Need a reason to NOT work out?

For many of our positions candidates have the unenviable task of completing our basic math test. Nothing seems to bring on the anxiety jitters in candidates more than sitting down to what really is a basic exercise covering things like addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, percentages, decimals, and fractions, as well as a couple of word problems geared towards a workers' compensation question we get asked about all the time. To make it even easier we even allow candidates to use a calculator.

We know many people struggle with math (I count myself among them). For our employees who also have to take the test when they apply for some promotional opportunities we have developed some practice exercises  designed to help overcome their math anxiety. I was showing Megan, who recently joined our HR team, these exercises this morning so that she could go over them with one of our employees. One of these exercises is titled "Having Fun with Math!" (how creative is that?). At the end of "Having Fun with Math" we ask employees a seemingly silly question about how fast they are moving. This always elicits some puzzled expressions until we explain that we are going to use very basic math to calculate how fast we are all moving ... around the sun. For those who remember their high school geometry you'll recall that the circumference of a circle is 2 times Pi (approximately 3.142) times the Radius:

I've got the calculation below, but the answer to our question is that we are all moving at about 66,000 miles an hour this old earth sure gives a remarkably smooth ride!). When I told Megan how fast she was moving her comment was "If I'm moving that fast then I guess I don't have to work out..." If that's not the best excuse to avoid working up a sweat then I don't know what is!


Don't think you are moving 66,000 miles an hour? Here's the basic math!

• The earth is approximately 93 million miles from the sun so 93 million is the Radius
• The earth goes around the sun once every 365 days so 2 X 3.142 X 93 million is the circumference of the earth's orbit (circle) around the sun
• 2 X 3.142 X 93 million equals an annual journey of about 584.5 million miles
• 584.5 million miles a year divided by 365 days  equals 1.6 million miles per day
• 1.6 million miles per day divided by 24 hours equals .0667 million miles per hour
• .0667 times 1,000,000 (1 million) equals...... 66,724 miles per hour!

Flu shots an annual event at Pinnacol

I don't know anyone who really likes to get a shot, and through the years I've become more skittish about having strangers poking me with needles. However, I really, really don't like getting the flu so yesterday I lined up with many (most, but not all) of my brave co-workers and rolled up my sleeve for the annual influenza vaccine. I'm convinced that the rule of inverse proportionality applies to shots of all kinds because I truly believe the closer I got to the front of the line (and the impending jab in the arm) the bigger the needle looked, at least in my mind. In reality it was over and done with before I could say "OW!" and it really did not hurt at all. Some of my immediate co-workers were not quite as brave as those of us in line and opt to take their chances every year. Some tell me they have never gotten the flu, which is truly a wonderful thing as for anyone who has experienced it knows it is a miserable experience. Pinnacol is nice enough to pick up the cost of the shots and to arrange them to be given on-site every year so for me I'd feel really bad about not getting the shot and then actually getting a case of H1N1, H3N2, or whatever this year's version of influenza will be.

Thus far the Google Flu Trends map for the U.S. doesn't show much activity YET, and the peak flu season usually isn't until January or February so who knows what kind of flu season we'll have. So to everyone who reads this, regardless of whether you "bare arms" against the flu or go without, here's wishing for a healthy winter!

For additional information on the Flu season visit http://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/season/flu-season-2014-2015.htm

Investigator - Special Investigations Unit - position now open!

My last post talked about some of the more unique opportunities available at Pinnacol right now and we have another position that has just opened that would fit into that category. Our Special Investigations Unit, or SIU, has an opening for an Investigator who will investigate fraud issues related to workers' compensation.

Types of fraud can include compensability issues on claims including allegations of fraudulent intent to obtain workers compensation insurance benefits by claimants, fraudulent receipt of proceeds from workers compensation by service providers, or fraudulent methods designed to reduce insurance premiums by policyholders. Our SIU Investigators also help prepare possible cases for presentation in the criminal and civil justice systems.

