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Bridging The Workers' Comp Talent Gap with Nikki Jackson

Published: April 2, 2024, 7:14 a.m.

Welcome to RIMScast. Your host is Justin Smulison, Business Content Manager at RIMS, the Risk and Insurance Management Society.

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Justin Smulison interviews Nikki Jackson, MBA, CPCU, ARM, CDMS, Vice President of Strategy & Marketing at MTI America. Nikki speaks about her invitation into the industry and shares the highlights of her career. She discusses her enthusiasm for workers\u2019 compensation and what she has learned in the field. She speaks of her thoughts on AI and then explains what she will cover in her two sessions at RISKWORLD 2024 on May 7th. Nikki tells about how supportive her family has been in her career as she travels.

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Key Takeaways:

[:01] About RIMS and RIMScast.

[:14] Public registration for RISKWORLD 2024 is now open. Explore infinite opportunities with RIMS from May 5th through May 8th, 2024, in San Diego, California. Register at RIMS.org/RISKWORLD.

[:31] About today\u2019s EPISODE of RIMScast. My guest today is Nikki Jackson and we will talk all about workers\u2019 compensation and risk management.

[:53] As you know, RISKWORLD 2024 is coming up from May 5th through May 8th, 2024, in sunny San Diego, California. Registration is open at RIMS.org/RISKWORLD and at the link in this episode\u2019s show notes. Register today!

[1:13] In Episode 276 of RIMScast we had opening keynote Peter Diamandis join us. Check out that episode for just a taste of what\u2019s in store for RISKWORLD 2024. The full roster of keynotes has been announced! I\u2019m so excited! We will be welcoming Academy Award-winning actress, director, and activist, Marlee Matlin!

[1:37] For our industry keynote, we will be rejoined by Evan G. Greenberg, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Chubb Limited and Chubb Group. That session will be sponsored by Chubb. Just announced, our closing keynote on May 8th will be Daymond G. John. You know him from Shark Tank. He\u2019s also the Founder of FUBU. I\u2019m a big fan!

[2:01] I\u2019m extremely excited about that closing keynote on May 8th! Experience all the energies of our keynotes at RISKWORLD! Register at RIMS.org/RISKWORLD. We want to see you there!

[2:15] My guest today is the Vice President of Strategy for MTI America and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever met anybody as enthusiastic about workers\u2019 compensation as she is. She is Nikki Jackson, MBA, CPCU, ARM, CDMS. Nikki will be leading two discussions at RISKWORLD on May 7th.

[2:41] At 10:45 a.m., Nikki will be leading The Workers\u2019 Compensation Talent Shortage, the industry\u2019s largest exploratory study focused on workers\u2019 compensation, and at 2:45 p.m., Nikki will co-host Uncovering the Impact of Socioeconomic Diversity in Workers\u2019 Compensation Cases.

[2:58] Nikki Jackson is a dynamic force in the field of workers\u2019 compensation! Let\u2019s get her perspective on the state of workers\u2019 compensation today. Nikki Jackson, welcome to RIMScast!

[3:35] Justin especially loves doing RIMScast episodes when he knows the guests. Justin and Nikki met at a RISKWORLD session that he hosted a couple of years ago and they have stayed in touch. Nikki is passionate about workers\u2019 compensation.

[5:17] Nikki was fortunate enough to be invited into this industry by Jami LeTourneau of Liberty Mutual. Jami was a team manager in Philadelphia. She looked at Nikki\u2019s resume and saw she was a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) and had been a paralegal. Jami said that worker\u2019s compensation would be perfect for Nikki. She hired her on the spot.

[6:24] Nikki went to Boston to go through Claims College. When she got back, she started adjusting workers\u2019 compensation claims and asked a lot of questions over the cubicle walls. She decided to learn all she could about policies, pricing, claims adjustment, and TPAs.

[7:26] Jami was working toward her CPCU and she suggested to Nikki to take the ARM class and then the CPCU class, so she did. She wanted to get into leadership so she went to work for a TPA in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. She got to work with Southwest Airlines and she calls Southwest an incredible employer that cares about its people.

[8:04] Nikki shouts out to Patty Cowell, Dave Banta, and countless others in Southwest\u2019s phenomenal risk management program. Nikki got into a leadership role. It was \u201cnuts\u201d but such a great environment to learn in. She had a team of adjusters handling multiple states in the Northeast.

[8:41] They worked with amazing clients like Best Buy, Cargill, Eaton, Louis Vuitton, and many more. She got to see how they worked their workers\u2019 compensation programs and to sit at the table with them. It started to feel like a partnership with some of her clients.

