Kim: Welcome, everybody, to another episode of the Life at Travelers podcast. Today, I have my guest Chris Day here with me to really dig into what is, at times, an unknown treasure of Travelers. That is Claim University.

And so, we’re going to talk all about Claim U, what’s there, what happens there, and some of the really, behind the scenes, look and information that our expert Chris here is going to chat about with us. So, let’s get started.

Chris, why don’t you just introduce yourself to our listeners?

Chris: Sure. Thank you very much and thanks for the opportunity to be here today. Yeah, my name is Chris Day. I currently am the Assistant Vice President for Catastrophe Response. And I work at Claim University.

Kim: Awesome.

Chris: I’ve been with Travelers since 1999. I spent all of my time in claim, most of it in catastrophe. I’ve had a chance to go to a lot of different places around the country for catastrophe response and do a lot of different roles. Before I was with Travelers, I was, I spent ten years in the military.

Kim: Thank you so much for your service.

Chris: Thank you. But I had a great opportunity to learn a lot after college. I went into the service after college. And, maybe a little bit more about myself. Away from work I enjoy spending time with my family. My wife and I have a very active seven-year-old…

Kim: Alright.

Chris: …and when I’m not, sort of, chasing her around, I stay busy with a lot of activity in sports. I swim for the Connecticut Masters Swim Program, represent Connecticut at the Masters swimming level. I swam in college and have continued that on through, throughout the time since I was in college.

Kim: Awesome. So, you’re reveling in the chaos at home, at work…

Chris: Always.

Kim: Alright, awesome. Alright. So, let’s talk about Claim U and why we’re here today. Can you tell our listeners, you know, what is Claim University? What happens there? Who works there? Just give us that inside look.

Chris: Sure. Claim University is a 200,000 square foot multi-use facility. It’s out in Windsor, so, a little bit north of Hartford.

Kim: Okay.

Chris: It houses both our flagship training facility…

Kim: Yup.

Chris: …for Claim University, where we train our claim handlers, our claim team. It also, it has a world-class conference center. It houses one of four Customer Service Centers, where we, you know, take first notice of loss calls from the customers. It houses our Catastrophe Management Center and also houses our brand-new Risk Control Lab.

Kim: Okay, so a couple of things going on there.

Chris: Lots of activity, always, with a bunch of different people from a lot of different disciplines.

Kim: Yeah. And I know my first time over at Claim U, I was, shocked, amazed, right, because the facility is so… Can you talk about, like, the Auto Lab, Property Lab, even the Workers’ Compensation Lab there?

Chris: Yeah. So, yeah, starting with Claim University. First, a couple of really cool statistics. So, Claim University hosts more than 250,000 hours of training…

Kim: Wow.

Chris: …in a year, 7,500 annual onsite learners, so, people traveling in to take classes. So, a lot of classes online, but a lot there. And more than 80,000 total enrollees into Claim University-lead classes, both virtual and live. I talked about… Maybe I’ll start with the Risk Control Lab, too.

Kim: Yeah. Sounds great.

Chris: That’s the newest facility right there.

Kim: Yup.

Chris: So, industry-leading space, really a world-class bench-top laboratory space. They do claim investigations and risk control. So, they’re helping out our customers keep their employees safe…

Kim: Yup.

Chris: …and also investigating claims, you know, cause and origin, fraud investigations with just an array of scientific and technical expertise. Then, the laboratory spaces. So, you’ve got an auto lab with dozens of cars and heavy equipment that have been in actual accidents that are used as learning resources for the auto trainees that move through and claim handlers who are advancing their career as they move up. And then the same thing for property, not only full-scale, live mock-ups of equipment, but building components that they can train on, but three full-scale buildings that are fully functional. So, two houses and a commercial space. And all of those have full electrical and mechanical services. And they have a bunch of different types of damages and different finishes displayed and the claim handlers are able to train on actual hands-on, live equipment.

