Keeping employees happy is a priority for many organisations today, and those in the insurance industry are no exception. For EML, the largest personal injury claims management company in Australia, one way to do this is by maintaining balance and openness in its workplace culture. In this interview, EML’s executive chairman Cameron McCullagh, explains the factors behind the company’s Top Insurance Employer Award for 2021.
“We’re constantly going through a process of identifying what works for us and what doesn’t work and seeking to enhance what we do well and minimise what we haven’t done well,” he said.
Another main factor is having company owners who make sure that people on the ground fulfill what management has planned to do. McCullagh also emphasised EML’s internal and an external purpose, which provides clarity in delivering the company’s contributions to society, as well as determining why a particular job is important and how certain disciplines can be applied to achieve a higher purpose. An upside-down pyramid, where the chief executive is at the bottom and serves the people, such as case managers, on the upper parts, represents the organisational structure that inspires EML’s service philosophy.
“If we serve each of the people above us, ultimately it gets mirrored with the case managers at the very top,” he said. “When you’re focusing on those case managers, the people who actually serve our customers, you spend the money making it efficient and friendly for them rather than for people further down that upside-down pyramid.”
The company also encourages employees to provide feedback diplomatically. The feedback process involves “[training] people to have tough discussions very easily so that it’s not like a pressure cooker”.
McCullagh said the most important element is a “sense of love,” which shows the business is working for the right reasons.
“People are so hard coded to be able to pick up a lack of integrity. So, if you’re not doing it for the right purpose, people will bristle against it, not accept it. But if you are doing it with a real sense of the right external purpose [which, for a personal injury claims management company is] to help people get their lives back. And our internal purpose is to help people develop personally and professionally.”
EML is investing in training aims to provide employees with “the right behavioural techniques and the right technical expertise” to stabilise caseloads. Such training makes a fundamental difference in achieving good results in the workers’ compensation and personal injury insurance segments.
Furthermore, according to information on EML’s website, the company invests in a mutual benefits program to support employees’ mental health and wellbeing.
