Unum releases 2012 Corporate Citizenship Report

Every day Unum employees make a difference through their efforts to meet customer needs, create a strong corporate culture and support their communities. In this year’s Corporate Citizenship Report you will find stories that show how our company and employees live these commitments.

“We are very fortunate as a company to be in a strong financial position, and our good fortune helps propel our efforts as a good corporate citizen and neighbor,” writes CEO Tom Watjen in the report’s opening letter.

Below are three “difference makers” at Unum featured in the report:

• Krista Workman, a disability benefits specialist in Columbia, is committed to help her customers through difficult times. “Each day I strive to find ways to better provide protection to our customers in times of need,” she said.
• Senior Account Manager Nicola Sisk in Chattanooga understands firsthand how Unum’s caring culture supports both its customers and employees. “It wasn’t until my husband was faced with a potentially fatal bone marrow disease that I truly understood that Unum was such a special place,” she said.
• And Corporate Volunteer of the Year Eamonn Lawler, a programmer analyst in Carlow, Ireland, lives his commitment to serve others by giving back. “Working here, if you need a hand, there is always someone willing to help out, to give their time or donate supplies or money,” he said.

The report also covers Unum’s community giving. In 2011, Unum contributed more than $12 million to charitable organizations in the U.S. and U.K.

Feel free to, click here to view a PDF of this year’s report.

Our people, training key to high customer satisfaction

It was recently reported that Unum’s disability claims practices earned strong customer satisfaction, scoring significantly higher ratings than the industry average for its long term disability claims process in a survey conducted by Gen Re.

In fact, customers gave Unum significantly higher ratings than the industry average for 20 out of 26 measures for our long term disability claims process, including the overall handling of the claim.

Diane Garofalo, senior vice president of Unum’s Benefits Center, said the company consistently and continually seeks customer feedback through satisfaction surveys like this one. “We take this feedback seriously. The findings allow us to continue to review and adjust our claim processes and to enhance the quality of our customer interactions to ensure industry leading service,” she added.

So what sets our LTD claims process apart from the rest of the industry?

According to Greg Breter, vice president of LTD Regional & Special Benefits Operations, our strong LTD customer satisfaction is directly connected to our Vision Statement and commitment to being the absolute best at building meaningful and lasting connections between employers, their employees and the benefits Unum provides. He cited other factors too, including:

• Hiring effective communicators who demonstrate strong interpersonal skills.
• Investing in initiatives like the Consumerism and Hispanic Initiatives that help us create clearer and more understandable communications/letters.
• Having a customer focused claims process that ensures a high level of service with a personal touch.
• Building a strong relationship and sense of trust with each customer throughout the duration of each claim.

But Greg pointed to one program in particular that he feels clearly sets us apart: the Building Claimant Connections training program for our claims specialists.

“It is very important that our claims specialists understand that a disability can create emotional, physical and financial challenges for our customers,” said Greg. “So we teach them how to communicate each claims decision with care and sensitivity, which is crucial to developing strong and trusting relationships with customers.”

This program focuses on the following key components: Enhancing listening skills and improving information gathering; taking time to develop relationships with customers; helping customers determine what is important to them; assisting customers in seeing what is possible and what they are able to accomplish and helping them achieve desired goals.

“It starts with the training, but it really ends with our employees,” said Greg. “They do a wonderful job helping our customers in their time of need, and these survey results show that.”

Unum recognized by Forbes, Fortune

For the second year in a row, Unum has been named to the Forbes list of 150 Most Reputable Companies.

The annual survey, conducted in partnership with the Reputation Institute, assesses strengths of the 600 largest companies in the categories of: products and services, innovation, workplace, governance, citizenship, financial performance and leadership.

Unum is ranked 98th on the list, up from its spot at 112 last year. The list also includes companies such as General Mills, Disney, Aflac and Google.

The company was also included in Fortune magazine’s Fortune 500 – an annual ranking of the largest corporations in the United States, ranked by revenue for the 2011 fiscal year. All U.S.-based public and private companies that file all, or parts of, their financial results with a government agency are eligible for the list.

Unum is ranked 260 on the list, down from its 239 spot on last year’s list and alongside well-known companies such as Whole Foods, Ameriprise Financial, SunTrust Bank and Visa. Exxon Mobil tops the Fortune 500, leapfrogging last year’s top company Wal-Mart.

In the life and health insurance (stock) industry, Unum ranks sixth ahead of Reinsurance Group of America, Principal Financial, Mutual of Omaha Insurance and Pacific Life. MetLife tops the industry list as 34th on the Fortune 500, followed by Prudential Financial (55th), Aflac (128th), Lincoln National (247th) and Genworth Financial (258th).

