Effective January 1, 2023, voluntary and assigned risk policies will be renewed with a 5% payroll inflation factor. The inflation factor increases payroll to account for expected wage and employment growth and is based on historical average payroll growth for SAIF policyholders and Oregon economic data.

The pandemic and its economic impact had a significant effect on payroll for many businesses in Oregon, so SAIF reduced the inflation factor to 0% starting in June 2020 and increased it to 5% for the voluntary market for 2022.

Our agency partners play a critical role in ensuring that we have accurate payroll estimates so premium can be calculated and charged correctly on our installment billing plans. If you provide us with estimated payroll figures, we will use that information and override the inflation factor. This will also stop re-estimates based on audited payroll received after the policy term begins.

Note: The payroll inflation factor previously did not apply to assigned risk policies; however, it will apply beginning January 1, 2023.

Upgrades to saifQuote are coming soon

Before the end of the year, you can expect a few changes to the saifQuote application. These changes are part of a multiphase effort to improve your experience with SAIF. These upgrades will address the two main requests we receive from agents:

Expand the number of no-touch codes
Reduce the number of questions that come up in the application process

With this upgrade, the number of no-touch codes will increase from 68 to 185. The ACORD questions and SAIF questions will be reduced and consolidated on to a single page, and the hazard questions will be reduced by half. Some of the SAIF questions and hazard questions will also be reworded to update old language.

We’re in the final stages of testing the changes and will provide more details as we get closer to releasing the upgrade.

Assigned risk accounts could benefit your agency

Did you know each of your Assigned Risk Plan (ARP) accounts could be prospects for new business to SAIF? Accounts serviced by SAIF as the assigned risk carrier are actually NCCI accounts. If you’re able to move them to SAIF in the voluntary/standard market, not only do you help your customer, but your agency will receive new business commission (a 4% increase from your base commission for the first year) and the sale counts towards your sales goals.

SAIF often reviews accounts within our assigned risk book and notifies the agent when the customer appears to qualify for a standard market quote. Remember, an account can move out of the ARP at any time with no short-rate penalty.

If you haven’t received a letter about a specific ARP account recently, check with your agency marketing rep. The letter may have been received last year but filed by someone not realizing the potential benefits.

Please consider looking at your accounts serviced by the other ARP servicing carriers to see if their pay history and losses might make them eligible for a SAIF quote. If in doubt, ask us!

Billing, simplified

On December 18, our invoices, payroll reporting, and billing processes will change for the better. Below are the key improvements you should be aware of.

Invoices

Redesigned to clearly state the amount due and due date
Will be issued once per month, on the first
Will no longer be issued mid-month when reports are processed or changes are made

Down payment on installment plans

Most service center accounts are on installment plans, while most regional policies are on premium reporting plans.

We’re updating our installment plans to address credit risk with a new down payment option -- the ability to front-load the premium payment. Currently, we address credit risk using security deposits (which do not get applied to premium) on installment plans when customers have poor credit, failed to pay, or failed to report payroll.
We may still require a security deposit in some situations in order to offer coverage.
This change will not impact security deposit requirements related to premium reporting policies.

Payroll report

Redesigned for premium reporting policies
Policyholders will no longer need to calculate premium.
Reporting payroll and calculating premium happen online for most policyholders, and they’ll be able to pay the amount due immediately after they process their payroll report online.
When we receive payroll reports via mail, the premium due from the report will be charged on the following month’s invoice.

Delinquency

We will no longer issue an “intent to cancel” midterm for missing payroll reports.
While reports are still needed, a policy will not be at risk of cancellation due to missing reports until the end of the policy term when we reconcile premium based on actual payroll.

We’re also improving reconciliations, renewals, and credits. More details will be communicated in early December, including links to additional information on saif.com.

Thanks to agents, we were able to incorporate valuable policyholder feedback into the improvements. Thank you for your partnership.

Please contact your underwriter, the service center, or your agency marketing representative if you have questions.

Other states coverage book realignment

SAIF’s other states coverage program (OSC) continues to grow, prompting a need to re-evaluate how we manage and maintain our OSC book of business. In addition to expanding our dedicated team of reps, we’ve examined ways to build greater efficiency in our workflows.

After thoughtful consideration, and collaboration with our business partners, we determined that aligning policies among the team by premium level would allow for the greatest amount of efficiency and flexibility as the program continues to expand.

