Another Reason For Outsourced Underwriting – MOJO

When you mention the word “outsourcing” most people get very emotional.  The emotion is fear. Usually, it is a fear of losing one’s job.  Well, during this nasty recession a lot of jobs have been lost.  I have been asking the question,

“Who’s left to do the work?”

I’ve noticed I am not the only person asking this question.  Nearly two thirds of respondents in a recent survey asked the very same question (see survey results reproduced below or click through to read the entire article).

If you’re in NB/UW management your cost cutting phase is over.  Stick a fork in it, it’s done.  Now you have to figure out how to get the work done with a decimated, demoralized staff.  Screaming won’t help (unless that makes you feel better).  Mandatory 60 hour work weeks?  I don’t think so.  Yup, looks like a man-made management problem that requires creative management solutions.  Unabashed self-promotion follows:

The underwriting talent is out here and we have the technology to connect companies with with experienced, professional underwriters to get the work done.

Call us. I have a mortgage, two kids in college, and a small fleet of cars to support.

One more thing…we got the MOJO.

Workforce Blogs – The Business of Management

A new survey just released by the Workforce Institute at Kronos Inc. and conducted by Harris Interactive suggests that a lot of employees may not be feeling particularly optimistic and workplace productivity has been a casualty of the Big, Bad Recession.

Here are some of the survey highlights:

• Some 38 percent of respondents employed full or part time said there had been layoffs in the past year at their primary place of employment.

• Of those respondents who said that productivity had been negatively affected by layoffs:

—66 percent said that morale has suffered and that workers are less motivated;

64 percent said that there is just too much work and not enough people left to do it;

—37 percent said the wrong people or departments were laid off, leaving inefficient systems and workflows; and

—36 percent said they are concerned that as the economy picks up, they won’t have the right resources to meet demand.

Question of the Day – August 7, 2009 – Can Businesses Really Do More With Less?

At the end of 2007 a large Midwestern US insurance company instituted mandatory 55 hour workweeks for their underwriters.

A year later, that same company a laid off a bunch of  people.  Some of these employees were the same people from whom management mandated OT from just one year prior.

The hamsters are dying.  I don’t think they can do more with less.  Time for a new business model.

My answer to the question is NO.

Businesses Learn To Make Do With Fewer Workers : NPR

Since December 2007, the labor market has seen a net decline of 6.5 million jobs.

Read This After You Digest Yesterday’s Scary Chart

Workforce Blogs – The Business of Management

But when an overwhelming 85 percent of the unemployed say that they’d take a job for 20 percent less than they made before, then maybe it’s time to stop blaming the out-of-work people for their predicament and focus on the real issue: a shattered economy that looks like it’s going to stay shattered (at least in terms of job growth) for a long time.