Kim: Yeah. It’s on-the-job training at school. Yeah. That’s excellent. And, as far as, you know, you mentioned digital forensics. For folks who might not know what that is, you know, what are they working on in there? What is digital forensics?

Chris: This is the space in which they’re investigating all aspects of digital risk management and digital claim handling, or claim responses. So, increasingly, our customers’ risks are virtual and they’re digital and they’re computer driven. And so, they have the ability to take computers, compromised computers, or do investigations where they’re, they can, what’s called, air gap the computer from any of our networks and they can investigate any malware that might be on there, or they can find damaged computer files and restore computer files for an investigation, a whole bunch of different, sort of, technical or computer investigative techniques.

Kim: Yeah. They’re digital detectives.

Chris: They really are.

Kim: That’s amazing. Okay. And I know there’s also a lot of chemists over there, right? There’s a whole, kind of, chemistry lab? You know, what would I call that?

Chris: Well really, I mean, there’s, so, there’s a couple of different spaces. I talked about the bench-top laboratory space. So, that’s, yeah, your traditional, if you think about like the world’s best college chemistry class, right? I mean, this is. You’re talking, so, gas chromatographs, scanning electron microscopes, you know, really, sort of, world-class chemical analysis that they’re doing for multiple different things. Plus, there’s rooms where they can do, sort of, live event reconstruction. So, they can do fire investigations where they, where they’re actually looking for cause and origin and actually causing or trying to reproduce fires live on site. And they can do, they have a wet room where they can investigate water damage and valve failures and a bunch of different stuff as part of the claim investigation process.

Kim: And are these labs used for training as well?

Chris: Yeah, for our risk control folks, too. So, keeping in mind, so, there’s claim handling training and then there’s the risk control professionals who are out there learning all of those techniques, you know, for risk control training as well.

Kim: Okay.

Chris: But that lab is probably more focused on the actual work that we’re doing for customers and for the claim investigations.

Kim: Okay. So, if I’m coming in as a new hire, as a claim trainee, right? I’m entering into this program. What can I, kind of, expect? What does the layout of the training program look like?

Chris: So, I think coming in, as you mentioned, I think most people would be blown away with the hands-on technical. The layout, the spaces are enormous. There’s, I think, nine large classrooms. We’ve got multiple breakout rooms. So, there’s a lot of really one-on-one or small group training. You see these classes going through. They’re working, you know, in the lab and then back in the classroom, really advancing their careers, you know, starting from the very beginning, learning the basics of insurance and insurance damage investigation and, you know, estimate writing for auto and property and, you know, medical management training through the workers’ comp labs. But then as their, as folks’ careers advance, they’re working on more technical. They’re working into more commercial buildings or heavy equipment, larger heavy equipment in the auto space and more complicated losses and, you know, income losses. Things that evolve through the higher complexity claims that our claim handlers take on as they advance their careers.

Kim: Okay. And you’re a perfect example, right? You started as a claim rep at Travelers, correct?

Chris: As a front-line auto and property claim rep in the Denver office. Yeah, that was where I got hired. I moved over to the catastrophe team about a year later and was a claim handler and unit manager on the CAT team for about six years and then, spent some time in the Midwest region as a regional manager before coming out to Connecticut in 2006. And I’ve been at the Claim U facility Or, at the CAT Center facility since then.

Kim: Okay, so let’s dig into catastrophe because I know that’s your whole world. So, how does it work? You hear of an incoming disaster and then you sound the alarms and we go from there? Or…?

Chris: It’s a lot like that. So, CAT response is the most important thing that insurance companies do.

Kim: Okay.

