With 27,000 employees in more than 500 locations, every little thing has the potential to be a big thing.
Steve Levine, director of risk management for a major restaurant company, said that relative to workers’ compensation, one of his biggest challenges is in creating and delivering a safety training program that makes a difference.
“Our challenge as an organization is we have a very high turnover rate, arguably lower than the competition, but still we have a younger, more transient workforce than most industries. People are here a couple of years and out, so training and retraining is a primary driver for safety, and it is hard to create safety training programs that will resonate for 27,000 people.”
He said he thinks the current workers’ comp market is competitive. “I haven’t seen any significant spikes. I think there is a lot of capacity out there at the moment, a lot of very viable competition that is giving my company-- as long as we perform as we have—a lot of attractive options.
“One thing I will say is I will not ever--and I make this clear to every broker I work with--I will not ever pay an increase in rates just because they tell me rates need to go up or are going up in a sector. Unless you can demonstrate, unless you can tell me I am performing worse than the industry, I will go elsewhere, but I am not going to pay a premium for someone else’s mistakes.”
Prior to joining his current company, Levine worked for the United State Olympic Committee, Wild Oats Markets, Leprino Foods and Stonebridge Hotels.
Levine, who began his career as a safety engineer and a loss engineer with
Chubb Insurance after graduating college with a finance degree in 1987, went to law school at night while at
Chubb.
“Having that law degree has opened a lot of doors for me. Do you need a law degree to handle risk management? No.
“But having that JD, and when people find out I did it at night, it lends both that educational credential and a demonstrable work ethic. Every employer has sort of appreciated the fact that I had that degree, and it gives me the credibility to handle contracts. Most of my peers don’t do the level of contract review I do,” he said.
