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 Insurance Agency Solutions Manager to join our team! Western National Insurance Group (WNIG) reserves the right to fill this position at a level above or below the level included in this posting.

The individual in this role will have the opportunity to use experiences and research to drive the customer-centered design and production of technology improvements for our group’s customer-facing user interfaces. This includes creating a cohesive experience across our agency-facing, policyholder-facing, and employee-facing systems, platforms, and products. This individual will be an advocate for customers and provide a point of communication and generation of new customer-oriented feature ideas for WNIG.

What are the responsibilities and opportunities of this role?

• Serves as a leader for customer experience, especially as it relates to the development of customer-facing systems / features, documents, and the overall customer journey.
• Uses in-depth knowledge of agent and policyholder preferences, as well as other relevant resources, to define technology requirements involving user experience design. 
• Meets with and regularly gathers input from select customer groups on key technology questions to guide our decision-making on system designs.
• Participates actively, including providing feedback and decisions, in product delivery team discussions about technology, platforms, or product requirements with a user-experience impact.
• Partners with underwriting, marketing, and agency sales staff to build a network of user contacts to gather feedback and help guide decisions on key technology initiatives.
• Collaborates with product owners, business analysts, and other members of product delivery teams to ensure successful implementation of requirements and cohesion of user experiences across delivery teams. Reviews the work of these teams and provides feedback or approvals based on original design direction.
• Provides regular, proactive communication to stakeholders (such as user group participants or executive leadership) to ensure transparency and understanding of objectives and status. Presents complex design concepts, user needs, and design rationale to these stakeholders and / or business partners whenever appropriate.
• Researches, evaluates, and solicits opinions of internal stakeholders; makes recommendations; and acts as project sponsor for select corporate initiatives that impact our customer-facing systems.
• Proactively coaches, mentors, directs, and develops individuals to achieve individual, departmental, and company goals.
• Responsible for hiring, mentoring, training, performance management, and professional development of assigned team to support and enhance the experience of our customers. 
• Stays current and shares knowledge regarding technology shifts in the property-and-casualty community; ensures customer experience is comparable to or better than what is commonly available in the market.
• Performs special projects and duties as assigned.
• Automatically makes decisions on routine and nonroutine issues; uses customer feedback and an understanding of our systems to regularly make decisions on automation initiatives.
• Determines which customers to visit / reach out to and decides on plan of action for soliciting customer input.
• Develops a subset of trusted agency advisors and customers for discussing and testing new features.
• Researches and recommends new technology and / or revised road maps based on reported agency customer preferences. Possesses the ability to maneuver within operational units of WNIG.
• Manages the priorities and work performance of assigned staff.
• Works through internal resources / teams to help drive prioritized customer-facing systems and projects from discovery through completion.
• Uses available internal and external resources to determine customer improvement themes and uses them to help direct enterprise customer-facing systems strategies.
• Demonstrates to and shares with staff at WNIG how we are impacting the agent and recognizes the value of a customer-focused approach, legitimizes the reason for it, and gives them added perspective on why we are building the tools and securing the resources that make it easier to transact business with our customer.
• Develops the ability to critically assess new customer-facing technologies and determines potential fit for WNIG customers.
• 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.
• Has regular interaction with users of all levels; ability to build trusted relationships; significant level of contact with agents.

What are the must-have qualifications for a candidate?

• Experience working at an independent insurance agency, including hands-on experience with an agency management system, carrier websites / portals, and comparative raters. In-depth knowledge of the methods and tools that make up the user experience for agents and policyholders.
• Demonstrable understanding of commercial lines of business.
• Demonstrable understanding of the techniques and methods of modern product discovery and product delivery.
• Excellent organizational and time management skills.
• Excellent written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills, including the ability to communicate user-experience-design processes, ideas, and solutions clearly and effectively to stakeholders, delivery teams, and partners.
• Proven ability to communicate and form working partnerships with individuals at all levels of an organization.
• Ability to speak authoritatively and decisively from experience, along with ability to recognize when additional user / stakeholder input is needed to fill in gaps and make the appropriate user-experience decision.
• Excellent conflict resolution skills.
• Ability to independently and effectively lead a project from start to successful completion.
• Ability to speak in front of groups of people.
• Ability to set priorities, meet deadlines, and work independently.
• Detail oriented and accurate.
• Bachelor’s degree; experience in lieu of degree acceptable.
• Proficient use of various core systems, office and computer equipment, and software packages.

What will our ideal candidate have?

• The following designations / certifications are preferred but not required: CISR, CIC, CPCU.
• Knowledge of personal lines business.

Compensation overview

The full hiring range for this role is $102,200 – $127,700, annually. However, the base pay offered may vary depending on the job-related knowledge, skills, credentials, and experience of each candidate as well as other factors such as the scope and location of the role. Candidates looking for compensation outside of the posted range are encouraged to apply and will be considered based on their individual qualifications and / or may be considered for other positions.

Culture and Total Rewards

Western National has long been known as “The Relationship Company®” and caring for our employees is part of that relationship commitment. We value connectiveness, empowerment, and accountability, and we believe that our employees are our biggest asset. 

Currently ranked as the 41st largest private company by revenue in Minnesota (Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal), Western National has earned accolades year-over-year as an employer of choice and garnered multiple awards for wellness in the workplace. Western National has also been named a Top Workplace by the Star Tribune for the past four consecutive years. In addition, the Group is consistently recognized as a Ward’s 50 property-and-casualty insurance company for its outstanding financial results.

Western National offers full-time employees a significant Total Rewards Package, including:

• Medical insurance plan options and other standard employee benefits, including dental insurance, vision benefits, life insurance, disability insurance, and more!
• Health Savings Accounts (HSA) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA)
• 401(k) Plan (participants are eligible for 100% matching on the first 6% of their contributions)
• Wellbeing Program, including onsite fitness studio
• Paid Time Off – including holiday, vacation, and volunteer
• 100% company-paid tuition reimbursement for approved job-relevant coursework and access to The Institutes (Risk and insurance education)
• Paid parental leave
• Bonus opportunities

Western National believes in supporting balance between work and life by providing a flexible work environment, which includes a variety of hybrid and remote work arrangements designed to balance individual, job, department, and company needs. 

Applicants must be authorized to work for any employer in the U.S. We are unable to sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment Visa at this time.

Western National provides employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.

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