New Business Representative opportunity now open!

Pinnacol Assurance has an immediate opportunity for a New Business Representative to write and review workers' compensation insurance policies, review and resolve policy problems, and assist with audits as needed for new policies.

This position serves as the primary point of contact for quoting and issuing many of our new policies. Ensuring the accuracy and completion of all forms needed to issue a policy, processing applications, and attending agency visits are key functions of this role. This position requires strong computer skills, the ability to type a minimum of 35 words per minute, and an understanding of basic accounting and mathematics. The ability to organize and prioritize caseloads and manage multiple priorities along with handling customers in a professional, courteous manner are critical. Bilingual (Spanish) is a plus. Two years of college with 1-3 years of customer service are also required.

Interested candidates are asked to complete an expression of interest via our company website at www.pinnacol.com/careers. We had an opportunity in this area a couple of months ago and you can see a video of one of our NBR's discussing the position under that announcement.

Write It Right: re·dun·dan·cy



 I was meeting yesterday with one of our managers and reviewing resumes of candidates applying for one of our current opportunities. Like may of our managers she has a pet peeve against spelling, punctuation, and gramatical errors on cover letters and resumes. She's pretty quick to move those containing such errors from the 'maybe' pile to the 'no' pile.

Michelle, who works on our communications team, continues to write articles to help our employees improve their writing skills, and many of these articles are pertinent to candidates interested in positions with our company. Michelle's latest article concerns redundancy (re·dun·dan·cy  Excessive wordiness or repetition in expression):

Some things that sound OK in conversation look fairly silly in writing.

Some words simply "say it all." Avoid these redundant words and phrases in your writing.
•"We're absolutely certain the figures are correct."

"The results are absolutely guaranteed."

If you're certain, then you already have no doubt. And a guarantee is by nature absolute. "Absolutely" is unnecessary — and redundant — in both cases.

•"We arrived at these conclusions through actual experience."

"It's an actual fact that revenue is down."


An experience is something that occurred. A fact is something confirmed to have happened. "Actual" is extraneous in these instances.

•"They may add additional benefits to the program."

To add is to provide another of something. "Additional" is extraneous.

•"We're offering this as an added bonus."

A bonus is an extra feature, so "added" is unnecessary.

•"We should provide some advance (insert any of the following) notice/planning/warning for this change."

Notices, planning and warnings are all actions that occur before an event.
"Advance" is superfluous.

•"At the present time, we are addressing the issue."

"Are" is a present-tense verb, i.e., it's happening now. "At the present time" is unnecessary.

•"I'll provide the basic (insert either of the following) fundamentals/essentials for the project."

Fundamentals and essentials are by their nature elementary. Remove "basic" from either phrase.

•"The accident occurred at a time when safety procedures weren't being followed."

"When" is more than adequate as a time reference here. "At a time" is redundant.

•"The two teams should (insert either of the following) collaborate/meet together."

"Collaborate" and "meet" are both actions done collectively. "Together" is unnecessary in either case.

•"I am currently working on the proposal."

"Am" is another present-tense verb; therefore, "currently" is unnecessary.

Michelle will look at more redundant words and phrases in a future upcoming (oops) column.

Business Intelligence Programmer opportunity

I had just posted a Microstrategy Architect position and am now adding an additional opportunity for a Business Intelligence Programmer. Both of these positions are part of our Decision Support team. The Business Intelligence Programmer develops, maintains, and assists in the design of our business intelligence systems including, but not limited to, ETL scripts, html and Java interfaces in Microstrategy and our mobile device applications. This position also codes, maintains and assists in the design of data mart/warehouse tables, queries and metadata, tunes data mart/warehouse queries and other programs as required, and works with our Application Services and Data & Network Services teams to create and maintain interfaces between data marts/warehouse, information tools and production systems. Candidates must be able to establish and maintain strong relations with Decision Support Services staff and internal customers. 

This position plays support role in DSS-related portions of IS Application Development projects, company-wide strategic initiatives, and business-focused initiatives.

Candidates should possess expertise in, and the ability to mentor, SQL, PL/SQL and SQL*Plus, as well as have expertise in ETL practices, html and Java. Also required is a high proficiency in advanced SQL tuning, table creation, indexing and links along with proficiency in data warehouse theory and applications, and star schema (Kimball Model). Bachelor's Degree or equivalent work experience; computer science degree/MIS, business/economics or statistics preferred. Experience with Oracle and/or other relational database management systems, the use of database query tools using SQL, working with data warehouse design, 3+ years related experience in Programming is required. Phew! If you have all that, we'd love to hear from you!

Microstrategy Administrator opportunity now open!

