Pinnacol Foundation announces 2010-2011 Scholarships

Workplace injuries don't just impact the person who gets hurt on the job. They can also take an enormous toll on families of the injured worker – physically, emotionally, and financially. Often it is the children of injured workers who are asked to take on more responsibilities than other kids their age – from taking part-time jobs to becoming part-time caretakers. Sometimes this can mean sacrificing their dreams of continuing their education.

Back in 1998, Pinnacol executives discovered Kids' Chance, a nonprofit corporation developed by the Workers’ Compensation Section of the State Bar of Georgia. The group provides financial scholarships for children of permanently or catastrophically injured or deceased workers to complete their education.

In 2000, with guidance from Kids’ Chance, Pinnacol formed the Pinnacol Foundation. The Pinnacol Foundation College Scholarship Program awards scholarships to the children of workers who have been killed or seriously injured in a work-related accident while working for a Colorado employer regardless of insurance carrier.

Since its inception in 2000, the Pinnacol Foundation has awarded more than $1.3 million in scholarships to more than 200 students for post-high school education. The average scholarship amount is $3,000 for one year. Students can use the funds at any accredited institution of higher learning and may reapply up to five years or to age 25. For the 2010-2011 academic year The Pinnacol Foundation has awarded $290,250 in scholarships to 96 students.

“Five years after my husband’s death, the Pinnacol Foundation is still there for us,” said Jandale Carter of Greeley. Her husband, Barry Carter, a salvage yard mechanic, was killed in a work accident in 2005. Over the last four years, both her children have received the Pinnacol scholarship.

“We are so excited that Daniel was awarded a scholarship,” said Janice Frank-Tappy of Sterling whose son, Daniel Frank, will enter the Colorado School of Mines this fall. His father, Joseph Frank, was killed in a highway maintenance accident. “I am very proud of him, and I know his father would have been too.”

“It is a challenge for many children to get the education they want and deserve when a parent’s ability to work is taken away unexpectedly,” said Carole Sumption, chair of the Pinnacol Foundation Board of Directors. “Pinnacol recognizes that education is the key to Colorado’s future, and this is one way the company can help give these students opportunities for a bright future.”

 If you know of someone who might be eligible for one of these scholarships please let them know about this program. They can find additional information, including how to apply, by clicking here.

Who's coming to work?

Beloit College (located in Beloit, Wisconsin) has since 1998 published what they refer to as a "mindset list". Originally designed as a reminder to faculty to be aware of dated references which their younger students wouldn't understand, its now a testament to the changing understanding of the world that each new generation brings. This year's mindset list chronicles the worldview of the class of 2014 who will be entering the workforce in just 4 short years. Hopefully the economic recession will be a distant memory by then! But for now, here's how the folks at Beloit characterize the latest class of college freshmen (and freshwomen!):

"Born when Ross Perot was warning about a giant sucking sound and Bill Clinton was apologizing for pain in his marriage, members of this fall’s entering college class of 2014 have emerged as a post-email generation for whom the digital world is routine and technology is just too slow.

The class of 2014 has never found Korean-made cars unusual on the Interstate and five hundred cable channels, of which they will watch a handful, have always been the norm. Since "digital" has always been in the cultural DNA, they've never written in cursive and with cell phones to tell them the time, there is no need for a wrist watch. Dirty Harry (who’s that?) is to them a great Hollywood director. The America they have inherited is one of soaring American trade and budget deficits; Russia has presumably never aimed nukes at the United States and China has always posed an economic threat.

Nonetheless, they plan to enjoy college. The males among them are likely to be a minority. They will be armed with iPhones and BlackBerries, on which making a phone call will be only one of many, many functions they will perform. They will now be awash with a computerized technology that will not distinguish information and knowledge. So it will be up to their professors to help them. A generation accustomed to instant access will need to acquire the patience of scholarship. They will discover how to research information in books and journals and not just on-line. Their professors, who might be tempted to think that they are hip enough and therefore ready and relevant to teach the new generation, might remember that Kurt Cobain is now on the classic oldies station. The college class of 2014 reminds us, once again, that a generation comes and goes in the blink of our eyes, which are, like the rest of us, getting older and older."

