Kyiakhalid Ruiz, MBA

Communications & Presentation Specialist

An Outsider’s Observations & Recommendations

Imagine the end of the WCIRB.

What circumstances could cause the WCIRB to fail?

WCIRB Making the business case for improved Customer Experience

WCIRB See one possible example in the conclusion

The WCIRB is a dated bureaucracy plagued by…

…poor external relations with media and/or clients…poor internal communications

(Is everyone on the same page?)…internal divisions (tenured employees vs. new hires)

…leading to low morale and inefficient productivity.

WCIRB Executive Summary

WCIRB The WCIRB needs a refresh

WCIRB Background

WCIRB State-mandated worker’s compensation bureau since 1915

WCIRB Background

WCIRB Wordy! Can you describe your business in 5-words-or-less?

BLAND

INSULAR

WCIRB Corporate Identity (current)

WCIRB Lack of “growth mindset” will damage WCIRB brand

WCIRB Poor Internal Communications

WCIRB Uncertainty about projects/objectives inhibits growth

WCIRB Poor Internal Communications

WCIRB Cross-Departmental partnership is integral to project success

Projects approved & developed in silos.

Appr

oval

Laun

ch

Marketing/Consumer Experience Department to develop insightful, engaging, impactful collateral with too little time or preparation.

WCIRB Internal Divisions

WCIRB Tenured employees have difficulty adjusting to new ideas

Former CEO, 20+ years

“This is the way we’ve always done things.”

Current CEO, 5+ years

“Let’s try something new.”

WCIRB Strategic Recommendations

The WCIRB can repair its image and productivity by…

…updating the Corporate Identity (logo and tagline)

…improving its Customer Experience/Public Relations

…improving organizational morale and teamwork

…instituting internal communications tools/processes

…avoiding the “Non-Profit Fallacy”

WCIRB

WCIRB Updating Corporate Identity (Logo)

WCIRB Cost: Negligible (replacing current collateral)

Current Proposed

Dated font: Bauhaus 93(What 93? 1893?)

Blocky font connotes stodgy, unchanging, monotonous,…

New font: Optima(Bold, italic)

Italicized font connotes forward-thinking, innovative, futuristic,…

An easy-enough in-house change, but hiring a professional graphic designer could yield a more clever logo with a subliminal impact. (Think arrow in .)

WCIRB Updating Corporate Identity (Tagline)

WCIRB Benefit: Powerful assertion of WCIRB identity

Current Proposed

Ambiguous: What business does this describe?

What business doesn’t it describe?

What business is the WCIRB in? The “WCIRB” business? The “insurance bureaucracy” business? Consider reframing into the “delivering transparent insurance data analysis” business.

Objective.Trusted.Integral.“Quality data you can use”

or“Objective data, trusted analysis”

or“California’s trusted insurance resource”

or…

WCIRB Improve Customer Experience

WCIRB Cost: Time to build survey, ask clients, analyze results

Know your partners/clients/media through old-fashioned consumer research surveys.

What are their needs? What are their pain-points? How can the WCIRB make their work easier?

Making their work easier improves their experience with the WCIRB.

FORMS

WCIRB Improve organizational teamwork

WCIRB Achieve buy-in from current employees

Who knows the WCIRB business better than the employees?

Find out what recommendations they’d make to improve productivity.

They have ideas already, they tell each other everyday.

Is the reason they don’t tell senior management because they know their ideas will get shot down?

Give your employees ownership in the success of the organization.

WCIRB Improve organizational morale

WCIRB Achieve buy-in from current employees

Perform employee research. Incentivize employees to maximize returns.

Gift cards, iPads are nice short-term rewards, but…

…higher stakes will lead to better suggestions.

Consider rewards for great suggestions… First Prize: 7 vacation days Second Prize: 3 vacation days

FORMS

WCIRB Improve organizational morale

WCIRB Achieve buy-in from current employees.

New CEO brings new approach (new tools, processes, softwares,…)

New approach requires new employees to implement the changes.

New employees face obstacles from tenured employees who don’t understand the need for a new approach.

(Here’s where I’d tell the story of the pot-roast. “It’s the way we’ve always done it!”)

WCIRB Improve organizational morale

WCIRB Achieve buy-in from current employees

If the current WCIRB is the caterpillar… …the organizational change is the chrysalis… …the refreshed WCIRB is the butterfly! (Everybody loves butterflies!)

(No one ever asks if the transformation from a worm with legs into a beautiful butterfly with wings was painful or uncomfortable.)

WCIRB Improve organizational teamwork

WCIRB It’s not “us vs. them”, we’re all “us”

Mix up the departments to ensure employees (new & old) are teamed with people they don’t usually work with. Let’s meet each other!

Plan off-site events designed to bring teams together.

WCIRB Upgrade communications tools & processes

WCIRB Cost: Software seat licenses

Visit http://www.chcf.org/publications/2013/07/data-viz-mental-health to dynamically interact with this dataset.

Tableau, data visualization tool.

Performs multiple regressions from a given dataset.

Creates dynamic analyses, reveals crucial insights.

WCIRB Upgrade communications tools & processes

WCIRB Cost: Open-source software (free)

Create a corporate knowledge base using open-source wiki software (shown: DocuWiki, but there are various options).

Keep everyone up-to-date on projects, progress, timelines,…

Require departments to update their work regularly.

WCIRB Upgrade communications tools & processes

WCIRB Cost: Free for basic functionality

Use best-in-class communication tools to keep teams in the loop.

Slack is the market leader, but there are several options.

Make communications fun again!

“This fallacy has cost far too many organizations too much money. It’s based on misdirected thinking that says you should make

marketing decisions based on cost, not on value, and focuses on the price tag, not the return on investment. If you buy into the fallacy of doing more with less, you may end up watching your marketing dollars slip down the drain with little to show for them in the end.”

WCIRB Avoiding the “Non-Profit Fallacy”

WCIRB Manage the WCIRB like any for-profit organization

Jay Wilkinson, The Fallacy of Nonprofits Doing More with Less

“Non-Profit” doesn’t mean an organization cannot make money, or cannot spend money.

“In economic terms, a nonprofit organization uses its surplus revenues to further achieve its purpose or mission…” (Wikipedia)

What circumstances could cause the WCIRB to fail?WCIRB Conclusion

WCIRB Making the business case for improved Customer Experience

California law has given the WCIRB a monopoly on worker’s compensation insurance data collection and analysis for 100+ years.

Consider the implications of continued poor service. Insurance companies, agents/brokers can make the case to the California legislature that the WCIRB is an inefficient bureaucracy and that the “market” can do better.

In a state world-renowned for its academic achievements in data analysis (Stanford, Berkeley, CalPoly,…) as well as its innovative and disruptive entrepreneurial challenges to existing paradigms (Silicon Valley), combined with the current distorted media perspective of the WCIRB’s failings and the insurance industry lobbyists’ influence over lawmakers, why wouldn’t California lawmakers allow for competition?