The Future Appears to be in Good Hands...

In the last two days I have had the opportunity to volunteer twice with Goodwill through their High School outreach programs. Yesterday I was at George Washington High School in Denver meeting with a class to discuss trends in hiring, job search techniques, and other similar issues. Today Pinnacol was fortunate to host a busload of students from this same school at our headquarters. Today's sessions were more involved and included mock interviews and an open forum where students could ask questions of Pinnacol employees regarding career paths, education, job search tips, etc. Kudos to all of my fellow employees who worked very hard to put on such a great event. And I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Ruthann and the great folks at Goodwill for the amazing work they do in our community throughout the year. I had the easy job of showing up and discussing what I do every day which is to interview people interested in joining our company. In fact, I went directly from a real interview into the open forum session.

I've said this before, but it's still true - the young people I meet at these sessions never cease to amaze and energize me. Most of the time I ask as many questions and learn as much as they do. My favorite question today was to simply ask these students what they wanted to be when they got out of school. Part of me expected the answers to have been somewhat tempered by our country's recent hard times, but that was not the case. The aspirations of these young adults are as lofty as they have ever been. Students wanting to go to med school and become pediatricians, gynecologists, plastic surgeons, cardiologists were in abundance. Others wanted to go to Law School or start their own companies, and I had one student who was set on becoming an actor. Another wanted to travel and see the world. Listening to them and seeing the passion alive in their eyes made me a believer again. Tough times may still remain, but the energy and enthusiasm of the students we met today will go a long way towards making tomorrow better not only for them but for all of us.

University of Phoenix/Careerbuilder Job Fair on Thursday

The University of Phoenix and Careerbuilder are hosting a job fair this Thursday November 29th from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Mile High Ballroom at the Denver Convention Center (700 14th Street, downtown Denver). I and Jennifer, one of my HR peers, will be attending and are looking forward to meeting with lots of folks to discuss current and potential openings with Pinnacol Assurance. Jennifer was actually highlighted in one of our first postings in 2010. At the time she was interning with us in anticipation of graduating from college and I spoke to her to gain her insights regarding her job search and her experience working with us. She'll be a great resource for job fair attendees to talk to as she has some recent real life experience in completing a successful job search.

We have a variety of positions open right now from Nursing and Underwriting to Customer Service and Administrative Support. 2012 has turned out to be a busy hiring year for us and it doesn't seem to show signs of slowing down any time soon. So if you are at the job fair on Thursday please stop by and say hello. Jennifer and I would love to meet you!

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Ho, Ho, Ho! Oh wait, wrong holiday. Driving home at night I've already seen many houses all decked out with their holiday lights blazing, on T.V. you can't avoid the holiday advertising which seems to have taken the place of the political advertising, and everyone seems fixated on Black Friday deals. In between all that I think there is another holiday that I hope everyone will take a moment to enjoy. Not every country celebrates Thanksgiving, and in the countries that do its not always at this time of year (in Canada its the second Monday of October). Even in the U.S. Thanksgiving didn't get a fixed date until 1863 when Abraham Lincoln set aside the last Thursday in November as the national day of thanks. So to get you in the spirit here's a quick quiz to test your knowledge of some of the American traditions surrounding Thanksgiving:

• Most folks know about and attribute the first American Thanksgiving to the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock in 1621. Not everyone would agree - when and where would some folks in Texas argue the first Thanksgiving really took place?
• It's become a pretty regular occurrence that Presidents "pardon" their Turkey every year. Which President started this tradition and when?
• A lot of us will tune in, at least briefly, to the annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade from New York.
• When was the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade?
• When and what was the first balloon in the Parade?
• More than a few of us will also be watching some football before or after (hopefully not during) our Thanksgiving meal. When was the first football game played on Thanksgiving Day? Who were the teams?
• The Bald Eagle is the national symbol of the U.S. Who argued passionately that the Turkey  should have been given that honor?
• Which state produces the most Turkeys?

I've got the answers below. I didn't know any of the answers, but hopefully you'll do better! Regardless, have a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Treadmill Challenge a Big Success!

Most employers are starting to realize that having healthy employees is good for business. With so much of modern office work being of a sedentary nature companies are trying all sorts of things to get their employees up and moving. Without bragging too much I think Pinnacol has been ahead of the curve for years on this one. From on-site fitness classes and wellness center to health screenings and Nurse Health Coaches Pinnacol has been serious about focusing on employee health and wellness for years. One of our recent wellness initiatives was the brainchild of one of our Safety Consultants, Michael, and involved running a Treadmill Challenge where teams of four would compete against each other to see who could log the most distance. Each team member either ran or walked for 15 minutes. Each team had two walkers and two runners, with each broken into an "amateur" and a "professional" division.