Chris: Well, kidding aside, it’s certainly one of the most important. And it’s one of the most complicated. So, if property insurance, and auto insurance to a lesser extent, were a little more, like, more predictable, like some of the other lines of business are, it would be easier to manage the response. So, you know, for most lines of business, you write a certain number of policies and you can expect a certain number of claims, you can work the staffing model. And if we only had to insure for washing machine hoses and kitchen fires in property, we could do the same thing. But we’re in the weather business. And so, we have to be able to manage all of those day-to-day claims and also, be able to shift gears for the entire claim department in order to handle events that might produce a year’s worth of claims or two years’ worth of claims in just one or two days. Traditionally, the way the industry has always done that is that they have outsourced that to independent adjusting firms. And we don’t do that and we think we’re unique in the industry in doing that. We handle all of our catastrophe claims with our own staff. We don’t contract for any independent adjusters and it’s really for that reason that we actually locate our CAT Center at Claim University, because the first step is to make sure that our people have the right expertise and specialization to handle every claim. But we also build, and this is what we do on a day-in and day-out basis, is we build and manage a scalable model that allows us to respond to any size of event. So, we have our CAT team, so about 400 people total. About 250 of those are the field CAT team and they go to all events. They’re, sort of, the front line, the tip of the spear. They’re deployed up to 220, 225 nights a year away from home. And they’re going to every office maybe five or six people at a time, or three or four, or 200 or 220 at a time for a large event like we’ve had this year with Hurricane Helene. And then, as events get a little bit larger, our Workforce Management team, that’s co-located with the CAT Center, calibrates the capacity of every one of our offices all the way down to the individual claim handler level every day. So, we always know exactly when an office is going to need help, but also, at any point in time, which office might be able to assist the CAT team if we reach their capacity to handle larger events. And then, what really makes us different is our enterprise response strategy. And that’s where we’ve cross-trained literally thousands of claim professionals from other lines of business…

Kim: Okay.

Chris: …to handle lower severity personal insurance property claims and that frees up our property staff to handle the more severe losses and the business insurance claims. And that scalability is what allows us to handle every event.

Kim: Yup.

Chris: And then the way we execute the strategy is, we monitor the weather out to as far as 16 days in advance.

Kim: Okay.

Chris: We look for potential future events. We track those over multiple days up to the event and we start to game plan three or four or even seven days ahead of time. And then the event, if the event happens, then we aggregate just literally millions of data points from across the footprint of the event to, sort of, diagnose what happened, figure out how many claims are going to come in, and then we build a claim response package of claim handlers to meet the needs of the customers, and then we issue deployment instructions, and then within 24 hours, those claim handlers are on the ground helping the customers. And we do that process for every single storm that comes up. Most of the time they actually don’t happen, like, we do all the planning and then the storm misses. But if it does, we have all of that pre-planning under our belts and we execute that multiple times a year, as many as 80 or 100 times for different storms.

Kim: So, you’re always ready. Whether it happens or not.

Chris: I would say, always ready and always responding. So, we’re always responding to the prior events, we’re prepping for the next events and we’re off and handling, you know, five or six or even ten events simultaneously.

Kim: Yup. And I know from my side of the house, right, working in social media, a lot of the times the disasters hit, you know, we’ve posted online before saying, ‘Hey, our CAT van is located, you know, at X parking lot, you know, if you need service, if you have a claim.’ Can you talk about the CAT vans and and what happens there, for folks who are unfamiliar?

Chris: Sure, and about our shared services more broadly, too, there are dozens of groups across the enterprise. There’s your social media group, you know, teams from subrogation, corporate security, corporate real estate, other communications teams that all have responsibilities within our CAT response. We have a playbook and we have hundreds of tasks, about 250 tasks for a large hurricane, where different groups and all of our leadership team are executing all of these plays that we’re running. One of those, you might take it as a good example, is the CAT van. So, we identify a need, an operational need for a CAT van, or maybe an insurance department is setting up a place where customers can meet. We can deploy one of our eight different CAT van units to that. We have four large mobile claim office units. They’re big RVs, RV-based units, and we have four quick response vehicles that we can use on smaller events, or smaller venues, or we can get really close to claims and we’ll deploy those out, with claim handlers or unit managers, and we can be right there, where our customers need us. Maybe there’s a big disruption to the cell phone infrastructure or power. They can turn in a claim, they can meet with their claim handler, we can use it as a platform to, you know, do something as simple as get out of the rain and do inspections over multiple days at, like, a large claim event. We’ve used the small CAT van for that. But it’s a great resource tool. It really gives customers access into the response and that’s one of the critical things, whether it’s giving our agents access in, or customers access into the response so that they can get the information they need from us.

