultant positions now open!

In the world of workers' compensation the best claim is the claim that never happens. That's good for everyone involved - a worker isn't injured, and the employer isn't without one of their staff due to an accident. Guess what? Accident prevention is no accident and it takes the concerted efforts of employers, their workers, and their insurance company all working in unison to ensure a safe workplace. At Pinnacol we have the state's largest group of safety professionals all working towards one objective - reducing the frequency and severity of accidents occuring at the companies we insure.

We hire both experienced as well as entry level candidates into the ranks of our Safety Consultants and we currently are looking to bring on board two individuals in this capacity. Entry level candidates tend to come through school programs dealing with environmental health and safety and we have our current openings posted with several schools both inside and outside of Colorado. I also have the openings announced through the Colorado Chapters of the ASSE (American Society of Safety Engineers).


Safety Consultants at Pinnacol perform a variety of specialized tasks including implementing one or more of the following services to our policyholders: safety program development and on site safety inspections, Cost Containment Certification assistance, accident and injury trend analysis, onsite Train the Trainer programs, OSHA compliance assistance, construction safety, ergonomic resources, as well as researching and updating other staff on changing regulations & emerging safety issues. 


To be effective in this role our Safety Consultants spend the majority of their time at policyholder locations so  considerable travel throughout the state within an assigned territory is necessary. Successful candidates must also be a self-starter, well organized and have good computer, communication, and presentation skills.

I've always thought these to be very interesting positions  as they offer the opportunity to learn the nuts and bolts of many of the businesses and industries our policyholders are involved in as well as the ability to make a positive impact by helping reduce the accidents they and their workers experience. If you are interested in this opportunity to make a real difference, please complete our application via our company website.

Claims Redux... Will Entertain Entry Level Candidates!

I had posted last week that we have some Claims opportunities available. In following up with Jerica, one of our Team Leaders, she indicates that for at least one of these openings they are willing to entertain entry level candidates who are interested in beginning a career in Claims. To be considered for the entry level opportunity candidates must have a minimum of a Bachelor's degree, strong computer skills, excellent interpersonal and communication skills and be able to pass a Critical Thinking test.

For the right person, Claims can be a very rewarding career path. The work is challenging, very customer-service focused, and revolves around ensuring that injured workers' progress effectively from the point of being injured to hopefully returning to work. If this sounds like something you'd like to explore please apply on-line. It's been quite a while since we have had an entry level opportunity in claims, so I was thrilled when Jerica let me know that entry level folks would be considered!

New Opportunities for Claims Representatives

Workers' Compensation insurance does two very basic things at it's core. First it analyzes the risk of employees getting injured, and then it takes care of the risk when the injury occurs. Underwriters focus on the first part - the risk analysis, and our Claims Representatives focus on the second - taking care of injured workers and helping them get through what can be one of the most challenging times of their lives.

We are looking for experienced Claims Representatives who work as part of multi-functional teams to bring claims to resolution. Generally they are assigned to specific policyholder accounts with the expectation that they will provide outstanding customer service to injured workers, policyholders, and other stakeholders. These positions routinely staff cases with team nurses, return to work specialists, team leaders, claims experts and legal counsel as needed as well as making use of all appropriate internal and external resources. Setting initial reserves, our Claims Representatives maintain current and accurate reserves for all assigned cases and negotiate settlements. Claims Representatives can also serve as a technical resource to other team members including the mentoring of less experienced adjusters on complex issues and closure strategies.   3+ years of adjusting experience with direct exposure to workers’ compensation preferred but if you have other claims exposure we'd love to hear from you! Please apply online at our company website.

Deja Vu

You would have to be an exceptionally sound sleeper to have gotten through last night in the Denver area without being awakened from some very unusual storm activity. Driving into work through parts of town you couldn't help but notice piles of leftover hail piled on grassy areas and along roadways. In my neighborhood some trees and limbs were down, leaves and flowers were decimated and I'm going to have get out the ladder when I get home to climb on the roof to check for shingle damage.

When I got to work it was the first thing that came up in conversation. We have employees who live throughout the metropolitan area and it seems that almost everyone experienced some aspects of the storm. Some suffered fairly serious damage with screens, windows, siding, and roofs bearing the brunt of the storm's fury. Others were awakened by pounding rain and sirens going off in the middle of the night. My first interview candidate of the morning had driven up from Castle Rock and mentioned that his local King Soopers had suffered such extensive damage that they might have to close until repairs could be made.

Colorado certainly gets its share of severe weather from blizzards and frigid temperatures in Winter to droughts and extreme heat in the warmer months. Anyone who has lived along the front range is used to our summer cycle of afternoon thunderstorms and we see our share of gulley washers. Maybe its just my perception, but yesterday's storms seemed out of the ordinary.