Ideally we are looking for a candidate who has a Bachelors degree or equivalent work experience, and who has some related workers’ compensation or insurance experience (2 years preferred). Direct investigations experience is not required but is obviously a strong  plus. Bilingual candidates (English/Spanish) are strongly encouraged to apply as are recent graduates with majors in Criminal Justice or related fields.

I spoke with Mark, who heads up our SIU group, and he's very excited at the opportunity to bring a new person onto the team! If this sounds like an opportunity you are interested in we encourage you to apply via our company website at www.pinnacol.com/careers.

Opportunities update!

Its been a while since I have put out an update on our current opportunities so thought I'd do that this morning.

We have a fair number of openings in a broad variety of positions so its really a great chance to join our organization if your background and skills look to be a fit for some of these roles.

This morning I put up an announcement of a newly created position for a Learning & Organizational Development Specialist. We are in the process of rebuilding our learning and development function with an increased emphasis on Organizational Development. You'll note that we actually have two positions in this area - one for the L & OD Manager role, and the one just mentioned for the Specialist. Organizational Development covers a lot of territory but as Wikipedia puts it "Organization development is an ongoing, systematic process of implementing effective organizational change". We have a lot of positive initiatives that the company is implementing so for someone who has experience helping companies successfully manage change these are exciting opportunities.

Many of the positions we have open probably don't need too much explanation but there are some others that we don't post too often. One of those is for a Sr. Maintenance Tech who will be instrumental in helping us maintain our headquarters building to the high standards we have set since moving into the facility in September 2002. Many folks who visit us for the first time think the building is brand new and that is in large part thanks to the efforts of our top-notch facilities team that the Sr. Maintenance Tech would be a part of.

Another position that we don't have open too often is for a Staff Counsel (Attorney) in our Legal team. For this role we are really hoping to find someone with direct workers' compensation experience, ideally within the Colorado market as every state has different workers' compensation statutes on the books.

The Sr. Actuarial Manager is another 'niche' position that certainly requires a very specific skill set. We have been using outside actuarial consultants for several years but are now looking to bring this skill set back in house.

We are actively reviewing candidates for all of the other positions as well and if any of these positions looks like a possible fit we would love to hear from you. As always we ask that candidates apply via our company website.

Tis a sign of the times...

Tis the season... for every other commercial on television or radio to tout a candidate for this or that office. The fall of 1914 was not all that much different. That year also saw Coloradoan's heading for the polls to elect a new Governor. There were candidates from three major parties back then - the Republicans, the Democrats, and the Progressives. The Progressive Party was formed by former President Theodore Roosevelt (who had left office in 1909), after a split in the Republican Party between him and President William Howard Taft. The party also became known as the Bull Moose Party after journalists quoted Roosevelt saying "I'm feeling like a bull moose" shortly after the new party was formed.  

The Progressives put forth a broad range of social and political reforms, many of which still resonate today: Strict limits and disclosure requirements on political campaign contributions, registration of lobbyists,  a National Health Service to include all existing government medical agencies, Social insurance to provide for the elderly, the unemployed, and the disabled,  A minimum wage law for women (they were also in support of women’s suffrage), an eight hour workday, a federal securities commission, a Constitutional amendment to allow a Federal income tax and of special relevance to this blog establishment of Workers' compensation for work-related injuries.

The Republican candidate for Governor that year was a gentleman by the name of George Carlson  who the Routt County Republican newspaper characterized on September 4, 1914 this way: “He is the man who has really done things as a district attorney. His record in that office is the most brilliant in the history of the state. He is in a position to command the respect and support of both law abiding union and non-union men and of every citizen who believes in law and order. He is a self made man, used to hard work and spendidly educated.”  Born in 1876 in Alta, Iowa the soon to be 20^th Governor of Colorado graduated from the University of Colorado in 1902 and earned his law degree there in Fort Collins, Colorado from 1905-08, and was district attorney in Fort Collins from 1908-14. 

