Growing our Learning & Organizational Development group!

We are looking for two Learning and Organizational Development Specialists who will be responsible for the design, delivery and continuous improvement of our training and organizational development programs and who will work in cooperation with subject matter experts throughout Pinnacol Assurance.

Under the direction of our Director of Learning &Organizational Development, these positions will partner with individual departments to identify training/OD needs, discuss program/course design and content, and agree on deliverables. These deliverables include conducting specific training and OD needs assessments to support the design, development and delivery of corporate training/OD programs and strategies, ensuring programs are aligned with business strategies and organizational needs, and designing, delivering and continuously improving training and OD programs and learning opportunities across the organization.

The Learning & Organizational Development Specialists will also provide direction to technical specialists and other company trainers in class design, content presentation, and measurement of results to ensure consistency throughout the organization and will provide "train the trainer" support.

Candidates must bring expertise in the development, administration and delivery of training and OD programs along with expertise in instructional design, assessing training/OD needs and evaluation and measurement of program effectiveness. A Bachelor's Degree in Human Resources, Business, Communications, Organizational Development or a related field along with 5+ years’ experience in developing content and conducting high quality training programs in conjunction with subject matter experts are required. If this sounds like a match for your background we would love to hear from you! As with all candidates we ask that you please complete an application on-line via our company website.

Human Resources Associate Vice President role now open!

Its not often that we have opportunities in our HR team, especially at the AVP level. Our Associate Vice President of Human Resources is as you might imagine a highly visible and critically important role. We are looking for someone who brings extensive and practical knowledge of human resources operations and tools, strong leadership, persuasion and influencing skills, and the ability to work effectively with managers at all levels including senior leadership and board of directors.

The ideal candidate will have very strong consultative, coaching and collaboration skills and the demonstrated ability to develop and implement corporate strategic initiatives. They must also be able to apply strong interpersonal skills to build and leverage strategic internal and external relationships. 

A Bachelors Degree in Business, Human Resources or related field is required with a Graduate degree and/or SHRM credentialing preferred and we are looking for someone with a minimum of five years progressive management experience with deep experience or specialized training in at least one technical aspect of human resources preferred, with broad experience across the remaining human resource disciplines to include: safety/security, strategic staffing, employee relations, payroll, HRIS, benefits, compensation and performance management.

We do ask candidates interested in this key role to please apply online for immediate consideration. 

What attracts employees to Pinnacol Assurance?

After new employees have been with us for two months we meet with them to see how they are assimilating into our company. We talk about their understanding of their role and the expectations of the position, the training they went through and whether they need additional, how they like their job and working at Pinnacol, how well they've been accepted by their team, and a host of other things. We also ask them two additional questions that I think are key - what were the top three things that attracted them to take the position with Pinnacol, and perhaps more importantly, how are we delivering on those attractors.

We've been doing these new employee follow-up meetings for more than 18 years. The two questions about the top attractors were added in 2008 and in the years since the results paint a pretty clear picture about what brings people to our company so I thought I'd share a little about what employees tell us. As the chart indicates, two things are mentioned most frequently as attractors for new employees:

• Company Culture/Reputation
• Personal/Professional Growth

Obviously all the items on the list are important aspects of the work environment. More than a third of new employees tell us that things like Work/Life Balance and Benefits were top attractors. We're also aware that the only things that matter to the individual new employee are what their particular top 3 attractors were. 

When it comes to how we are delivering on those attractors average satisfaction runs at 96%, with 80% being "Satisfied" and 100% representing "Very Satisfied". As you might be exploring us as a potential company to work with I thought you might find these results interesting!

1915 Legislative session anything but quiet

In January 1915 Governor Carlson had introduced what the papers of the time reported as his 'Pet Bill' to institute an Industrial Commission "whose duty it shall be to adjust all industrial disputes." By March the legislature would be weighing the pro's and con's of Carlson's "Industrial Commission and Workmen's Compensation Bill" against other competing bills including one proposed in March 1915 by Senator Cavendish, Republican of Leadville, and Senator Lewis, Democrat of Cripple Creek. Cavendish's  and Lewis's bill would create "a state insurance fund for the benefit of injured employees and the dependents of injured or killed employees." By the end of March this proposed bill would be killed and talk turned to calling "an extra session of the legislature to enact industrial legislation, which has been a failure at the present session."

The art of compromise was as difficult then as it is now, but Senate Democrats who had defeated Governor Carlson's 'Pet Bill' as well were now talking over the possibility of somehow merging the competing bills into one so that "some industrial legislation can be passed before adjournment is taken."

Some recent openings...

We've had some interesting new opportunities that have come open. Pinnacol likes to promote from within whenever we have the chance and many of these new openings are available due to our employees being promoted into other positions. Among the current openings we have are:

• Return to Work Consultant
• Software Quality Analyst 
• Provider Relations Coordinator
• Senior Medical Director, Integrated Care
• Med Pay Services Director
• Windows Systems Administrator

Many of these are positions that only become available once in a great while. As always, if you are interested in some of these opportunities we'd love to hear from you! Please apply with us on-line.

Strive... for employee wellness

Marlene, Paige, and Aurora get into the Strive spirit!

This morning, the latest in a strong of cold and snowy days in what's turning out to be a never-ending winter, our employees were welcomed to work by fruit and vegetables dancing in our lobby. I honestly saw some employees wiping their eyes in disbelief as they came in. Its not every day you get to interact with a dancing pea-in-a-pod or rockin-out banana. The zealous fruits and vegetables were actually some of our employees who are part of our EveryDay Wellness task force and they were all dressed up to introduce a new electronic wellness portal called Strive! to Pinnacol. If your office is like ours almost everyone you see is sporting some variation of FitBit technology that allows you to monitor steps, sleep (hopefully not at work!), etc. The new portal will have wellness challenges to keep us on our toes as well as the ability to earn points towards different programs including the ability to reduce our employee healthcare premium costs.

Rich, Lorie, and Loni vegging out

A lot of Pinnacol employees are pretty health-conscious already so this morning's activities were preaching to the choir. The challenge of course is to get some of our more sedentary co-workers to participate and the new Strive portal is a fun way for everyone to get involved. Thank you to our EveryDay Wellness folks who were brave enough to don the fun costumes - it was a fun and surprising welcome to work that won't be soon forgotten!