Leading CEO breaks new ground and drives innovation

Leading CEO breaks new ground and drives innovation | Insurance Business Asia

Insurance News

Leading CEO breaks new ground and drives innovation

Sedgwick emerges as an attractive and industry-leading home for claims professionals

Insurance News

By
Kim Champion

This article was produced in partnership with Sedgwick

Sedgwick’s newly appointed CEO of Asia, Veronica Grigg, has successfully navigated the dynamic insurance industry for over 25 years.

Backed by her numerous achievements – named to Insurance Business’ Global 100 list and a repeat Elite Woman awardee – she has been pivotal in paving the way for young professionals who aspire to make their mark in claims management.

Grigg emphasises that Sedgwick believes caring is what counts, particularly regarding the claims management process. She asserts that the organisation’s deep-rooted philosophy makes it ideal for launching a rewarding claims career.

“The primary purpose of insurance claims is to deliver on the promise of the policy,” Grigg says. “It’s about how well we contribute to the value chain of insurance and risk management. This means making the claims process seamless for our customers. At Sedgwick, we deliver service with empathy and focus on continuous improvement by asking how we can better bring insights and shape the future of risk management and the insurance proposition.”

Since taking the helm at Sedgwick Asia in January 2024, Grigg has continued to drive change as she oversees thousands of claims across nine diverse Asian countries daily. Her visionary leadership is underpinned by a strong belief in the enormous scope for improvement within the claims process through innovation and focused expertise.

Why choose a claims career at Sedgwick?

Reinventing the claims process is paramount for both speciality individual large losses or consumer lines claims. As a global insurance leader, Sedgwick strives to modernise and optimise the claims management process for improved customer experience, operational efficiency and competitive advantage.

Grigg explains that innovation, regardless of scale, is a powerful differentiator that sets the claims leader apart in a competitive Asian market. Part of that is attracting junior talent to combat industry-wide recruitment challenges and Sedgwick widened its assessment criteria to consider candidates without an insurance background. Instead, the organisation recruits based on mindset, behaviours and skills to reach a wider pool of candidates with diverse academic backgrounds.

Grigg says, “Welcoming junior adjusters without prior insurance experience requires a new training approach, so we have implemented updated workshops, welcome tours and training programs for new digital tools. Loss adjustment remains a people business, so there is no substitute for on-the-job mentorship.”

Sedgwick Asia pushes to the forefront of claims management and technology

Sedgwick is a trusted brand that has built a reputation for service, empathy and results. The organisation has been repeatedly recognised for its commitment to excellence in loss adjusting and claims administration.

In 2023, for instance, Sedgwick supported clients through unprecedented major events, including a once-in-500-years rainstorm event. Throughout its 45 offices across nine Asian countries, valued staff consistently mobilised a catastrophe response within 24 hours, setting up communication lines and bringing in adjusters from across the continent to process hundreds of claims, including damage to resorts, factories and homes.

Sedgwick consistently offers adjusters regional and international experience. Recent earthquake, flood and other natural catastrophes have allowed them to deploy teams to assist outside of home country. Under Neil Gibson’s leadership on the international team, adjusters from Asia can gain international experience during severe events, such as partnering to support clients during storm losses in the UK.

Sedgwick has also made significant investments in its market-leading digital capabilities following an intense period of digitisation during the pandemic. In 2023, senior leaders focused on upskilling their workforce and integrating various technologies into their workflow to serve clients better, including First Notice of Loss (FNOL) streamlining, imaging and digital tools.

For example, the firm’s proprietary solution, Smart.ly, enables clients to generate custom forms for policyholders to report claims.

“With the rise in widespread catastrophe losses, this has proved invaluable, helping clients collect and process claims data much faster than previous fragmented and manual methods,” says Grigg.

Similarly, Sedgwick’s Clarity Connect systems allow investigators to connect a claimant’s smartphone camera, directing them to capture footage of damage. This is all alongside the organisation’s ever-improving suite of digital solutions, such as mySedgwick, Darwin and viaOne, and the increasing use of drones to survey loss sites.

Grigg says, “Our technology has helped save vital time when handling major weather events when claims volumes are high and physical site visits may not be possible. After deploying these widely during the pandemic, 2023 has seen us iterate and improve based on client and employee feedback while formalising training and best practices.”

“Ultimately, we’re aiming to alter our DNA for the claims community,” Grigg added “For us working in claims, we often see people at a challenging time, when there is a loss of property, a health problem or another issue. We must balance soft and hard skills and seize opportunities to impact our clients positively.”