Director, Service Center (Ask Unum)

Job Posting End Date: March 08

When you join the team at Unum, you become part of an organization committed to helping you thrive.

Here, we work to provide the employee benefits and service solutions that enable employees at our client companies to thrive throughout life’s moments. And this starts with ensuring that every one of our team members enjoys opportunities to succeed both professionally and personally. To enable this, we provide:

• Award-winning culture

• Inclusion and diversity as a priority

• Performance Based Incentive Plans

• Competitive benefits package that includes: Health, Vision, Dental, Short & Long-Term Disability

• Generous PTO (including paid time to volunteer!)

• Up to 9.5% 401(k) employer contribution

• Mental health support

• Career advancement opportunities

• Student loan repayment options

• Tuition reimbursement

• Flexible work environments

• All the benefits listed above are subject to the terms of their individual Plans.

And that’s just the beginning…

With 10,000 employees helping more than 39 million people worldwide, every role at Unum is meaningful and impacts the lives of our customers. Whether you’re directly supporting a growing family, or developing online tools to help navigate a difficult loss, customers are counting on the combined talents of our entire team. Help us help others, and join Team Unum today!

General Summary:

General Summary
The primary role of this position is to provide leadership, management, and oversight of Ask Unum, part of the Client Success organization. Ask Unum is the primary service center for plan administrators (contract owner), brokers, and field/sales partners answering over 800,000 service inquiries/year for a variety of client and policy level needs relating to a Unum policy/contract. This position leads a team of Managers who lead our Client Experience Reps, knowledgeable employees that are critical to providing strong service results to our customer needs. The individual is responsible for developing strategic service solutions that meet diverse marketplace needs, as well as strengthening relationships of internal & external partners to provide superior service back to the customer.

The responsibilities for this position are broad and diverse and can include further support across Client Success including implementation, enrollment, policy issue, billing, premium and service account management for new and in-force customers as well as individual policyholders.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Directs the day-to-day support for field services and direct support to Unum and Colonial Life sales teams, field agents, brokers and others across products, services, & segments.
• Manages internal and external customer expectations through project planning and partnering efforts throughout the corporation. Additional complexity and breadth contribute to the overall accountability of the job.
• Collaborates with internal and field partners to drive persistency objectives, facilitate a feedback/adjustment model, develop, and implement strategic initiatives that improve CSAT, operational effectiveness and service quality.
• Analyzes, drives, and implements process improvements centered-around ease of doing business, service excellence, training, and knowledge management.
• Collaborates with inter-department key operations to ensure achievement of scorecard metrics, business continuity and forecasted/real-time adjustments to service model requirements.
• Communicates trends and root cause: creates solutions to prevent future occurrences. Acts as an advocate for the field offices by surfacing trends/sales barriers/service model breakdowns to appropriate partners.
• Recruits, leads, mentors, and provides development for assigned personnel to foster and create a strong work environment for an organization of customer facing employees and ensure strong leadership succession planning.
• Provides project support and resources for key strategic initiatives as both SME and decision maker.
• Implements and effectively manages organizational change.
• Communicates and build support for corporate mission and objectives.
• Identifies and manages risks, resolves conflicts and removes barriers that impede the area’s ability to achieve goals and performance expectations.
• Provides direction and decisions to expedite resolution of field issues and support in policy decisions.
• Interfaces across levels and departments to mobilize commitment and ensure timely and appropriate assistance to mediate customer’s needs as well as ensure customer and client satisfaction and alignment with policies, procedures, goals, and objectives.
• Reviews, investigates, resolves, responds, and serves as the subject matter expert in resolution of service questions and issues from the field, as well as internal departments and external clients.
• Uses high level of technical understanding to interpret technical issues for the business and sustain credibility with IT.
• Provides block management for over 75,000 customers of varying complexity, working with the field offices/management, Implementation, Underwriting, ICS and other Home Office areas to resolve problems and/or strengthen customer relations

Job Specifications

• Bachelor’s degree preferred or equivalent experience required
  • Proven ability as a service leader with a track record of delivering strong customer service.
  • Ability to interact effectively with different audiences on both a strategic and tactical level.
  • Strong technical aptitude – ability to utilize and leverage technology and systems including understanding Unum’s legacy systems and their impacts to partner organizations.
  • 3-5 years of management experience in a fast-paced, complex business environment.
  • Comprehensive knowledge of and experience with Group Benefits implementation and administration.
  • Demonstrated experience in leading, engaging, motivating, and driving teams to higher level of performance and collaboration.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and manage multi-disciplinary operation cross-site/virtual team
  • Proven planning and organizational skills.
  • Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills
  • Demonstrated strategic thinking, problem-solving, conflict resolution, and negotiation skills.
  • Proven ability to manage multiple concurrent priorities, understanding the impacts of each, making effective decisions based on sound information, and delivering optimum internal/external solution.
  • Strong knowledge and experience with customer service for external (brokers, TPAs, customers) and internal customers.
• Strong project management skills required, broad experience in organizational development and process design
• Strong understanding of and ability to take action to deliver on key business metrics/indicators/trends
• Skilled in resolving conflicts in an open and positive manner
• Proven ability to make sound/objective business decisions and deliver results
• Solid understanding of the service needs and financial impact to service levels
• Strong knowledge of the insurance business, the company’s operating structure, product offerings corresponding workflow processes, risk concepts and service model offerings.
• Strong interpersonal, collaboration, persuasion, communication, and negotiation skills – both written and verbal
• Strong interpersonal skills

• Travel as needed
• The subject matter experts on this team exemplify exceptional communication skills, deep product/business process knowledge, system knowledge/technical skills, ability to research/resolve and foster strong collaboration cross-functionally.

Unum and Colonial Life are part of Unum Group, a Fortune 500 company and leading provider of employee benefits to companies worldwide. Headquartered in Chattanooga, TN, with international offices in Ireland, Poland and the UK, Unum also has significant operations in Portland, ME, and Baton Rouge, LA - plus over 35 US field offices. Colonial Life is headquartered in Columbia, SC, with over 40 field offices nationwide.

The base salary range for applicants for this position is listed below. Unless actual salary is indicated above in the job description, actual pay will be based on skill, geographical location and experience.

$89,900.00-$161,800.00

Additionally, Unum offers a portfolio of benefits and rewards that are competitive and comprehensive including healthcare benefits (health, vision, dental), insurance benefits (short & long-term disability), performance-based incentive plans, paid time off, and a 401(k) retirement plan with an employer match up to 5% and an additional 4.5% contribution whether you contribute to the plan or not. All benefits are subject to the terms and conditions of individual Plans.

Company:

Unum