Approximately three years ago, The Chubb Group of Insurance Cos. began implementing an aggressive online training strategy. The fruits of this approach have been pronounced, as it now employs a variety of methods - from virtual classrooms to Webcasts and wikis - that have transformed how it educates employees and agents and the services they provide. Online training "is creating a smoother insurance transaction with less error, and it is also speeding the insurance process," says Alexander Mirabella, assistant VP, manager of field technology staff, information technology, at Chubb. "If we can teach our agents, and have them in a position to access information faster, then I think that helps the insurance transaction."
Carriers like Warren, N.J.-based Chubb, which also offers expansive onsite trainings for employees and trains its agents in "older technologies," such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, are finding that online training, or e-learning, is becoming one of the sharper arrows in their quiver of training tools.
A chief advantage of online learning is its ability to ensure that workers in both near and far-flung offices are trained consistently and efficiently. The Travelers Cos., St. Paul, Minn., for instance, can quickly connect employees from all over the country online so they can engage in facilitator-led, interactive discussions on a variety of topics that last from one to two hours. It also offers self-directed trainings online that let employees access online training 24/7.
"People can log on from their desk, learn the material, and then move back to their workflow and their work product by applying the training and knowledge immediately," explains Tara Kennedy, assistant VP of knowledge and learning technologies at Travelers. Further, remote staffers can quickly get refresher courses via e-learning.
Aviva Canada Inc., a Scarborough, Ontario-based P&C firm with more than 3,300 employees in 40 locations, and more than 3,000 independent broker partners in Canada, is taking aggressive measures to ensure that its employees benefit from e-learning. A part of London, England-based Aviva plc, it has been using off-the-shelf online products from the Nashua, N.H.-based e-learning provider SkillSoft to train its employees, while modifying other products from the vendor to offer courses on negotiating skills, commercial lines underwriting and other disciplines.
Online courses have enabled underwriters "to test for understanding and really work through some specific scenarios," says Lynn Ardizzi, assistant VP of learning and development at Aviva Canada.
Insurers have found that online learning also enables them to more easily gauge employee development. For instance, Travelers, which has largely created its own learning tools, implemented a learning management system that tracks student enrollment and course progress. The firm provides assessments to employees, and monitors their progress as they develop in their roles. "We are creating learning paths for each of our roles within the claim organization," says Kennedy.
Travelers is creating a certification program that could be provided to a variety of claims professionals seeking different levels of achievement. About 80% of the training that Travelers offers annually is now through e-learning.
CUSTOMER FRIENDLY
Of course, one of the ultimate goals for insurers that provide online learning is to enhance the customer's interaction with its insurance representative. Travelers has found that employees who have been through blended learning methods - combining live classrooms, virtual classrooms and self-directed and reference learning - are more knowledgeable and are able to resolve claims more quickly and effectively.
"Most of our training is designed and developed around practical scenarios so employees can role-play real-life scenarios in a safe environment so that they have the confidence and the knowledge to be able to provide responsive service to our customers," Kennedy says.
The uniformity of online training also can be a boon for insurers, since it enables employees and agents to learn to give a consistent response to customers. While professors' methods and information may vary greatly in on-site trainings, Web-based trainings ensure that a more predictable set of lessons is imparted to insurance workers. "Once someone tries e-learning (or online training), his level of assurance increases, and he wants more," Kennedy says. "So he understands the need to be able to get consistent, quick information easily. Our organization, and Travelers overall, is in need of more learning online because we can really deliver consistency in our results, and drive those results based on knowing that everybody is learning using the same knowledge and information."
The economic crisis might further spur insurers to consider online training methods. "If we can do it remotely, I think we can not only save dollars, but can also save time not traveling. And some of our agents are remote, and it might be difficult to get to that agent or costly to do so," says Mirabella. "I imagine that moving forward, companies will need to be more efficient from a cost standpoint with the economy the way it is." At the same time, Chubb's agents are looking for ways to survive at a time when they feel financial pressures to be more productive.
