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PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR

World Wide Specialty Programs

Key program administered: staffing industry

Business as usual is not so usual at World Wide Specialty Programs. Following the 2008 loss of the company’s founder and the recent global economic upheaval, it would have been easy to retrench, pull back, and downsize.

“We took a different path,” says Dorothy Taylor, president and CEO of the Melville, New York-based program administrator. “We added account representatives—the front line people who deal with clients and prospects.” Here’s why: “Given the trying times, we believed we’d need more time with clients, to help them one-on-one with their challenges.”

They were right. The firm was getting more calls and the questions were more involved. “Explaining a simple concept when people are panicked takes time,” Taylor explains. “Forget about e-mails. You can explain more detail in a live conversation. We’re spending more time speaking to people.” That helps clients and, as a result, the company.

World Wide Specialty also added senior management, bringing on Senior Vice President Joe DeCarlo, who has a strong carrier background, and Executive Vice President Alan Doloboff, who has broad brokerage experience. According to Taylor, “This helped us translate the needs of the carrier and brokerage communities to our staff and clients.”

Actually, they weren’t brought on—they were brought back. Both worked as World Wide Specialty account reps earlier in their careers. “It was as if they came home,” Taylor notes. They re-joined a team with substantial tenure of its own. “Most of our people have been with us for a long time,” she adds. And they know the business.

“We are focused only on this one industry—the staffing industry—and we have been for 40 years,” Taylor explains. “Our people know the business from soup to nuts.”

They make that knowledge work for accounts of all sizes—from the smallest to the largest, Taylor notes. “We look at the account, not the income generated. Because of our focus, every account is important.”

Staff members know that—and they’re able to respond. “Employees are empowered,” she explains. “They know their limits, but they also know the answer isn’t always ‘no.’ They’re allowed to be creative.”

They’re also allowed to be congenial. “We have 30 or 35 employees who all like each other,” Taylor boasts. “If someone goes on vacation, is sick or has a sick child, others pitch in. They’ll say, ‘Give me that. I’ll do it. I’ll take it home and review it, so you can get caught up.’ Where else do you see that?”

A key part of their work is educating agents and brokers. “Knowledge is power,” Taylor explains. “It’s our job to help them understand the clients they are selling to, as well as what else is available. More than 3,000 brokers come to us—some of them might only write one staffing firm.

“Some don’t even realize that a staffing company is part of an official industry,” Taylor explains. “They’re shocked when we explain it’s the fifth largest industry in the country, employing more than 3 million people daily.” More than that, the people staffing firms employ work in virtually every industry.

That makes World Wide Specialty a specialist and generalist, all in one. “We’re constantly changing our policies,” Taylor says. “The industries our staffing firms deal with are changing. We have to keep up with the needs of our clients, so they can keep up with the needs of theirs.”

She notes that staffing firms aren’t immune to economic challenges. They’re looking for places to cut—and to grow. “To survive, many are getting into industries they’ve not been in before,” Taylor says. That requires her staff to provide expert advice to clients and retail agents and brokers on insurance implications. “The devil is always in the details,” she adds.

The firm’s involvement with the Target Markets Program Administrators Association helps it connect with brokers and gain insight that positions the company to better handle these details—and more.