Best Companies to Work for in Colorado ’09

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Best Company winner
Pinnacol Assurance
www.pinnacol.com

Pinnacol Assurance CEO Kenneth Ross leads morning stretching to proactively avoid potential problems and promote employee health. From left: Rosemary Herrera; Brandon Williams; Ross; Jeff Tetrick, CFO of Finance; and Johawna Robbins. Photography by MARK MANGER.

Pinnacol Assurance plays a vital role in Colorado’s economy, providing workers compensation insurance to more than 58,000 businesses representing 1.5 million employees across the state. More than half of all Colorado businesses are Pinnacol policyholders.

But while Pinnacol is known as “Colorado’s insurer of last resort,” it is first in the eyes of judges when it comes to Best Companies to Work For. The Denver-based insurer has gone to considerable lengths to take care of its own 622 employees.

Perks at Pinnacol include a matching 401(k) plan, an in-house exercise room with pilates instruction and other classes, and a companywide ergonomics program to ensure optimum comfort and worker health in an environment where most work is done sitting in front of a desk.

In that program, new employees and employees changing workstations receive an ergonomic evaluation aimed at correcting hazards like ill-fitting chairs or poor seating posture. They also have weekly access to an on-site occupational therapist to discuss any symptom, regardless of cause. A stretching program further promotes employee health.

Of course, for a company that provides workers’ compensation insurance, this sets a good example for policyholders. And vice versa.

“What we do as a business carries forth to our employees,” says Ken Ross, who is nearing his fourth year as Pinnacol’s president and CEO.

Pinnacol’s history dates back to 1915, making it Colorado’s oldest provider of workers’ compensation insurance. The company was regularly in the news earlier this year when state legislators sought to tap $500 million of Pinnacol’s $2 billion in reserves to fund higher education before a judge ruled that such a move would be illegal.

“Pinnacol’s story is about our role in the Colorado marketplace, our role in the economy,” Ross says. “We went through a rough time with our legislature in the springtime. The way we look at it is we prevailed, and we think the law is very clear how Pinnacol should operate in Colorado.

Because of the size of Pinnacol and who we insure, we play a very crucial role. It is even magnified with these difficult economic times, that we’re in a position to provide stability in the marketplace and still look to return dividends and reduce rates for our customers.”

Indeed, Pinnacol has returned a dividend to policyholders for five straight years, most recently in May when it returned $120 million, bringing the five-year total to $347 million. Prior to 2005, it hadn’t returned a dividend to policyholders in 22 years. Ross attributes the dividends to Pinnacol policyholders keeping safe workplaces, tending to claims and “working with our claims adjusters and our agents across the state to try to keep their own employees safe and claims costs down.”

Meanwhile back at the office, Pinnacol has not passed along increased health-coverage costs to employees for the past two renewals.

Pinnacol describes itself as Colorado’s “safety net” workers’ compensation provider – by law it must provide coverage to any Colorado business, regardless of its size or accident history. Thus, it takes on more risk than many of its competitors, but it balances this with careful underwriting, prudent pricing, effective claims management, and what it describes as “the relentless pursuit of internal efficiencies.”

Count attention to its own employees’ wellbeing as one demonstration of internal efficiencies – an area in which Pinnacol strives to show the way for the Colorado businesses it serves.

2008 RANK: No. 2
— Mike Taylor

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