.jpg)
Lena Tityk has had a long and illustrious career in insurance. She started out in the industry, as many do, by accident when she realized during university that a career in education wasn’t for her. At the time, Tityk was working at a major hotel chain when a friend suggested she switch to a career in insurance. She went from being an underwriting assistant, where she learned the basics of the industry, to a role training new employees, before transitioning to the commercial lines side of the business.
In 2010, Tityk got a call from Bruce Rabik, the COO at Rogers Insurance.
“He said, I don’t know you, and you don’t know me, but someone I respect speaks very highly of you and I would like to discuss an opportunity at our brokerage,” said Tityk. “I had spent 13 years on the company side and had a very good understanding of how things worked and was comfortable. I had never even considered working for a brokerage.”
A year later, she made the decision to learn about the other side of insurance, and is now the vice president of personal lines and signature service at Rogers.
“Having worked on both sides of the business, I have an in-depth understanding of the processes and an unwavering commitment to resolving issues for our clients and the teams,” said Tityk. “It is hard to believe that I have now been in this role for seven years.”
In this Q&A, the VP gives Insurance Business insight into Rogers’ work during the Fort McMurray fires, the ties that the insurer has to its communities, and the disruption currently going on in insurance.
What is the most fulfilling aspect of your work?
The most rewarding thing to me is working with my team – teaching them and helping them identify how we can perform better together, and seeing their confidence and skills grow simultaneously. It’s fulfilling for me to see them make their own decisions and problem solve without my involvement.
I also enjoy knowing that I’m in a career that allows me to help and interact with customers. Working with them to find solutions to their insurance needs, and supporting them through the emotions and challenges when they have a claim adds a real human aspect to the world of insurance.
The morning of the fires we met as a senior management team to develop a strategy. Every department played a role – it was all hands on deck. We started by setting up a claim for each Fort McMurray client and sent them their claim number with adjuster information before they even contacted our office. We knew that every client would have some sort of claim – fire, smoke, and additional living expenses.
From there, we reached out to each client via phone call to ensure they had heard from an adjuster and to explain what the claims process would look like. We also encouraged our clients to access information on our website as our communications team worked diligently to provide the most recent and relevant information. We had over 5,000 claims and now, nearing the two year mark, we are proud to say that 95% of these claims have been completed. It really was a testament to the entire Rogers Group of Companies that worked to help this community in need.
Mergers and acquisitions continue to persist in the global insurance and reinsurance sector as companies strive for growth in challenging markets.
Weather and climate change have also played a large role in our industry. Events such as the Slave Lake fire in 2011 resulted in $700 million in insured losses. The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) and Catastrophe Indices and Quantification (CatIQ) reported that insured damage was estimated to have reached $4.7 billion, making the wildfire the most expensive disaster in Canadian history, surpassing the 1998 ice storms in Quebec ($1.9 billion) and the 2013 Alberta floods ($1.8 billion).
Companies have started responding to these weather related losses with increased premiums, increased deductibles and changing coverages. It is now common to have multiple deductibles, one deductible for the policy, and a separate deductible for wind, hail, and water.
Technology and artificial intelligence (AI) have the potential to disrupt the entire industry. It is revolutionizing the way insurers gain information from their customers to leverage better data for improved insights into the customers. Telematics, or wireless communication of data back to an organization, is expected to be a huge area of growth for insurance. Many insurance companies already offer discounts to customers who transmit their driving data back to the company. Telematics and artificial intelligence can take this one step further by recognizing GPS patterns with the data, inferring road and traffic conditions, and even predicting and helping avoid accidents, which could potentially lead to fewer claims to process.
We are local and we are independent. The majority of our competitors are headquartered outside of Western Canada or have financial ties to one or more of the insurance companies whose products they sell – we have no financial ties to any insurance company.
We have remained employee-owned and we feel strongly that independence provides the customer a guarantee of impartial advice. Our customers can feel reassured that we can make the best decisions for their needs because we understand the world they live and work in – because we do, too.
At Rogers, we like to say that we take a human approach to insurance, which means we are all about our people, and I believe the tenure of many of our long-standing employees clearly illustrates that. We believe that if you treat our staff well, then they will treat your customers well, and that the growth will come as a result. We have had the privilege of being recognized as one of Alberta’s top employers 11 times and have won 15 major HR awards over the last decade.
I am also very proud of Rogers’ strong ties to the communities where we live and work. In 2011, a group of Rogers’ employees started The Run for L’Arche after they travelled to France to participate in a marathon and had the opportunity to meet Jean Vanier, the founder of L’Arche. Their visit inspired them to organize a half marathon to raise funds to support the L’Arche Calgary community. Since then, The Run for L’Arche has raised over $300,000 for L’Arche Calgary’s homes and programs for adults with developmental disabilities.
