John O’Donnell picked an attention-grabbing time to vary jobs.
The best way the world works is radically altering, and simply because the pandemic – apparently – wanes, he’s taking the helm of a big employees’ compensation supplier.
The largest problem he faces clearly is to attempt to “perceive what future of labor appears like,” he informed a reporter throughout an interview on Feb. 28, the day he had formally began his new job as president and chief government officer of Pinnacol Assurance.
Pinnacol is Colorado’s largest employees’ compensation service with roughly 55,000 companies insured, and an estimated 1 million Colorado employees lined.
O’Donnell succeeds Phil Kalin, who’s retiring on March 31.
Increasingly more “assist wished” postings on the web provide “hybrid,” or “distant” as perceived profit for job candidates. Within the Japanese U.S., a Federal Reserve Financial institution of Richmond survey confirmed more than a fourth of employers expect to have more remote workers subsequent yr.
Determining tips on how to insure the dangers confronted by a workforce that could be more and more allowed to do business from home, or work each on-site and at house in a hybrid position, is a frightening job, O’Donnell acknowledged.
“That’s one thing we’ve to determine is, ‘How does the character of that danger change?” he mentioned.
The adjustments he makes may very well be extra profound than merely figuring issues out; they may remodel an organization that’s been doing just about the identical factor since its founding greater than 100 years in the past.
And it’s seemingly that no matter strikes he and the corporate make, they’ll be carefully watched.
As an organization that has an enormous hand within the lives of so many Colorado companies, something Pinnacol does in that state is noteworthy there.
Most of their latest strikes have been positively obtained for apparent causes. Pinnacol for the sixth straight time final yr distributed general dividend checks to its prospects. Pinnacol has additionally decreased rates for seven consecutive years for a cumulative lower of 40%. The Denver Submit final yr named it one of many state’s “top workplaces.”
O’Donnell doesn’t have a deep employees’ comp background. However he appears to have ample management chops. He joins Pinnacol with 30 years of management expertise. He was most lately an government vp at Allstate, serving because the president of Western Territory, and he was board chair of Allstate Canada, the place he was chargeable for 27 states and the Canadian firm. O’Donnell additionally served in management positions at GMAC, the Walt Disney Co. and Goldman Sachs.
Challenges are additionally not new to him. He started his profession as an assault helicopter pilot within the U.S. Marine Corps.
O’Donnell outlined the duty for the insurer to take care of the sweeping workforce evolution as first understanding how the combo of companies in Colorado is altering, after which how these adjustments impression danger profiles.
What they’ve seen at Pinnacol is an more and more distant work atmosphere that has grown eyond state boundaries.
“We have now loads of distant employees which can be situated outdoors of the state,” O’Donnell mentioned.
Such is the case with many who do enterprise with Pinnacol, which places the corporate within the distinctive place of being a one-state, monoline enterprise with prospects who’re asking for and requiring broader protection.
O’Donnell sees that answer to that as pretty easy, but in addition difficult.
“We’re taking a look at alternative ways we are able to begin to increase our enterprise to fulfill the wants of consumers, to even transcend Colorado or transcend employees’ compensation protection,” O’Donnell.
Different questions, particularly in an space as complicated and convoluted as employees’ comp, remained for him to reply – “How do you propose to sort out hovering drug prices?” “What do you take into account to be a number of the greatest dangers for Colorado employers?” – however these are questions finest tackled far previous one’s first day on the job.
O’Donnell, when speaking about his plans, COVID-19 and distant work, dangers, and absolutely anything else, stayed targeted on the problem theme.
“I all the time imagine that with change like this comes alternative,” he mentioned. “I’m trying ahead to the problem. Establishment just isn’t going to chop it.”
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