The Aspen Democrat-Times in December 1914 described then Governor-elect Carlson’s proposal, made as he testified before the federal industrial relations commission (which was looking in to the causes and effects of the Colorado coal strike), for a State Industrial Commission to be appointed by the governor and which would “…have charge of all branches of state government dealing with industrial and labor affairs.” The primary purpose of this commission would be “…the improvement of safety and sanitary devices” and “the establishment of workmen’s compensation.”  The Aspen Democrat-Times reported in the same article that from 1911 to 1913 “…Colorado mine accidents were from 50 to 100 percent higher per 1000 men employed – and per million tons of coal mined, than the general average for the country.” The stage was being set for efforts to pass the act that would bring our company into being.

Sr. Actuarial Manager opportunity now available

We are looking for a Sr. Actuarial Manager to be responsible for establishing and implementing operational strategies that drive the fulfillment of our company's mission, vision and corporate strategic outcomes. This position will manage an analytics team that is responsible for developing pricing tools and designing and implementing predictive analytics throughout the company. 

The Sr. Actuarial Manager will provide actuarial assistance on special projects focused on advancing Pinnacol's market leading position. Working closely with IS, Business Intelligence and operations areas the Sr. Actuarial Manager will help identify current and future data needs and develop supporting data systems and data hierarchy required to achieve Pinnacol's short and long-term strategic objectives. 

Candidates should be able to create and deliver actuarial presentations to internal and external clients and all levels of management and will be expected to recommend projects to Executive Team that will significantly improve business unit results. This position requires a Bachelor's Degree in Actuarial Science, Mathematics, Statistics or related area with at least seven years of progressively more responsible pricing experience in workers’ compensation insurance/commercial casualty lines. Statistical modeling and data mining experience desired. Fellowship in the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) strongly preferred. This is a new position to Pinnacol and we are excited to hear from candidates interested in this unique opportunity! If interested, please apply on-line. 

To every season change change change

If you come in for an interview with us its likely you'll meet with either myself or with my counterpart Megan. As we speak with folks we are always curious to see what they really know about our company. One of our favorite questions asks candidates if they know how long Pinnacol has been around. It doesn't take much research by anyone who visits pinnacol.com to find out we will be celebrating our 100 year anniversary next August. Those who don't know we've been around that long generally guess that we are 20-30 years old and they are surprised when we tell them about our upcoming centennial.

To say there has been a lot of change in the last 100 years is an obvious understatement and change continues to this day. One of my favorite truisms is that if your not moving ahead then you are falling behind and behind that sentiment is the reality that change is a constant. One of the changes Pinnacol has been working on for some time is to digitize all of our records. Periodically Craig and Jose let me see some of the artifacts they uncover and recently they brought over a tome entitled "Employee Accident Index". This particular volume was for the period May 1942 through May 1945 and covered the alphabet from Aa through Go. There's nothing wrong with digitized records and they certainly make it easier for all of us in the modern world to get our work done. Nonetheless I sometimes wonder if we don't lose something by not being able to interact with things like this. Pictures alone can't do justice; simply hefting it gave me pause - to the point that I actually went over to our wellness center and put it on the scale. This one volume of the "Employee Accident Index" weighed in at 14lbs.


The other aspect that gave me pause was the time period covered - May 1942 through May 1945. This period obviously encompasses the majority of the second World War, an event that, again to understate it, changed the world. While millions of Americans were involved in conflict overseas millions more were going to work on the home front and yes, they periodically experienced injuries on the job which are chronicled row by row by row in the "Employee Accident Index". And our company's employees during that time were there to take care of them. The injuries weren't too much different then than we see today though certainly the frequency of industrial accidents has declined dramatically in the last 70 years. Reading through the employers listed reads like a who's who of Colorado companies with many of them still around today.

Opening the Index's heavy front hinged cover I came to a page where someone had, in beautiful cursive, inscribed the dates covered. They could have simply printed it, or even typed it, but it's clear some employee at our company took the extra time and extra effort to write it out in flowing script. Their message carried across the years - they took pride in their work then just as Pinnacol's employees take pride in the work we do today. As we experience a changing modern world its nice to reflect that we are not alone - we stand on top of the foundations left for us by those who came, and worked, and changed the world, before us.