Help

BI’s Article search uses Boolean search capabilities. If you are not familiar with these principles, here are some quick tips.

To search specifically for more than one word, put the search term in quotation marks. For example, “workers compensation”. This will limit your search to that combination of words.

To search for a combination of terms, use quotations and the & symbol. For example, “hurricane” & “loss”.

Login Register Subscribe

In-depth analysis, months of evaluation help decide Best Places

Reprints

Months of in-depth evaluation led to 54 insurance industry companies recognized in this year's Business Insurance Best Places to Work in Insurance program.

The companies recognized as among the best workplaces in the U.S. insurance industry earned that distinction on the basis of an in-depth assessment of workplace benefits, policies and practices as well as an evaluation of their employees' engagement and satisfaction.

The effort that resulted in this second Best Places to Work in Insurance was a joint project of Business Insurance and the Harrisburg, Pa.-based Best Companies Group. The program was open to all publicly or privately held property/casualty insurers, group life/health insurers, agents and brokers, reinsurers and third-party administrators with at least 25 employees working in the United States and serving the commercial insurance market.

Among the 54 companies recognized in this second Best Places to Work in Insurance list were 17 repeat honorees. All 54 of the companies recognized this year are on the list because they demonstrated a level of excellence distinguishing them as an elite group of employers that have created high-quality workplaces that encourage employees to thrive in a work environment they can love.

Best Companies Group, Business Insurance's partner in the Best Places to Work in Insurance program, is an independent workplace excellence research firm that manages other regional and industry programs in the U.S. and Canada. BCG managed the registration process, conducted the surveys, evaluated the data and ultimately selected the firms that made the cut.

The assessment was a two-part process. Part one—responsible for 75% of a company's score—involved a confidential, 76-question Employee Engagement & Satisfaction Survey that was used to evaluate employees' workplace experience and the company culture. The second part of the assessment, responsible for the remaining 25% of a company's score, was an employer questionnaire, which collected information about each company's benefit programs, policies, practices and other general information.

Using the two sets of data, BCG experts conducted an in-depth analysis of the strengths and opportunities at each company.

To make the Best Places to Work in Insurance list, each company had to demonstrate a minimum standard of excellence, and the companies honored this year “are indeed innovators and the ones other companies use as benchmarks,” said Peter B. Burke, president of Best Companies Group.

Once BCG determined the companies that met the standard, the next step was a comparative analysis that ranked those companies against one another.

Within each of the five categories of insurance industry employers included in this year's program, companies were divided by size into small companies (those with 25 to 249 employees), medium-size companies (those with 250 to 999 employees) and large companies (those with 1,000 employees or more).

As part of the program, BCG provides participating companies with a participation report outlining information about employees' workplace experience in eight categories: leadership and planning, corporate culture and communications, role satisfaction, work environment, relationship with supervisor, training and development, pay and benefits, and overall engagement.

Participation in the program was free, though participating companies can purchase the “BCG Employee Feedback Report” summarizing the data collected in the employee survey process. In addition to the employee opinion data, the report also includes employee comments, as well as the insurance industry benchmarking data from the participating companies.

To sign up to be notified when information is available about the 2011 Best Places to Work in Insurance program, go to www.bestplacestoworkins.com.