Kim: Right. And immediately.

Chris: Immediately.

Kim: Yeah, yeah. Amazing. And I know, right, with a lot of catastrophes and it is the property claim, kind of, damages, you know, responses that we’re doing here, I have heard at Claim U there’s drone school, correct? Is that… That’s a skill that our property reps have.

Chris: It is.

Kim: Yeah. Can you talk about that? Are they becoming drone certified pilots?

Chris: It is. So, you have to be certified by the FAA to fly a drone commercially.

Kim: Yup. Okay.

Chris: And so, we have a training curriculum, a program, by which our claim handlers and risk control professionals can go through and become certified to fly drones commercially and then they’ll take the test. They get licensed by the FAA, or certified by the FAA, and then they follow, they have to file flight plans and they, when they’re using drones in the field. We do hear about some of our competitor drone programs. You know, I think, probably, our thought is, they may be more like a drone team or a drone vendor. I don’t think anyone is doing what we’re doing, which is really replacing, or augmenting, the ladder in the trunk of the car with a drone for individual claim handlers and risk control professionals to use on claims. We don’t think anyone is in large-scale doing that. And we think it, quite frankly, makes us the leader in that space.

Kim: So, if somebody is interested in working in claim at Travelers, right, they’re thinking about becoming an auto rep, a property rep, you know, what would you tell them? You know, what advice would you give to somebody who might start at Claim U?

Chris: Yeah. I think it’s interesting. So, you know, I think, I think our investments in facilities like Claim U, the Risk Control Lab, our CAT response, are really tangible examples of our commitment to the Travelers Promise, right? To be there for our customers, for our communities and for each other. Right? It’s a, you know, when we respond to catastrophe events, it’s really, we’re supporting the offices, we’re supporting our customers and the communities impacted. And because that promise is woven into the entire enterprise, our claim handlers that have gone through the classes at Claim University, you know, hundreds, maybe thousands, of them have moved up through the ranks of the teams in the field, the claim teams in the field, and at home office and really to all corners of the enterprise. And so, I’d say that it really is the doorway to any career that you would want at Travelers. So, you know, handling, you know, front line, customer-facing interactions, learning to deliver on that promise in face-to-face or over the phone with the customer, and that’s what you learn at Claim University, I think is the foundation for really any career that you would want at Travelers.

Kim: Yeah, yeah, a lot of space to go from there. Yeah. Now, personal question for you, Chris. I know we were talking before this episode, and you had mentioned our Military/Veteran & Allies Diversity Network (MVADN). I know you used to be Chair, correct? And you have that past military experience. Can you talk about the MVADN and, kind of, your involvement there and, kind of a follow-up for how military might fit into the catastrophe world. I have an idea.

Chris: Okay. Yeah. Thank you for bringing that up. I was honored to serve multiple years in the leadership team of the Military/Veterans & Allies Diversity Network and was the immediate past Chair, Co-Chair, or Chair for the organization. The MVADN is, it’s a big organization. It really does help a lot of people. We have 82 leaders, more than 3,000 members in 43 locations across the country. And I’m going off statistics that are probably a year old at this point. So, I’m sure it’s bigger than that, right? As you see that. And we have found that there is a real ability to translate the skill set, the professionalism, the empathy that we see in a lot of retiring or transitioning service members who are coming into the private sector and identifying really terrific career and job opportunities for them as claim handlers and as investigators and, you know, across the board, risk control engineers, you know, as they develop and develop new skill sets or build on the skill sets that they learned and the leadership skills that they had in the, that they learned in the military. I feel, you know, personally, for me, that a lot of the, you know, sort of, self-discipline and the leadership skills I had, you know, Were, they’re really, you know…

Kim: Transferable.

