02 Apr Are Your Branch Offices Doing Things the Same Way?
If I were to take an educated guess, most E&O Plus agencies have at least a few branch offices besides their main location. Expanding and opening other locations is key to growing the agency’s revenue.
Consistency is a key buzzword in the E&O world. This certainly applies to the staff within a specific location and other agency locations. This is why Angie, Mishell, and I are always looking to find out to what degree the procedures of the main location are consistent throughout all agency locations. For many years, the experience of the E&O Plus program has been impacted by claims in the various agency branch offices. I have heard scenarios such as “there aren’t enough staff in the other office to have a second set of eyes look at the bid bonds,” “that office does things a little different,” or “that office doesn’t use an exposure analysis form.”
Is this ok? No, honestly, it is not. When there is a difference in how tasks are handled between the main and branch offices, mistakes/gaps in the process are more apt to happen. If you have a procedure to handle a particular task, doesn’t it make sense that the procedure is consistently handled regardless of what office the staff are in?
When dealing with critical E&O procedures and practices, this disparity can cause issues and potential E&O claims. To avert this potential problem, here are a couple of suggestions:
- Have a point person in each office (possibly in each division in each office) who has the overall responsibility to work with the head of that division to ensure the staff is aware of the procedures and there is a commitment to follow them. There needs to be an element of ownership and responsibility. The branch management needs to actively show their support for this person. It is like each office has a Quality Coordinator. If possible, that branch office staff member should participate in the annual E&O Plus review and be able to speak to the issues of consistency. Also, consider having each office represented in an internal Quality Committee. This will help to get the message to all agency staff about the importance of consistency.
- The agency’s auditing program should include a good representation of branch office files to be reviewed. This is an area where the agency auditing person can note a difference in procedures, including how the naming conventions are used. The E&O Plus program typically looks for 10% of the files to be reviewed annually. If 10% does not provide good representation in a branch office, strongly consider increasing that percentage. Once again, the goal is to evaluate the level of consistency. Work with management to determine the number that can give credible results.
- Be active in stressing the importance of E&O loss prevention, focusing on ensuring consistency in procedures with the main agency location. Instill a high level of accountability. Branch offices are more of a hot spot for E&O claims than many would believe.
When I ask the question during the annual reviews, “What is the level of consistency among the various offices?” the response may be such as “We think there is.” I would feel much better with a response such as, “Our audit results are showing high levels of consistency, and we have quarterly virtual meetings with the staff to ensure everyone is hearing the same message.”