In Forbes’ list of the Global 2000 largest publicly traded companies, released last month, Unum comes in at 914th on the list and 23rd in the life and health insurance industry. ING Group, based in the Netherlands, tops the industry and ranks 39th on the list.

Unlike the Fortune 500, the Forbes list equally weights sales, profits, assets and market capitalization to rank companies according to size. Exxon Mobil is ranked first on the Global 2000 list, while Royal Dutch Shell of the Netherlands at 4th is the largest non-U.S.-based company. HSBC Holdings, at 6th, is the largest company in the U.K.

Why Devote a Month to Disability Insurance Awareness?

Your most important asset is not your home, your car, your jewelry or other possessions. It’s your ability to earn a living. Think about it: All of your plans for the future—from buying a home, to putting your kids through college, to building a retirement nest egg—are based on the assumption you’ll continue to earn a paycheck until you retire. But what would happen if those paychecks stopped? That’s where disability insurance comes in. It provides an income to you and your family if you are unable to work because of illness or injury.

Though disability is behind a significant number of home foreclosures and personal bankruptcies, insuring against it has not been a high priority for most workers because many assume they’re already covered through Social Security, state-mandated Workers’ Compensation or employer-provided group plans. However, there are numerous holes in this safety net of coverage.

Know that about 45% of those who initially apply for disability benefits through Social Security are initially denied, and those who are approved get an average benefit of just $1,063 monthly—hardly enough to replace the average worker’s income. Workers’ Compensation covers only work-related disabilities, but according to the National Safety Council, 73% of disabling accidents and illnesses aren’t work-related. And what about coverage through work? It’s a great employee benefit, but it’s not available to many workers. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, more than 70% of employers do not offer long-term disability coverage.

So what’s a worker to do? Explore your options and learn more about disability insurance. If your employer offers disability coverage, take the time to find out if the coverage would be sufficient to meet your income replacement needs in the event of a disabling illness or accident. If it’s insufficient, your employer may offer you the option to increase your disability benefit, often through a voluntary payroll deduction. Another option is to purchase coverage on your own.

May is Disability Insurance Awareness Month (DIAM), the perfect time for a disability insurance “reality check.” Take this opportunity to make sure you and your clients are OK financially in the event that a disability keeps you out of work for an extended period of time.

Cancer, pregnancy continue to lead disability causes

Continuing a trend that has held for more than a decade, cancer, pregnancy and back disorders were the top causes of disability claims for Unum in 2011.

New research from Unum and the Consumer Federation of America reveals, however, that most employees think injuries cause the most missed work, pointing to a fundamental misunderstanding of what events are most likely to lead to disability.

The survey polled a nationally representative sample of nearly 1,200 employees about group disability insurance. It revealed that employees also are far more likely to believe that injuries (66 percent), rather than illnesses (34 percent), cause the majority of disabilities that keep employees from work for at least three months.

According to the Council for Disability Awareness, 90 percent of all disability claims paid are for common illnesses and health conditions. Unum’s data also reflect that reality. In 2011, injuries prompted only 10 percent of Unum’s long term disability claims and 11 percent of short term disability claims.

In 2011, Unum’s leading causes of long term disability claims were:

• Cancer (15 percent)
• Back disorders (excluding injury) (14.6 percent)
• Injuries (10.4 percent)
• Mental disorders (10.1 percent)
• Circulatory system disorders (9.3 percent)
• Joint disorders (8.5 percent)

The leading causes of short term disability were:

• Normal pregnancy (18.9 percent)
• Injuries (10.9 percent)
• Complications from pregnancy (8.8 percent)
• Digestive disorders (8 percent)
• Back disorders (7 percent)
• Cancer (6.6 percent)

During May, which is Disability Insurance Awareness Month, Unum will share information about our research, claims trends and highlight stories of customers who have relied on disability benefits to protect their financial stability.

Did you know there is an easier way to help your clients manage leave?

More employers are recognizing that a leave management program that integrates short term disability with federal, state and corporate leave can be a key to controlling the cost of absences and increasing productivity at the workplace.

Tracking absences can save money and increase productivity.  Uncoordinated leave management can be costly to the bottom line.  For a large company, it can cost millions per year.

More than one million employees are now covered by Unum’s Leave Management Services as more businesses seek ways to manage complex leave laws while balancing costs and productivity.

Learn more about Unum’s leave management services from the article below and see how unmanaged leave can impact your clients… both large and small.

Unum FML Article