I live on the west side of town and normally our storms come rolling in from the foothills and then march across the Denver area until eventually dying out over the far eastern plains as nightime temperatures sap the storms of their energy. Wednesday's activity didn't appear to start over the mountains, and when I drove home after work the sky above the foothills was actually clear and sunny. Looking to the south and east though, it was clear there was some nasty weather brewing. Watching the nine o'clock news it was evident that even the weather forecasters were having some difficulty getting a handle on a developing weather situation. At the start of the broadcast the weatherperson was saying what we typically hear: heavy rains starting to let up, tornado watches beginning to expire, and the storms heading out to die in the arid air of the Colorado plains. By nine thirty however they were singing a different tune - storms that generally move off to the east and weaken were now moving to the north and west and strengthening.

When I went to bed I wondered if we'd be lucky enough to get some of the moisture (Coloradans love our green lawns, but don't like to pay to water them...). Little did I know that in just a couple of hours I'd have more water falling from the sky than I could have hoped for, and then some. 12:35 a.m. is when the thunder and lightning awakened I and my wife. Actually that's not quite correct. What really woke us up was our 55 pound Siberian husky jumping into bed and trying to bury himself under the covers. Chinook is twelve years old and as alpha a male as a dog can be. Normally he can sleep through anything other than the sound of kibble being put into his food dish, but last night he was physically shaking. Hmmm, we thought, something must be up.

Then it hit. Slow, steady rain rapidly turned into a deluge of water falling out of a greenish colored sky (several of my coworkers also noticed the eerie appearance of the clouds). The buckets of rain then gave way to pounding hail. Again, anyone who has lived in Colorado has seen all this before but usually these storms are fairly short lived, wreaking their havoc and then moving on. Not last night. It seemed that wave after wave of rain followed by hail fell from the sky for more than an hour. How my skylights survived is beyond me. And the lightning was something I have never seen. It was non-stop. I commented to my wife that it looked like a strobe light it was so continuous. The thunder too was out of the ordinary - it never stopped. There were no gaps between the claps of thunder. Instead it was more of a steady roar with an occasional boom indicating a closer strike. And then the sirens went off. I'm assuming they were tornado sirens but I do know they were just barely audible over the crashing of the thunder.

Eventually, of course, the storms eventually moved on to pummel other neighborhoods and wake up other people and other pets. Forecasters warn of a repeat this afternoon. As I write this I realize how easy it is to get caught up in the moment and think that what we have experienced is completely new and truly out of the ordinary. But last night, at about 1:00 a.m. in the midst of the storm, I caught myself thinking back to a night long ago when I was much younger. July 31, 1976 is perhaps a date that has no meaning to many who read this as it is likely that many of you were not even born then. I was surprised last night how vividly I remembered that Saturday night storm from so long ago.

Now remembered as the Big Thompson Canyon Flood, like yesterday's storms, no one quite anticipated what was about to happen those 36 years past.As with last night, the rain came and would not let up (Estes Park would see more than 3 1/2 inches of rain fall in a 24 hour period; Fort Collins had 4.6 inches in just 4 hours), continuing to come down in sheets for an extended period. What most people back then didn't know is that it was doing much the same thing in the mountains to the west of Estes Park. Over the next four-and-a-half hours, very heavy rain fell over a 70-square mile area in the central portion of the more than 800-square mile Big Thompson drainage basin.

By the next day the resulting flash flood would claim 139 lives, destroy 316 homes, 45 mobile homes, 52 businesses, and 438 automobiles. Thousands of tourists were in the canyon anticipating the next day's celebration of Colorado's Centennial. People had to literally run for their lives ahead a wall of water which peaked at more than 30,000 cubic feet per second as it rushed down the normally placid canyon (by comparison, according to the U.S. Geological Service, the average discharge of the Colorado River as it flows through the Grand Canyon is just over 21,000 cfs). So as impressed as I am with last night's weather, and as tempted as I am to think it was unique, I'll never forget my young man's memory from 1976 as it started to rain: Hmmm, something must be up...

Payroll Administrator Opportunity now open!

We have a very rare opportunity to join our Human Resources team. We are looking for a Payroll Administrator with at least two years of experience as the primary payroll processor in an organization of approximately 600 employees. Experience in UltiPro Workplace is strongly preferred and experience with pay cycle transition conversion is desired.

This is a high-contact customer-facing position dealing with employees across the organization so outstanding customer service skills and a patient attitude are critical. The successful candidate must also be able to obtain a Notary Public license within 6 months of employment. An Associate’s Degree or equivalent work experience in Business or related field is required. If you are interested in this unique opportunity to join our company, please apply on-line.