A Peek at Insurance

A conversation with Erica Berg of EMC Insurance Companies

BISMARCK, N.D. • Erica Berg, an insurance carrier with EMC Insurance Companies in Bismarck, spoke with Prairie Business about the insurance industry. Like other industries, the company has felt the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, as well as some other challenges over the years; but Berg says it is still an industry she loves and one she is proud to be a part of in these uncertain times.

What is certain, no matter the challenges, is that insurance is as important today as it ever has been.

EMC Insurance has around 60 employees in 16 branch offices. It has one office in North Dakota, located in Bismarck, but out of that one office it serves the states Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. EMC also has an office in Minneapolis that serves Minnesota.

How would you describe EMC Insurance Companies?

We strongly believe we’re in a relationship business. We work with independent agencies to help them grow profitably and enhance the ability of our partners to deliver quality insurance products to the people and businesses we mutually serve. Our focus is commercial business and we do have a life insurance company that is under the EMC umbrella as well. Our four corporate priorities are inspiration, operational excellence, customer experiences and profitable growth.

What are some of the challenges and trends in insurance?

Auto insurance and property insurance are two areas of focus for improvement in the industry right now. Auto has posed its challenges for many years now with rising claims costs, increased costs for repair, distracted driving, increased frequency of claims are areas we work through to improve results. While on the property side with similar concerns of rising costs of materials, increased costs paired with changes in weather patterns and large catastrophe claims we’ve had to further evaluate our property exposures and adjust to those changes in the marketplace.

How has the pandemic changed that?

While the daily challenges haven’t completely changed the pandemic has changed the immediate focus. A lot of questions are being generated on loss of income coverage for the restaurant and hospitality industries. We’re getting questions about how coverage will respond. Most policies in the industry contain virus exclusions or the coverage trigger won’t extend because there isn’t direct physical loss to a location coverage in this instance may not extend. It will be interesting to watch the evolution of this within the industry and with legislation to see if anything can be developed similar to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act that was passed shortly after the 9/11 attacks in our country to help provide assistance in situations such as these.

What’s a typical day like in the insurance business?

On the company side with our Underwriting team we are continually looking for ways to grow our footprint and write profitable commercial business. We underwrite exposures, analyze risk and determine appropriate pricing for that risk.

It’s a different kind of busy (during the pandemic). … We were able to equip people so they could be at home with their families. But I would say that the flow of new business for us has slowed down a bit because our agents aren’t obviously out prospecting and meeting people because we’re social distancing. But it turns out there’s a lot more questions coming in; our agents are asking questions about how coverage applies. We’ve also gotten a lot of calls from restaurants and in the hospitality industry asking if they can start making deliveries now, where maybe they didn’t make deliveries before, and things like that. We’ve really been trying to be accommodating as far as getting their questions answered and extending coverage in those cases where we may not have been providing coverage for that in the past.

What role does technology play in your office?

We’ve really expanded how technology plays a role in our office. We have many remote team members that work remotely from their homes and to be able to have the technology to communicate effectively is so vitally important.

We’ve also been partnering with tech companies that have provided us with products that provide data on vehicle usage in vehicles and wearable devices that can help employees evaluate their movements to prevent bodily injury or repetitive motion type claims in an effort to improve workers compensation results. We also have a team of risk improvement representatives that are being trained in the use of drones to better evaluate roof condition and help our policyholders develop plans for maintenance and repair on roof structures for commercial buildings.

How else is the company forward thinking?

We are working to be more proactive in recruiting and bringing people into the insurance industry. We have partnered with Bismarck State College to develop a curriculum in which you can now get an insurance certificate. We are also hiring summer interns and have them shadow spend time with our underwriting team, marketing department and claims teams in order to give them a taste of the different facets of the industry in order to give them an idea of what a career in the insurance industry could look like. We are also rolling out our first year of EMC University which will be administered out of our corporate office in Des Moines which is designed to be a six week course that will teach our new team members the fundamentals of the industry such as the insurance contract and what is covered under a basic policy. We’re excited for all of these things to come together for enhanced learning.

Are there still many people pursuing careers in insurance?

I don’t know that it’s a business that many people think about when looking at career goals unless they have a friend or family member that has been successful in the business. That is where the efforts I mentioned earlier will hopefully help. It can be a fulfilling and rewarding career as there is a complexity to it that can be appealing as well as a customer service aspect in that you’re helping customers secure coverage for their personal and business assets.

What should businesses know going forward?

I encourage all businesses to know and familiarize themselves with their risks so they can appropriately insure what’s important to them. Read your policy, discuss questions with your insurance advisor. Understand the importance of not only the price of insurance but the coverages your policy provides. Lowest price doesn’t always translate to comprehensive coverage.

What’s the best thing about working in the insurance biz?

What keeps me going and helps me get up every day is the people part of it. If I didn’t know that I could help impact lives every day and find the purpose in what I do I’m not sure I’d still be in this industry. It’s always been a promise and a commitment to the people I serve. Our policyholders, agents, vendors and team members is what keeps me coming back.

What, as an insurance company, have you learned by the pandemic?

This pandemic has caused a lot of uncertainty not in just our industry but with everyone. It’s been nice within our industry to see the resilience of companies and agencies. We were able to get people up and running from home in pretty short order. The agents we work with are fighting the good fight and keeping in contact with their customers. Our industry has not stopped in light of all going on and it’s now much more apparent than before that we don’t have to be in an office setting to complete the work needed to accomplish our goals.

Will people still work remotely after the pandemic?

I would think for the immediate future we’ll bring people back into our offices when it’s safe to do so. In visiting with team members some love working from home and some not so much and don’t care for the isolation. We already have a pretty flexible working environment where people have the ability to work from home and I believe more will try to do it more frequently than before as in some cases it does pose less distraction.