Chris: I built a foundation on that in the military and have been able to build on that you know, in the private sector. It’s different. You know, managing people is different in the military than it is in the private sector. But there’s this, sort of, core that you can build on and I think that we see that in a lot of the leaders who have prior military experience. You see that sort of foundation.

Kim: Yeah. So, claim provides a lot of those, kind of, opportunities to transfer skills from the military over.

Chris: We definitely have seen a lot of that. Yeah. And had a lot of success.

Kim: Yeah. Amazing. I mean, you’re a prime example. You’ve been at Travelers a little while. I think you might like it. Excellent. Chris, we talked about a lot today. Is there anything that we didn’t talk about that you think is important to mention? Whether that be about, you know, military background, Claim U, anything else that we didn’t touch on?

Chris: You know, I think you hit on it a little bit in the last question, too. And that’s really how truly fortunate, you know, I think I have been, you know, to have had a career. You know, I found it rewarding, challenging every day. I think one of the great things about our industry, and maybe about claim in particular as well, is that because we insure every part of the economy there is a never-ending need to learn and grow and develop and learn more and be curious and challenge yourself to learn more. I find that I like to think that I challenge myself to learn something new every single day. I think it makes it interesting. It, you know, it keeps you coming back, you know, every day, even on the days that are difficult. But that real reward, I really do feel honored to have been able to, you know, develop and have such a, you know, such a broad, you know, career and been able to help so many customers or help people develop, really, really feel honored.

Kim: That’s awesome. And I’m honored to have you on the show. So, thank you for being here. You know, when I think of Claim U, Chris, I’m like, if Claim University had a sports team, Chris Day would be the coach, the GM and maybe the mascot. I’m like, you are the guy.

Chris: Well, I’ll definitely volunteer to be the mascot, to do that. No, thank you.

Kim: Well, thank you for being here. You know, if, if listeners are interested in learning more about Claim University, our claim roles, visit us at travelers.com/careers. Chris, if we tag you on the social post on LinkedIn, can folks connect with you?

Chris: Oh, they definitely can. Yeah, I’m on it.

Kim: Okay. We’re going to make you an influencer out there.

Chris: Excellent.

Kim: We’ll tag you. Well thanks, Chris. Thanks for being here. And thanks to our listeners for tuning in and we’ll be back soon with another episode for you. Take care.

Travelers recently had the honor of being named Code Platoon’s 2024 Partner of the Year, an award given to a company whose leadership significantly advances Code Platoon’s mission to empower the military community to transition into civilian careers in software engineering.

It’s no secret that military veterans and spouses often face challenges transitioning into civilian professions and finding lasting careers. With the help of Code Platoon—a coding bootcamp that teaches software development skills to veterans and their spouses—Travelers has helped bridge that gap.

Over the past year, Travelers has hired several Code Platoon graduates who went on to complete the Travelers Engineering Development Program (EDP), equipping them with the tools and confidence to find meaningful roles within Travelers’ Technology & Analytics department.

The EDP offers four distinct engineering tracks: Software, Cyber, Data and Infrastructure, and Cloud. Upon completing each track, participants hone their technical and self-leadership skills, preparing them for successful careers in technology.

“I think the EDP is a good fit for Code Platoon graduates because it provides a robust, structured training approach,” explained Bruce Soltys, VP of Emerging Talent and Talent Acquisition at Travelers. “Within your assigned track, your experience includes a combination of hands-on opportunities, immersive learning accelerators, and a mentoring program to prepare you for a dynamic career at Travelers.”