Though metrics are hard to come by, carriers such as Travelers and Aviva have enjoyed major benefits and cost efficiencies via online trainings. "There are always going to be cost efficiencies when you have individuals who are taking 10 to 12 hours of online development classes over a period of four to six months, and then coming in for a two- to three-day classroom session," says Aviva's Ardizzi. "You save enormously by having them go through that method rather than bringing them in for five to seven days of development onsite." Additionally, the trainings enable its employees to have the flexibility to learn the requisite material on their own schedules.
VENDORS FIND FERTILE SOIL
Though some insurers set up their e-learning programs entirely alone, many turn to vendors such as SkillSoft, Nashua, N.H., and Coggno, San Jose, Calif. Insurers have embraced such SkillSoft products as Leadership Development Channel, which gives insurers access to more than 900 short video programs that feature well-known business gurus and authors and include eight live speaking events annually delivered via the Web or satellite.
"It's a way for these companies that have management training programs to bring in these well-known speakers without having to pay $60,000 or $70,000," says Julie Ogilvie, VP of corporate marketing for SkillSoft. SkillSoft has found that a big draw for insurance companies has been the ability to hone employees' and agents' business acumen online. Insurers with large call centers also use SkillSoft courses to learn how to better handle customer complaints, she adds.
With Web services, such as Coggno.com, insurers enter information into the online system and use video and text tools as well as PowerPoint presentations to create training courses. The carriers also can establish a question bank, tests and an entire grading process with its fully automated system. "The system provides the tools that enable a user to facilitate any type of training that he wants," says Tod Browndorf, VP of the San Jose, Calif.-based firm. "It could be Sarbanes-Oxley, workers compensation, compliance, or any type of business knowledge or business intelligence that you want to transfer."
Coggno, which charges companies $5 per seat per course (a seat represents an e-mail address), has found increased interest from insurers for its services. "Instructor-led training is a very expensive way to convey knowledge," says Browndorf about traditional, in-class trainings. "Also, companies are looking for easier, quicker, faster ways to get information into the hands of the people that need to receive it - sort of the lower barrier to entry."
SUPPLEMENTAL TRAINING
Though burgeoning in popularity, online training is generally designed to complement rather than replace on-site trainings. "We are finding that there is a larger call for this distance learning, and that is the road we are going down a little bit," says Mirabella. "But still, I think that the relationship is key for us, so we are increasingly [using] a blended learning approach."
For instance, Chubb's underwriters attend one to two classes per week over a six-week period in a virtual classroom, and also take tests online. They then go to Chubb's home office in Warren, N.J., for one week of face-to-face training. Next, they return to a virtual classroom for another five weeks to reinforce what they have learned, and to learn new material as well. "That is kind of the route we are taking in terms of helping producers and agents as well," says Bettina Kelly, SVP, talent strategies group manager for Chubb.
While continuing to move toward e-learning, Travelers focuses on meeting its audience where they most want to be met, whether it be online or through another medium. It relies heavily on Claim University, its more than two-year-old training academy in Windsor, Conn., where subject matter experts teach Travelers employees in classes and laboratories. Some 12,000 students annually go through Travelers' onsite labs.
"While we see the benefits from our existing e-learning resources, and we intend to continue developing additional e-learning resources, we will certainly always benefit from the sophisticated lab environments that we offer our people who come into an auto, property or heavy equipment lab," says Madelyn Lankton, SVP of claims shared services at Travelers.
Insurers such as Aviva make no bones about the importance they place on employees proving their competence in the online academic arena. The carrier's students need to achieve an 80% score on their online tests before they can attend classroom trainings, which focus on practical applications and case studies. Aviva expects that online learning will be one of various training methods that enjoy greater currency among insurers. "More and more organizations overall are looking at a broader spectrum of learning offerings, rather than your standard ones that we all sort of attended 10 years ago," says Ardizzi. "Online learning provides many efficiencies across the board, so it is an area that most companies are looking to leverage."
Daniel Joelson is a freelance business writer based in Arlington, Va.
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