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Flexible work hours, employee perks, training opportunities – companies in the insurance industry are renovating the workplace to make employees feel part of a team rather than just another cog in the machine.
Drawing attention to the hard work of their inspectors was the sentiment behind iv3 Solutions’ Inspector of Excellence awards gala, held in Toronto. The company offers property inspection and risk management solutions, and has a team of around 120 inspectors who carry out commercial and residential inspections across the country. iv3 launched the Inspector of Excellence program to shine a light on its top performers, and the awards event is a way to bring together recognized inspectors with the rest of the iv3 team.
“We invite clients, we invite partners and we invite Inspectors of Excellence or high calibre inspectors because we want them to strive towards being a member of Inspector of Excellence,” said Denise Gaeta, iv3’s president. “This gives them some reward and recognition for all the hard work that they do.”
Each year, iv3 picks no more than eight inspectors for the program, some of whom have been recognized before while others are being awarded for the first time. They’re all contractors who are out on the road for most of the year, so the event is a way to make them feel part of the company, explained Gaeta.
For the inspectors themselves, the night of recognition stands out in the industry.
“It means everything. We’re always out in the field and we don’t get to come to the office as often as we like because our work is all over the place, so for them to see that and recognize it, out of all the inspectors, it means everything for our job,” said Fareed Mohammed, commercial quality assurance and field inspector, and one of iv3’s newly recognized inspectors. “iv3 is not one of those companies that forgets about us. They always reach out to us one way or another.”
“In general in the industry, a lot of inspectors don’t get recognized for how hard they work and the contributions that they actually make to the insurance industry,” said James Georgievski, national operational manager for iv3. “When it comes to pre-loss, getting into a home and seeing it, measuring it, coming up with the replacement costs and on the commercial side, pointing out hazards – they’re working long days and they deserve some recognition.”
So what qualities does an Inspector of Excellence have? Dedication to their work, high quality reporting with minimal errors, a consistent meeting of deadlines, and superb performance in the field, according to Maggie Goldstein, iv3’s regional field manager – commercial.
Keeping in mind what it takes to get recognized drives Scott Purkis, an awarded commercial quality assurance and field inspector for iv3, to do the best work possible when he’s out on the job.
“It’s always part of that goal-setting, both for our own business line as well as something to attain within the industry or within the company,” he told Insurance Business at the event.
“It’s important to recognize those that are out there inspecting the dwellings for us,” said Cathy Derksen, director of underwriting for the Allstate Insurance Company of Canada. “They’re out there representing our company on our behalf, and I think showing that they’re doing a great job is very important.”