How this newest class will impact the world of work when they enter it full time remains to be seen, but some of their impressions of the world can perhaps give us an early glimpse:

• Few in the class know how to write in cursive. 
• Email is just too slow, and they seldom if ever use snail mail.
•  Buffy has always been meeting her obligations to hunt down Lothos and the other blood-suckers at Hemery High. 
• “Caramel macchiato” and “venti half-caf vanilla latte” have always been street corner lingo. 
• With increasing numbers of ramps, Braille signs, and handicapped parking spaces, the world has always been trying harder to accommodate people with disabilities.
• A quarter of the class has at least one immigrant parent, and the immigration debate is not a big priority…unless it involves “real” aliens from another planet.
• Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.
• Colorful lapel ribbons have always been worn to indicate support for a cause.
• Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.
• DNA fingerprinting and maps of the human genome have always existed.
• Computers have never lacked a CD-ROM disk drive.
• The first computer they probably touched was an Apple II; it is now in a museum.
• Adhesive strips have always been available in varying skin tones.
• Russians and Americans have always been living together in space.
• Nirvana is on the classic oldies station. 
• Children have always been trying to divorce their parents.
• Having hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine.

So to the class of 2014, study hard, and be kind to those of us relics who sometimes yearn for the good old days. And just think, by the time you graduate, Beloit will be putting out the mindset list for the class of 2018 and you'll get to feel old like the rest of us!

To see the complete Beloit mindset list click here.

Should work be fun?

Every morning when employees at Pinnacol boot up their computers their screens first come up to our company intranet homepage which we call WIKI. Part of the home page includes a section called Industry News. Our folks in communications are very good about updating us on a daily basis on news related to our company, our industry, as well as general work trends. This morning's Industry News had a link to something titled "Feel Good Videos". The link took us to an article in Business Insurance Magazine about how some companies were using videos to get across messages. For example, the staff at a Portland hospital provided some fun entertainment to raise awareness about breast cancer. As I watched some of these videos, regardless of the message they were trying to convey, what came across was that these companies looked like fun places to work. When you think about it, hospitals and insurance companies may not top the list of 'FUN!' places to spend 40+ hours a week, but the fun factor comes through in these videos loud and clear. What also comes through is that they're not 'trying' to have fun - they just clearly enjoy what they do, where they do it, and the people they do it with.

The clip below is performed by the Laryngospasms, a group of practicing Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists who create and perform medical parodies for audiences throughout the United States. It's a light-hearted look at the work they do. Despite the humor, I'd have no problem being a patient of one of these folks.

At Pinnacol we work in a serious business - taking care of people injured, sometimes killed, on the job. Our customers depend on us to be good at what we do. That doesn't mean that we don't enjoy what we do, where we do it, and the people we do it with. These videos remind me of the adage that life's too short to not do something you love. Now if I can just get our claims adjusters to do a video....

One employee's story...

I've mentioned several times on this blog how fortunate our employees are to work for an organization that gives them time off to volunteer and give back to the community. Like much volunteer work, the benefits of our efforts go to those we often times don't really know, and sometimes never even meet. Other times, giving back strikes much closer to home.

Pinnacol hosts several blood drives every year at our location through Bonfils Blood Center. About a year ago one of our employees experienced a heart attack while at work. Pinnacol has AED's (Automated External Defibrillators) on-site and a quick response from internal staff and Denver paramedics allowed this employee to survive so that she could reach the emergency room. That's only the start of her story.

Please meet Wendy Wilbanks, one of our underwriters. Wendy has graciously agreed to share her story in the hope of getting people to understand the importance of giving blood. For the 600 plus employees at Pinnacol who are thrilled to have Wendy with us every day, giving blood has taken on a whole new level of meaning. Joining Wendy is her husband David, who is also an underwriter with us.



Thank you Wendy for being so upfront and open about your experience. For the rest of us, if you are interested in making this type of important donation you can find a time and location near you through this link: https://www.bonfils.org/index.cfm/donate-blood/

One of the more frequently asked questions...

One of the more frequently asked questions I get asked by candidates interested in working with Pinnacol is when will our hiring pick up. Having lost my crystal ball years ago I have struggled to answer this question, and usually end up with a fairly lame response of "it depends". This is of no comfort to either the person asking the question, or to me trying to answer it. This recession is proving to be very challenging on the jobs front, which is an understatement for anyone seeking a new position.