With over a century of experience helping veterans transition into the workforce, Travelers recognizes the unique talents these professionals bring, which are highly transferable to civilian careers. “I believe that transitioning out of the military brings a sense of uncertainty—and Code Platoon helped me adjust, to say the least,” shared Suhail Hameed, EDP Software Engineer at Travelers, US Marine Corps Veteran, and Code Platoon alum.

At Travelers, more than 1,000 current and former military professionals have found meaningful, lasting careers. Since 2020, increased hiring initiatives have resulted in the employment of over 300 military spouses in portable careers.

“I work with Travelers now because I started at Code Platoon, and the sky is the limit for me,” stated Chris Rances, EDP Software Engineer at Travelers, US Army Veteran, and Code Platoon alum. “I’m really glad that I am here now, and it all started because I went with Code Platoon.”

Watch the full video to learn more about Travelers’ Code Platoon 2024 Partner of the Year Award.

Stephen Brand, Senior Director of Architecture on our Enterprise Technology Team, has been with us under the umbrella since April of 2021. During his time on our team, he has discovered the company culture we are proud of, opportunities to learn and grow and our commitment to innovation, technology and the growing field of architecture.

He is glad he chose to bring his career to Travelers and wants to share why you might also consider exploring a career on our team.

My Adventures in Architecture at Travelers

By Stephen Brand
Senior Director, Architecture

As I approach three years with Travelers, I’ve been reflecting on the professional decisions that led me here and the journey that continues to shape my career. Being in the technology industry and in technology at Travelers, I have made a series of professional decisions that led me to one choice that I’m glad I made – joining the Enterprise Architecture and Emerging Tech team at Travelers.

While thinking about my time at Travelers, I have come up with three key factors any architecture job seeker should consider when choosing a career path with a new company:

• Company Culture
• Learning & Growth Opportunities
• Commitment to Architecture

Company Culture:

As any good architect or architecture leader will tell you, relationships are the lifeblood of the work we do. Yes, in a technology group, we always have our eye on the technology and the future directions it will undoubtedly take us, but it’s really the people who help drive you.

Joining an organization full-time, remotely, during a pandemic was undoubtedly a risky proposition. That being said, to say that my manager and team embraced me when I joined is an understatement. I have been able to have conversations with colleagues from across the organization – from engineers to chief architects to CIOs and everyone in between.

When you work at Travelers, you will work with talented technologists who are innovating products that are impacting the lives of our customers and employees. What’s even more refreshing about Travelers’ culture is that all ideas are encouraged and welcomed by everyone at all levels. Hackathons, Competitions and Innovation Jams are commonplace and have resulted in incredible patents, product offerings and awards. The tech, collaboration and teamwork I have experienced at Travelers thus far has been exceptional.

Learning & Growth Opportunities:

When choosing a company, learning and development opportunities are paramount, particularly in the technology field that is constantly changing and evolving. It is important to understand how a company supports its employees’ development so everyone can learn and grow.

Not a day goes by where there hasn’t been something new to learn and a team of leaders who support education along the way. When I took this role as a Senior Director of Architecture supporting Bond & Specialty Insurance (B&SI), it was one of the few remaining areas of insurance technology in which I had no prior experience – but I was determined to learn.

Early on, I attended training courses designed to educate employees on the B&SI business. During these sessions, key executives from the unit were on hand to discuss business strategy and what differentiates Travelers in the market. This type of interaction also provided another opportunity to build relationships within the community. The learning tools I acquired during these courses will continue to come in handy as my career journey at Travelers progresses.

From a technology learning perspective, I’ve also seen a huge commitment to modernization efforts and the upskilling needed to get there. Travelers is funding the education and certification for AWS and our leadership is leading by example in this regard.

Commitment to Architecture:

I knew I was walking into something special from my first interview with the architecture teams and leaders at Travelers. I’ve been at big companies most of my career, including several Fortune 100 companies, but I’ve never been at a place that values architecture quite like Travelers does.