The event was a resounding success with 35 teams (140 employees) logging a total of 195 miles with an average of 5.56 miles per team and 1.39 miles per person. Our Executive team were no slouches either and challenged the rest of the company to beat their distances. Teams got creative with their  names with monikers as diverse as "Run Forest Run", "Tread Safely", and "Tread Setters" to "Runnin' On Empty", "Lady Cheetahs", and "Toe Jammers".

The winning team logged 6.64 miles with their combined walk and run. Our two Executive teams? 4.77 and 5.71 miles - respectable, but they have their work cut out for them next year! One of the ladies on the winning team also had the single greatest distance in 15 minutes of 2.1 miles.

Ultimately of course it wasn't really about the greatest distance as everyone who participated can be considered a winner in the ongoing quest for improved and continued health. So congrats to all, and its none too soon to start getting in shape for Treadmill Challenge 2013! And a special Thank You! to Michael for coming up with such a great idea!

Executive Assistant to V.P. and General Counsel position now open!

We recently brought on our new General Counsel and to help support him in his role we are now  looking for an experienced Executive Assistant. This position will perform executive level administrative support duties. In speaking with our General Counsel he indicates that he is looking for someone having excellent telephone and outstanding inter-personal skills, with a key focus on developing and maintaining exceptional relationships with key stakeholders (e.g., CEO, Exec team, Board members, CEO/Exec assistants, Legal Dept., outside counsel, policyholders, agents, and Pinnacol employees). As you might imagine for this level of position, very high computer competency, especially with respect to Word (55 wpm typing speed), Outlook, Excel and Power Point is required.  As this position in part serves our Legal Team knowledge of Westlaw would be nice to have.

This position also requires strong problem solving and decision making capabilities and our General Counsel is looking for an independent worker with strong ability to plan, coordinate and organize projects. They must be trustworthy, have impeccable integrity, and have the ability to keep matters confidential, hold confidences and be discreet.  The successful candidate will be well organized, and as our General Counsel readily acknowledges, be capable of helping to keep him organized as well (e.g., paper/electronic files, calendar, etc.). A commitment to Company and Department strategy, values, behaviors, goals and objectives is required as are impeccable writing and grammar skills, and budgeting skills. Candidates must be flexible, adaptable, and experienced managing and embracing change.

This is definitely a people-facing position so the Executive Assistant will also be expected to be friendly, outgoing, cheerful, and willing to contribute independent ideas and speak-up yet fully support decisions once they are made. 4 years related experience in professional office environment is required with an Associates Degree or equivalent work experience desired in Business or related field.

If this sounds like something you are interested in we would love to hear from you! Please apply on-line on via the Careers section of our company website.

What next?

I see thousands of resumes in any given year and see a lot of tricks and tweaks designed to make one resume stand out from another. 99% of the resumes I see are still variations of the traditional paper-based format. Through the years people have played around with the traditional version by adding color, changing fonts, and adding pictures. As technology evolves so too will the resume, but what it will look like next remains to be seen. One version may be something like the following:

This is NOT my resume from Jordan McDonnell

When I first saw this I was pretty excited because what Mr. McDonnell has done is pretty cool. I love using technology and gadgets to do new things and his presentation of his resume information is certainly flashy and eye-catching. But the reality is that it took me conservatively about two minutes to get through his presentation. In that same time I could have reviewed 3-4 traditional resumes. At Pinnacol we still take some pride in the fact that we do personally review every resume that comes in. We don't rely on our applicant tracking system to screen candidates in or out of consideration. I can only imagine what it would be like to go through thousands of new resumes similar to Mr. McDonnell's. For companies that do use applicant tracking systems to screen candidates in or out I have no concept how their systems would handle candidate information like Mr. McDonnell presents.

Time will tell if Mr. McDonnell's use of technology eventually replaces the more traditional resume. If I was a candidate I would guess that I might hedge my bet by perhaps starting to do both. More and more I do see listed on candidates resumes a link to their personal website, and when the original resume passes the initial screen I will often go out and look at the extra electronic information. What do you think? Where will the future take us? There is certainly tremendous room for improvement in how companies with openings match up with candidates looking for opportunity.

Senior Underwriter position now available...

We'll be advertising this opportunity shortly but I wanted to let folks know that we are now looking for an experienced workers' compensation Underwriter to underwrite and price workers’ compensation insurance policies, review and resolve policy problems, and proactively manage a sizable book of program business.

This position acts as account/relationship manager for several different high-profile associations. Occasional in-state travel is required to attend meetings with agents, policyholders and association groups. Successful candidates for this position will have 3 to 5 years related experience in property/casualty insurance underwriting with direct experience with workers’ compensation insurance preferred. Candidates must possess strong interpersonal, customer service, analytical and presentation skills. A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience is also required.

As always, if you are interested in this opportunity please apply online. We would love to hear from you!