Recently the Denver Post ran an article that helped me better understand what's taking so long for hiring activity to pick up again. The article by Aldo Svaldi, in August 8th's Business section, indicates that instead of adding jobs in the period of January through June, Colorado was one of only four states to actually lose jobs ranking 46th on the list of job creation with a .1 percent decline in jobs. By contrast, Kentucky led the list showing 1.9% job growth since January.

The article points out that the majority of jobs being created in the U.S. as the country attempts to pull out of its economic slump are in manufacturing and unfortunately Colorado continues to see these types of jobs disappear. Now you might be thinking that Pinnacol is about as far from a manufacturing employer as one can get so what does any of this have to do with opportunities with our company? The short answer is that we insure the vast majority of employers and employees in Colorado and our growth - including hiring - directly depends on the growth and well-being of the companies we insure. The more they start to create jobs and hire people to fill them, the sooner we will do the same.

Colorado Best Companies to Work For Announced...

This morning I had the opportunity to attend a session sharing best practice information and recognizing the Best Companies to Work For in Colorado. Sponsored by Jobing.com, Colorado Biz magazine, the Colorado Human Resources Association, and the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment among others, the event recognizes companies who really take to heart the value of their own employees in their organization's success.

60 companies submitted for recognition this year and the winners are ranked by size (small, medium, and large employers). The process involves each company's employees being surveyed on more than 60 questions as well as a formal application being completed. Pinnacol was recognized as the #1 Best Company to Work For in Colorado last year, so we were not anticipating a repeat in 2010. So we were thrilled to be recognized this year in the number two spot behind this year's winner: Edward Jones. The reality though is that all the employers on this year's Best Places to Work list are truly special places to work. Edward Jones and Pinnacol fall into the large employer category. Here is a list of our peers on the list:

1. Edward Jones
2. Pinnacol Assurance
3. PricewaterhouseCoopers
4. CoBank
5. DaVita Inc.
6. Quest Diagnostics
7. Merrick & Co.
8. Omni Interlocken Resort
9. Alpine Bank
10. T-Mobile USA and Cheyenne Mountain Resort (tied for 10th)

I'd say congratulations to these companies, but I would be remiss in doing so. Instead, congratulations to the employees of these organizations - they are what really make these companies the great places to work that they are. I'm a little biased so I'm saving a special Thank You! to all of our Pinnacol employees for this year's recognition. For those of you who have followed Pinnacol in the news you know its been a challenging year for us with an unusual amount of legislative and media attention. The fact that our employees, through their survey responses, still see the company as a wonderful place to work speaks volumes about the culture they are a part of.

One thing I noticed is that how different the cultures of the recognized companies are. There is no secret formula, no one roadmap on how to make a great place to work. Some of the things that Pinnacol employees rave about might not fit another company and vice versa. For example, one of the award winning companies teaches employees how to do doggie CPR and another one stocks their refrigerators with beer! The latter will likely never happen at Pinnacol (unless perhaps its root beer - a cold, frosty mug of A&W is my particular favorite!) but that's ok. We have our own special blend of benefits, traditions, perks, and culture that works for us in our quest to deliver top-notch service to our customers. I've blogged on this before, but as a job seeker its critical that you find the organization that best fits you and allows you to be the best you can be. We think Pinnacol is certainly worthy of your consideration as a potential employer, but given the caliber of the companies on the Best Places to Work In Colorado list, we have some stiff competition!

New opportunity for Oracle Database Administrator!

We have just announced a new opportunity to join our Data and Network Services team (via http://www.pinnacol.com/, http://www.dice.com/, www.denver.craigslist.org/ and LinkedIn). We are looking for an experienced Oracle Database Administrator to be responsible for the corporate database including logical design, as well as providing assistance to systems staff with the physical database environment.

The position requires detailed knowledge of the Oracle database (Oracle 9i/10g/11g) and its supporting software and the ability to create, design and manage all facets of the database as well as the ability to translate complex technical concepts to a wide range of audiences. Proficiency in Oracle Recovery Manager, import/export (and datapump), SQL*Loader and Oracle Enterprise Manager is a must. A Bachelor's Degree in computer science or a related field, or equivalent technical work experience along with a  minimum of 8 years experience as an Oracle Database Administrator, in-depth knowledge of SQL and PL/SQL, and strong Unix or Linux experience including strong shell scripting skills is sought. If you, or someone you know, are interested in this type of position, please apply online at http://www.pinnacol.com/!