[9:25] At that TPA, they offered more than workers\u2019 compensation. Nikki started to look at integrated programs, then liability, and then saw opportunities in disability and leave of absence, so she got a few other designations to learn those lines of business.

[9:46] That\u2019s how she wound up on the Delta Airlines program and got national exposure to workers\u2019 compensation. Workers\u2019 compensation is her \u201cbaby.\u201d She still has liability exposure, and her husband is an adjuster on the liability side. Dinner conversations are often damage points with a truck vs. a car, and the percentage at fault.

[10:25] Working with risk professionals has helped Nikki see gaps in the industry. She saw what both good programs and not-so-good programs look like. She had a good grip on claims at a granular level but also from the 10,000-foot above view by working on technology projects and innovations to make the experience better for all stakeholders.

[11:06] Now Nikki is on the ancillary side and more than ever, she understands how a vendor\u2019s technology, people, and network impact claims.

[11:37] Workers\u2019 compensation is a great place to be. There\u2019s no shortage of work. Nikki suspects that there were about 1.1 million workers\u2019 compensation claims filed in 2023 for about 125 million workers. She predicts 3 in 100 workers will file workers\u2019 compensation claims this year. There are about 324,000 adjusters.\xa0

[12:45] Financially, workers\u2019 compensation is the shining star of casualty, for now. The coverage is affordable for companies and it looks like it will stay that way, at least for this year, and things are looking good for businesses.

[13:02] There are a few things to keep an eye on. Mental injury is a huge focus right now. There is an increase in the more serious injuries, referred to as catastrophic losses. There is a growing focus on workplace safety initiatives and injury prevention programs. Medical costs and inflation affect serious injuries.

[14:18] A new law in California requires employers to have a workplace safety and accident prevention plan in place by this summer. Nikki believes we will see similar laws in other states.

[14:30] RIMS plug time! You can sign up now for RISKWORLD pre-conference workshops. They will all be held on May 4th and 5th at the San Diego Convention Center. The link is in this episode\u2019s show notes.

[14:43] The topics include but are not limited to Applying and Integrating ERM, Fundamentals of Insurance, and a RIMS-CRMP Exam Prep Workshop. Go to RIMS.org/RISKWORLD, go to Learn, and then Workshops and you\u2019ll find them there.

[14:59] RIMS Virtual Workshops: Visit RIMS.org/virtualworkshops to see the full calendar. Virtual workshops are in session, beginning in June, starting with Leveraging Data and Analytics for Continuous Risk Management. A three-part course that begins on June 6th. We\u2019ve got Fundamentals of Insurance on June 11th and 12th.

[15:20] We\u2019ve got Fundamentals of Risk Management on June 18th and 19th and we\u2019ve got Captives as an Alternate Risk Financing Technique on June 26th and 27th.

[15:29] More information about these workshops and others is on the RIMS Virtual Workshops page and a link to the full calendar is in this episode\u2019s show notes.

[15:37] On April 11th, Clara Analytics returns to present AI\u2019s Impact on Emerging Risk Management Trends. On April 18th, Hub International returns for the second installment of its Ready For Tomorrow Series, Challenging the Status Quo: Rethinking Your Casualty Risk Strategy.

[15:59] Archer makes its RIMS Webinars debut on April 23rd at 11:00 a.m. Eastern. The session is titled Advancing RMIS: Strategies for Modern Risk Management. Visit RIMS.org/Webinars to learn more about these webinars and to register! Links are in the show notes. Webinar registration is complimentary for RIMS members.

[16:29] We\u2019ve got some critical reading to plug real quick. RIMS recently published its new Executive Report, \u201cLeveraging Insurance and Risk Management to Address Political Risk.\u201d The report defines political risk while outlining key considerations that professionals should explore to effectively and proactively address political volatility.

[16:48] The report is exclusively available to RIMS members for the first 60 days. Visit the link in this episode\u2019s show notes and also the Risk Knowledge page of RIMS.org to download.

[17:08] Nikki is a geek about AI. She says we all use it every day, all the time. We just may not realize it. Technology is playing a huge role in workers\u2019 compensation. A recent survey showed that 77% of respondents in the risk and insurance industry say that they\u2019re jumping on the AI bandwagon in some form or another.

[18:45] It\u2019s used in sales, underwriting, ops, and claims processing. Nikki talks a lot about the use cases on social media, for fraud detection, to assign new claims, or predictive analytics to flag claims that could go in the wrong direction. It\u2019s used in the risk control and pricing space. You\u2019ve got to get on board.

[19:33] There is still a talent shortage in workers\u2019 compensation. AI just augments the role of claims professionals. It\u2019s an aging industry and with a lot of experienced claims adjustors retiring, that institutional knowledge will be hard to replace. AI can\u2019t do it at that level.