Our IT group has a full crew of programmers and developers, database administrators and network engineers, and help desk staff to support all the technology we depend on. We also have a group of dedicated staff who work in our Decision Support team who's job it is to get the right data from the database and then translate it into useable information for the business side. We use a tool called Microstrategy to aid in this function and we have an opportunity for a Microstrategy Administrator. The requirements for this position are pretty specific and there are not a whole lot of these folks out there, but if you have the skills described below we would love to talk with you! Local candidates as well as candidates interested in moving to Colorado should submit their information via our company website at www.pinnacol.com/careers/current-opportunities. Here is what we are looking for:

Pinnacol Assurance is looking for a Microstrategy Administrator to be responsible for design and implementation of the Microstrategy schema layer, Microstrategy web interface, object and user management and assisting analysts with complex problem solving.This position architects highly reliable, scalable, extensible, and maintainable BI projects using MicroStrategy.

Working with business users and Product Managers to understand project requirements, the Administrator creates and maintains MicroStrategy metadata objects, handles MicroStrategy user and Microstrategy Narrowcast management and provides support to report developers in creating complicated objects. This position also works closely with data modelers to make sure physical database schema is optimal for MicroStrategy usage and works closely with DWD and Analysts to define and architect features and products that require significant cross-component coordination.

Responsibilities also include evaluating and suggesting ways to optimize systems usage, supports team training projects as needed, and acts as a mentor and role model to team members by assisting them with required job responsibilities and providing input to their skill and knowledge growth. Requirements include experience as a MicroStrategy schema manager, user management, narrowcast and report creator, and BI project design experience with MicroStrategy. SQL, PL/SQL and SQL*Plus, Oracle and Unix, Data warehouse and data modeling skills, Web development languages- Java, ruby, flash, and Writing design documents and technical specifications are also important competencies.

 

Records Technician opportunity now available!

Pinnacol Assurance has an opening for a Records Technician to deliver and maintain accurate corporate claims and policy files and to continue to create a "paperless" file system by scanning physical files to electronic form. We haven’t had one of these openings in quite some time so I caught up with Amanda, who manages this group, to find out what she is looking for in the ideal candidate. What I found out is that this really is a tremendous opportunity for the right candidate to join our company and begin growing their career. I wasn’t surprised to find that this position requires good spelling, punctuation, grammar and filing skills. Strong time management and accurate and thorough data entry skills are also a must. And, as you might imagine, our Records Technicians also need to have  strong attention to detail along with an ability to work independently with little direction or supervision. A minimum of a High School Diploma or GED  is required but Amanda will also consider those with higher education seeking to begin their careers and wishing to advance within our company. If interested in this opportunity please complete an expression of interest via our company website.

Help Desk Specialist opportunity!

It has been several years since we have had an opening in our Help Desk team so I'm excited to announce that we have a vacancy for a Help Desk Specialist. I touched base with the hiring manager, Tim, to get his thoughts on what he's looking for in the next addition to his team. As you'll hear, Tim has been with us for 22 years. As impressive as that is, his vacancy is open due to an upcoming retirement of an employee who has more than 30 years with us! Needless to say, some big shoes to fill, but a wonderful opportunity for someone with the right skills.



This position will also be advertised so I am including the actual job announcement as well:

Help Desk Specialist


Pinnacol Assurance, Colorado's leading provider of workers' compensation insurance, is seeking a Help Desk Specialist to provide the information and assistance to users of our information systems to ensure that technical problems are resolved before they become an impact to our customers. This position answers telephone, E-mail, and personal requests for help and information and provides first and second level support on Word, Excel, Internet e-mail applications, Windows OS and Mac OS environment as well as all company telecommunications hardware, including voice mail. Responsibilities include remote access set-up and support, including remote device support. Our Help desk Specialists utilize a call tracking and asset management system, and document all problems and their resolution. This position also visits customers at their workstations for problems that require it and swaps out hardware as needed to ensure that impact to the customer is minimal and reacts to potential network and system problems before they impact the customer.

The Help desk Specialist position requires outstanding customer service skills, a passion for helping others, and professional level communications skills along with the ability to troubleshoot and performance tune workstation hardware and software. Proven operational problem solving abilities and the ability to work and contribute in a team environment are critical.

The successful candidate will have a minimum of a High School Diploma or GED, some college level courses and/or certification program(s) in Computer Science, Data Communications, and Telecommunications or equivalent experience. Microsoft and Apple certifications are desirable. 1-3 years related experience in a Customer Service field, two years support experience in a client / server environment, and one year experience using a Help Desk call tracking/asset management software desired.

This position requires that a smart phone be carried at all times and employee will be on-call at designated times. As a requirement of being on-call, the employee must be able to respond to a call within 15 minutes. Employee will be required to resolve the issue/problem either by remote access from home or returning to the workplace within one hour if required.

If interested, please complete an expression of interest via our company website.

Pinnacol Employees celebrate Diversity with Food Festival

Every other year our Diversity Task Force hosts an Around the World Food Festival to celebrate the vast array of backgrounds our employees bring to Pinnacol. This is always one of the most anticipated and well-attended company events and this year was no exception.

Employees were able to sample foods from more than 20 countries featuring recipes such as "Blue Drawers" from Jamaica and "Doro Wot" from Ethiopia to "Okroska" from Russia and "Chiftelute" from Romania. We have a lot of great cooks at Pinnacol and this is a great way to bring people together. If only it was held every year...