Travelers has continued its own agile, digital and cloud transformations. Whether working on the latest cloud technologies, using artificial intelligence to assist and empower employees or helping to ensure our systems are modernized and reliable for our customers and employees, I’m proud that my team is at the forefront of these critical initiatives.

As Travelers focuses on performing for today and transforming for the future, it’s not only about our current work. We are focused on what’s next in architecture and technology, and our business is committed to ensuring that we have the talent to succeed by expanding roles and career opportunities for architects across the company. This considerable investment in architecture is really exciting.

I couldn’t be prouder of being here at Travelers and going through this journey with my team. I truly hope some of you will join us on our adventure.

Travelers is committed to being there for our customers and agents when they need us most. Fulfilling this promise begins with the dedication of our front-line, customer-facing Claim and Operations professionals, whose efforts are recognized through the In-Synch Service Award program.

Launched in 2006, the award honors those from Claim, Billing, Personal Insurance (PI) and Business Insurance (BI) Customer Service, Premium Audit and PI Underwriting who demonstrate high-quality service, timeliness, innovative problem-solving, and, most importantly, a commitment to consistently meeting the needs of our customers, agents and brokers.

In 2023, more than 100 employees from the U.S. and Canada were recognized with an In-Synch Service Award. Below, we highlight three outstanding recipients.

Christopher Mackey
BI Operations Interaction Centers

Chris is known for his friendly demeanor, patience, professionalism and for going the extra mile to not only help, but to provide valuable education on our processes. He focuses on building meaningful relationships that positively impact the lives of agents, brokers, customers and injured workers. Customers have shared that Chris is “great, helpful, and willing to go above and beyond to help,” and is a model for others.

Q&A with Chris

How does it feel to be honored with an In-Synch Service Award?

I’m extremely grateful to belong to a company that celebrates their employees so well.

Tell us about your Travelers career journey.

I was brand new to insurance when I joined Travelers. I’ve learned everything I could during my time on the Business Insurance Agency Help Desk and continue to learn every day.

What is most meaningful about your work?

Knowing that whether clients are getting insured for compliance reasons or peace of mind, our work matters. Getting to use my skills to empower agents is a privilege I don’t take lightly.

If you could go back to when you started at Travelers, what is one piece of advice you would give your younger self? 

Soak up as much wisdom as possible from your colleagues. Always remember your team has a lot of experience and boasts a wealth of knowledge.

What motivates you? 

The opportunity to add value where I see it is needed.

Jay Mehta
Canada Billing

When it comes to working with agents and brokers, Jay is described as “fast,” and is ahead of the pack with it comes to response time. Not only does Jay prioritize speediness, but he also ensures that the quick information is accurate, clear, thorough and easy to understand. Agents and brokers have shared that Jay is “outstanding and a pleasure to deal with,” and that his responses are prompt, simple and clear.

Q&A with Jay 

How does it feel to be honored with an In-Synch Service Award?

It feels amazing! It’s such an honor and I am so grateful to work for such an amazing company.

Tell us about your Travelers career journey.

I was hired as a Customer Service Agent before moving to Billing a couple of years after that. I am currently a Senior Billing & Payment Specialist.

What is most meaningful about your work?

Helping my team, coming up with solutions to broker inquiries and building relationships with brokers.

If you could go back to when you started at Travelers, what is one piece of advice you would give your younger self?

The more you reach out to learn, ask questions and take initiative, the more you will improve your skillset. Be a good listener!

What motivates you?

Positive results motivate me to keep going.

Melissa Sampson
Personal Insurance Operations

Melissa Sampson is not only a “three-peat” In-Synch Service Award honoree, but she is also the first person to achieve the honor.
Customers have shared that Mel is “amazing and kind, “wonderful,” and a “huge asset to Travelers.” We agree as she approaches each customer interaction with efficiency and empathy, going above and beyond to deliver the Travelers Promise.