[20:04] For professionals new to workers\u2019 compensation, who lean into AI, it will be a great place to be. They\u2019ll need to learn how to use the tools properly or build them into the claims system in the right way. Their inboxes are flooded with massive amounts of data in medical and legal documents that take a long time to read and pull data from.

[20:43] A resource to help you get the data that much faster, more efficiently, and possibly with less human error, is a tremendous advantage.

[21:10] We\u2019re coming up on RISKWORLD 2024 in San Diego, California, from May 5th through May 8th. Nikki is leading a session called \u201cThe Workers\u2019 Compensation Talent Shortage,\u201d the industry's largest exploratory study focused on workers\u2019 compensation.

[21:41] Nikki is excited about RISKWORLD 2024. Carey Armistead from SOMPO North America will join her. They will dive into the study. There were two groups surveyed: 432 college students about what is important in attracting them, and 140 claims professionals, speaking about retention of talent. Nikki thanks all who participated.

[23:36] Nikki has two sessions on May 7th. The morning session at 10:45 a.m. is about the workers' compensation talent shortage. The afternoon session, joined by Dawn Watkins at 2:45 p.m. is a career development session discussing the attributes, traits, and unique characteristics within diverse groups. It will also cover goals for claims.

[24:18] Nikki and Dawn will link DE&I to results in increased innovation, improved decision-making, and better outcomes. It should be a good session.

[25:37] Nikki had her fourth child since the last time Justin saw her. She posted on LinkedIn about maternity and parental leave and the accommodations that were made for her. She was uncomfortable posting, but many people have seen her through each child and each work change and supported her.

[29:24] Nikki\u2019s husband and family support her travel and absences. Shoutout to George!

[29:55] Nikki Jackson has two sessions at RISKWORLD 2024 on May 7th, one at 10:45 a.m. and one at 2:45 p.m. Anybody who\u2019s going to be there, check out her sessions! She\u2019s one of the most enthusiastic people Justin has ever seen at RISKWORLD.

[30:26] Nikki will be available for questions after her sessions. She\u2019s very active in her sessions and loves the interaction and the energy.

[30:43] Nikki, thank you so much for joining us on RIMScast!

[30:52] Special thanks again to Nikki Jackson for joining us! She will be hosting two sessions at RISKWORLD 2024 on May 7th.

[31:01] The first session is at 10:45 a.m. in Room 29CD, for The Workers' Compensation Talent Shortage, Gaining Insight from Adjusters and College Students. At 2:45 p.m., for the second session, she will be in room 24BC, for Uncovering the Impact of Socioeconomic Diversity in Workers\u2019 Compensation Cases.

[31:20] Hang around if you have questions for Nikki after her sessions. To learn more about her, visit ElevatetheAdjuster.org.

[31:33] Go to the App Store and download the RIMS App. This is an exclusive members-only benefit with all sorts of RIMS resources and coverage. Everybody loves the RIMS App!

[31:57] You can sponsor a RIMScast episode for this, our weekly show, or a dedicated episode. Links to sponsored episodes are in our show notes. RIMScast has a global audience of risk professionals, legal professionals, students, business leaders, C-Suite executives, and more. Let\u2019s collaborate! Contact pd@rims.org for more information.

[32:39] Become a RIMS member and get access to the tools, thought leadership, and network you need to succeed. Visit RIMS.org/membership or email membershipdept@RIMS.org for more information.

[32:56] Risk Knowledge is the RIMS searchable content library that provides relevant information for today\u2019s risk professionals. Materials include RIMS executive reports, survey findings, contributed articles, industry research, benchmarking data, and more.

[33:12] For the best reporting on the profession of risk management, read Risk Management Magazine at RMMagazine.com, and check out the blog at RiskManagementMonitor.com. Justin Smulison is the Business Content Manager at RIMS. You can email Justin at Content@RIMS.org.

[33:32] Thank you for your continued support and engagement on social media channels! We appreciate all your kind words. Listen every week! Stay safe!

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Mentioned in this Episode:

RISKWORLD 2024 \u2014 San Diego, CA | May 5\u20138, 2024

RISKWORLD Pre-Conference Workshops

RISKWORLD Speakers

NEW FOR MEMBERS! RIMS Mobile App
\u201cLeveraging Insurance and Risk Management to Address Political Risk\u201d \u2014 RIMS Executive Report

RIMS DEI Council

Spencer Educational Foundation \u2014 Grants Page

RIMS-Certified Risk Management Professional (RIMS-CRMP)

RIMS-CRMP Virtual Workshops

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RIMS Webinars: