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Analytics: Thinking beyond the analytics department

The ability to analyze data now is needed in virtually every department and drives an increasing amount of activity, not just in claims, marketing and actuarial, Rieder says, but also in human resources, accounting, IT and others. "With the amount of data required for people to understand and use, analytics is really being embedded in every function within the company;" Source: The Ward Group
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Technology: Adapting to new tools

“The issue is the pace of technological change, whether it’s in claims, or policy administration, etc.,” Rieder says. “Employees need to be able to adapt to those technologies, and not just to stay employed. They also need to learn and be comfortable with how to use mobile devices, the internet, social networking, or whatever the emerging technology is. They have to embrace the technology, learn the new skills and be willing to operate in an environment that may not be like what they are used to.” Source: The Ward Group
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Critical Thinking: Decision making and problem solving

Says Rieder, "There’s a little bit of overlap here with analytic skills, but analytics is about being able to digest information and analyze it, whereas with critical thinking, it’s about knowing how to apply what one already knows in each situation. It’s essentially turning data into useful information and being able to apply that information to whatever role one is in.” Source: The Ward Group
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Social Media Savvy: Staying current

“Particularly for people in customer facing roles, whether agents or policy holders, there are multiple vehicles that people want to communicate with,” Rieder says. “Companies like American Family Insurance use social networking for all their captive agents and for education. It’s about being able to use social networks to communicate and build up the external customer network as well as the agent network. We partner with Aon and we have Yammer as an internal social networking tool. It’s very similar to a LinkedIn type tool, but it’s specific to Aon colleagues.” Source: The Ward Group
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Communication: The lost art

“A lot of people have forgotten how to pick up a phone or talk to people face to face,” Rieder says. “We are finding that people cannot effectively communicate, and this is in every role. Millenials, in particular, have difficulty communicating face to face. It’s so easy to just send an email.” Source: The Ward Group