What's in a badge?

Many people know that Pinnacol has a long history of serving the people of the State of Colorado. Since 1915 when the Workmens' Compensation Act (it wasn't until 1986 that the Act's title was changed to the Workers' Compensation Act) went into effect our company has protected businesses and injured workers alike.

Back in 1915 no companies had electronic security badges for their employees. In today's world they are commonplace and most employees pay little attention to their badges except when they need them to get through a door. Our current badges at Pinnacol have been in use since 2002 when we were anticipating our move to Lowry. Prior to the current badges which include our picture we had plain white badges with only a small number on them. When we developed the new badges there was considerable debate as to what they should look like. Our name had recently changed to Pinnacol Assurance (1999) and it was pretty straightforward that some type of mountain background would be used. Unlike some Colorado tourism ads through the years that have used images of the Grand Tetons, which are of course in Wyoming, we wanted a mountain that truly represented our state. There are lots of choices - in fact three are visible from our office building - Pikes Peak to our south, Mt. Evans which is almost due west from us, and Longs Peak to our north. Ultimately however the selection boiled down to one of the most recognizable pair of mountains in our state - the Maroon Bells.

Once we had agreed on which mountains to use then the search began for just the right picture.

Its hard to find a bad shot of the Maroon Bells but having to choose only one came down to which looked best as an actual backdrop for our new photo badges. The photo selected (the third one above) has been in use ever since.

We are now in the process of modernizing our security badges. As you can perhaps tell from my badge it is a little worse for wear (I still have my original badge). Even the picture is out of date. The average tenure at Pinnacol is about 10 years and there are a lot of young people pictured on our badges!  So perhaps it is time to take new pictures and get new badges though I profess I'll be sorry to see the old ones go. Having my Pinnacol badge has opened  a lot of doors, both literally and figuratively, for me throughout my career.