Q&A with Melissa 

How does it feel to be honored with an In-Synch Service Award?

Amazing! It’s an honor to be an In-Synch honoree. I am so proud to work for such a wonderful company that truly values and honors their employees.

Tell us about your Travelers career journey.

I started as an Insurance Service Representative in our Massachusetts Business Center and am now a Senior Insurance Service Representative. I mentor and assist with training our new hires and internal partners.

What is most meaningful about your work?

I am passionate about helping others! I love to help my customers and peers learn, grow, and feel respected and cared for.

If you could go back to when you started at Travelers, what is one piece of advice you would give your younger self? 

Don’t fear change. Embrace it. Don’t be afraid to try new experiences and push yourself out of your comfort zone.

What motivates you? 

My son is my primary motivation! I want to be a positive role model for him, show him that hard work pays off and that he can do anything he wants to do if he puts his mind to it. My customers and manager also motivate me. I love being the best employee I can be, reaching my goals and getting that warm feeling when I hear feedback from my customers.

The Travelers Promise is to take care for our customers, communities, and each other. One of the best ways to demonstrate this is by sharing employee stories that highlight the work, experiences, and spirit that bring our Promise to life every day.

Kathryn Weber-Hottleman, a Senior Accessibility Lead in Personal Insurance, began her Travelers career over a year ago. In her role, she focuses solely on the digital accessibility of Travelers’ products used by customers, agents, and employees.

“To have an accessible product at the end means that any user with a disability can access our user experiences without needing any additional help,” said Kathryn. “For example, users who may be blind or who have low vision, might use screen readers. Basically, it reads all the text of a site out loud to you so you can hear whatever a sighted user is seeing.”

What makes Kathryn and her position unique is that accessibility is important not only in her role but also in her personal life. Since her late teens, Kathryn has lived with congenital back issues that impact her comfort while sitting and standing, requiring workplace accommodations.

“I spent over a year in physical therapy wearing back braces on pain medication. It was a lot. This kind of thing doesn’t just go away – it stays with you for the rest of your life. And then it still impacted me once I got into the working world.”

Even before joining Travelers, Kathryn built her career in disability services, where she often advocated for accommodations and accessibility for others. Despite this, she found it challenging to advocate for herself and ask for the chairs or desks that would make her work day more comfortable.

“It made me think that how sad is this? That I’m creating this environment for others, and I don’t believe in it for me. So, it made me think a lot about stigma and the stigma that we have around disabilities and asking for the support that we need as individuals with disabilities.”

When Kathryn came to Travelers, she faced the same personal challenge of asking for accommodations, and initially found workarounds. However, when her manager became aware, she advocated on Kathryn’s behalf, ensuring that getting the right chair was a priority.

“It wasn’t just me advocating for myself anymore – it was my manager and she followed up with everyone required until a new chair was sitting at my desk.  It was an amazing experience to have somebody else advocating for me so strongly.”

Kathryn’s experience emphasized the importance of being open about her needs and asking for help without fearing stigma.

“Self-identification is the first step in receiving accommodations. In this case was not just me checking that box for H.R. saying, yes, you have a disability. It was also talking to my manager about it and having her on my side,” Kathryn said. “Finding that I had that support not just in my organization but in my own unit and with my direct manager made me feel like this is a natural part of being part of the Travelers community.”

Through her work in digital accessibility, Kathryn embodies the Travelers Promise. She’s also experienced it firsthand through the compassion and support of her team and the broader community.

“I love having time carved out of our day to day to go engage with the people around us. Travelers isn’t something that just separates itself from the whole rest of the community. Travelers really takes time to invest where we are,” said Kathryn.

“We’re trying to develop this community where people can feel comfortable sharing any part of their identity. So, in my case, sharing that I have a disability and finding such strong support to get what I needed to thrive in this environment.”

Watch the video to hear more of Kathryn’s story.