Western National Insurance

Systems Engineer

Who are we? Western National Insurance Group is a private mutual insurance company with over 120 years of experience serving customers' property-and-casualty insurance needs in the Midwestern, Northwestern, and Southwestern United States. Known as “The Relationship Company®,” we define success as a measure of the relationships we’ve built over time. In everything that we do, we know that delivering a friendly and helpful interaction makes for a better experience for everyone involved. That’s the power of “nice”. At Western National, nice is something we work to bring to every person and organization with whom we partner and serve. Does this opportunity interest you? Western National is seeking a Principal Human Resources Systems Analyst to join our team! The individual in this role will be responsible for optimizing and maintaining the Workday HCM platform to support efficient and effective Human Resources (HR) operations. They will collaborate with HR, IT, finance, and business stakeholders to configure business processes, ensure data accuracy, and deliver meaningful reporting and insights. They will also lead Workday HCM implementations and enhancements, ensuring the system's functionality aligns with strategic HR and organizational goals. This role is based in our Edina, MN office and is eligible for hybrid work schedule after 90 days of employment. Configure, test, and deploy enhancements and business processes in Workday HCM. Serve as the SME for Workday HCM, providing guidance and training to HR and business users. Monitor and resolve system issues and recommend and implement improvements. Develop and maintain custom reports (e.g., Advanced, Matrix, Composite) and dashboards. Ensure data integrity through audits and support of HR data governance. Design and streamline business processes in alignment with compliance and policy. Lead and support Workday HCM implementations, module rollouts, and upgrades. Collaborate cross-functionally to identify configuration strategies and system improvements.

Principal Human Resources Systems Analyst

Manager

• Builds and maintains strong relationships with existing and potential agencies by understanding needs and providing solutions.
• Drives revenue growth by selling products through agency communication and prospecting.
• Analyzes sales metrics and agency production; develops and implements corrective action plans.
• Manages agency production and claims experience through report analysis and reviews production/profitability with agency personnel.
• Establishes regular meeting schedules and conducts in-person agency visits to achieve corporate objectives.
• Promotes and provides training on company products, systems, and new sales techniques.
• Acts as liaison between agencies and company; communicates changes and develops new and renewal sales opportunities.
• Collaborates with marketing, claims, underwriting, and other departments to ensure seamless customer experience.
• Pulls agency reports to analyze and develop territory strategies and growth plans.
• Leads sales presentations and negotiations; researches and recommends new agencies for appointment.
• Assists agencies in resolving complex underwriting or claims complaints and mentors underwriters on agency dynamics.
• Continuously seeks improvements in sales processes, team performance, and customer satisfaction.

Regional Agency Manager

• Builds and maintains strong relationships with existing and potential customers by understanding their needs and providing solutions that meet those needs.
• Works closely with other departments, such as marketing, claims, and underwriting, to ensure a seamless customer experience and align sales strategies with overall company goals.
• Analyzes sales metrics and performance data to identify areas for improvement and develops strategies for increasing sales effectiveness.
• Manages agency production and claims experience through report analysis, reviews production and profitability results with agency personnel, and follows up to assure sales objectives are achieved.
• Independently recommends and implements appropriate corrective action plans.
• Effectively establishes regular meeting schedules with each assigned agency to achieve corporate objectives through in-person agency visits.
• Drives new business submissions to meet corporate growth initiatives for the territory by maintaining and strengthening relationships.
• Promotes and provides for agency personnel by facilitating training on company products and systems, including internet-based technologies and new sales techniques in the agency office.
• Acts as a liaison between the agencies and company to communicate changes and develops opportunities for new and renewal sales.
• Works with all members of the Agency Sales Team to work toward established annual sales and production plans.
• Effectively develops talking points and sales approach to ensure proper messaging for Western National Insurance Group\u2019s philosophy.
• Partners with a subject matter expert for product and communication meetings.
• Pulls agency reports to analyze and develop strategies and action plans to manage each agency and territory accordingly.
• Understands and reports new business opportunities, understands competitor activities, and stays informed about industry trends.
• Develops and implements appropriate rehabilitation and termination programs when necessary.
• Continuously seeks ways to improve sales processes, enhance team performance, and increase customer satisfaction.
• Leads sales presentations and negotiations with key clients and prospects.
• Develops and implements growth plans with key agencies.
• Researches and recommends new agencies for appointment by recruiting, interviewing, and assessing the fit of the agency per established new appointment guidelines.
• Assists agencies in resolving complex complaints regarding underwriting, claims service, or other internal Western National areas.
• Collaborates with underwriting to develop core strategies for agencies and support account- level decisions.
• Works with underwriters to mentor and enhance their understanding of agency dynamics and communication and set them up for success.
• Works closely with all company departments to develop a high level of teamwork and cooperation to provide excellent service to agents and policyholders.
• Consistently acts according to our customer experience standards, including responding quickly, maintaining a positive attitude, building rapport, demonstrating empathy, managing the customer’s expectations, using the proper communication channel for the situation, and taking ownership to ensure the customer’s issue is resolved.
• Proficient ability in demonstrating empathy and patience when dealing with customers, especially when they are dealing with stressful situations or complex issues.
• Ability to quickly and effectively address customer inquiries by resolving issues and finding solutions that meet customer needs with minimal assistance from a leadership support system.
• Seeks feedback from customers to identify areas for improvement and works with various departments to implement change.
• Handles complaints and conflicts by striving to resolve them in a way that maintains customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Other duties as assigned.

Underwriter

• Develops and implements underwriting strategies to achieve a balanced, profitable, quality book of surety business.
• Selects, coaches, develops, and retains staff to achieve company, departmental, and individual goals.
• Serves as a referral underwriter for underwriting staff and provides feedback and technical guidance to underwriters as needed.
• May serve as a technical expert for surety-related systems and processes, working with our IT department and other partners on system and process improvements.
• Establishes, delegates, and maintains underwriting authorities for underwriting staff.
• Builds and maintains strong agency relationships and effectively manages underwriting and marketing staff to achieve established growth and profitability goals.
• Frequent travel, by car and plane (up to 50%) for extended periods of time, with occasional overnight and weekend travel.
• Travels to assigned and prospect agencies regularly to build on agency partnerships.
• Travels to key accounts with assigned underwriter as needed to strengthen customer and underwriting relationships.
• Travels to meet with remote underwriters and managers at least on a quarterly basis to help further develop territory and staffing.
• Develops strategies to seize and develop new market opportunities and expand agency relationships throughout Western National’s licensed states.
• Networks within the insurance / surety community and attends industry events to stay abreast of marketplace changes and emerging industry issues.
• Develops, reviews, analyzes, and prepares periodic reports on assigned regional operations and takes appropriate underwriting and rate actions.
• Participates in initiatives to develop and improve processes and policies.
• Interprets and executes policies and guidelines within authority level.
• Establishes account credit lines and individual bonds within assigned authority level.
• Utilizes specialized knowledge, experience, and creative resources to find a wide range of solutions and articulates them to others.
• Understands and effectively communicates relationships between problem components.
• Perform special projects and other duties as assigned.
• Consistently acts according to our customer experience standards, including responding quickly, maintaining a positive attitude, building rapport, demonstrating empathy, managing the customer’s expectations, using the proper communication channel for the situation, and taking ownership to ensure the customer’s issue is resolved.

Principal Human Resources Systems Analyst

Regional Agency Manager

Regional Agency Manager

Director of Underwriting - Surety