This new method of alignment will ensure that each policy is being handled by the appropriate member of the team based on complexity, enabling our OSC reps to more efficiently manage a book of our smaller-premium, less-complex policies while allowing our dedicated regional OSC underwriter to focus on our larger and more complex policies.

What does this mean moving forward?

OSC policies under $10,000 in premium will be handled by our team of OSC representatives and will be on our auto renewal track. A notice of election will not be required on renewals.
OSC policies over $10,000 in premium will be handled by our OSC underwriter and will receive a renewal quote. A notice of election will be required to bind the renewal.
All initial coverage requests, regardless of placement within the team, will continue to receive a quote and require a signed notice of election to bind coverage. All new other states coverage requests should be submitted via email to oscworkgroup@saif.com.

These changes are scheduled to go into effect with policies that renew on or after November 1, 2022.

Stepping up our approach to customer feedback

For many years, SAIF has solicited customer feedback to help us understand how we’re doing and how we can improve.

Through regular policyholder surveys, focus groups, user studies, and feedback from our customers and agents, we’ve been able to consistently improve our service using the voice of the customer as our guide.

Now we want to take our research approach to the next level. SAIF recently contracted with the survey software vendor, Qualtrics, to create a more robust Voice of Customer (VoC) program.

The software will enable SAIF to send out more regular electronic surveys to find out how customers are feeling in the moment about specific interactions with SAIF. Over time, we’ll be able to gather real-time information from all the major touchpoints on the customer journey. SAIF will report that information regularly to our internal divisions and agent partners to help them improve their services.

The surveys will also enable SAIF to reach out to customers who are having a negative experience, as well as notify agents of any concerns with specific accounts.

As we roll out this program across SAIF, we’ll keep you informed about how it’s going and what we learn. We hope the insights we get from the VoC program will be valuable not only to SAIF, but also to our agent partners, and enable us all to provide the best possible experience for our mutual customers.

If you have questions about SAIF’s VoC program or a specific customer survey, reach out to Mike Watters, customer experience director for policyholders, at mikwat@saif.com or 503.373.8102.

Ag safety seminars return this month

We’re taking our agriculture safety seminars around the state once again this fall and winter. The 2022-23 season runs from October 25 through March 16. Nine seminars will be presented entirely in Spanish.

The topics for 2022-23 are:

Ag Hacks 3.0 | The saga continues
Coexisting with agricultural chemicals
Juggling the heat and the effects of OSHA’s new heat rule
First responders on the farm

Small ag businesses who attend in person will meet OSHA's instructional requirement. It’s one of four requirements that exempt small agricultural operations from random OSHA inspections. Three hours of technical and one hour of business continuing education credits are available from the Landscape Contractors Board. Four regular producer continuing education credit hours for licensed insurance agents are approved by the Department of Consumer and Business Services.

See the seminar schedule at saif.com/agseminars.

saif.com employer guide is now in Spanish

Did you know all of SAIF’s online employer resources are now available in Spanish?

You can access SAIF’s Guía de Empleadores from the saif.com homepage, along with our other Spanish resources: la Guía del Trabajador (Spanish worker guide) and desarrolla trabajo seguro y saludable (Spanish safety and health trainings).

Guía de Empleadores offers information and resources that help SAIF policyholders through the workers’ comp process, including:

How and where to submit payroll
What to expect with premium audit
How to file and manage a claim
What injured worker benefits are available
How to prevent fraud
Which return-to-work programs they can access
How to renew a policy

You can check out our new Spanish employer guide at saif.com/empleador.

SAIF provides policyholders with HR help

In late 2019 SAIF started a human resources (HR) initiative to offer more employment law resources for policyholders. Little did we know how perfect the timing would be.

One part of the initiative focused on HR resources for policyholders. Deliverables included COVID-related webinars beginning in 2020 and development of 12 e-learning modules covering common HR topics. These resources can be found at saif.com/HR.

Another exciting element of the initiative is claim consulting, focusing on opportunities to help policyholders with employment law questions related to a specific SAIF claim. SAIF is partnering with Barran Liebman, LLP and Sather, Byerly, Holloway, LLP.

This portion of the initiative launched in August 2020 with employers in the southern region; it expanded statewide in spring 2021. Qualifying employers receive up to one hour of employment law counsel on an active claim. Consultations beyond one hour are at the employer's expense, but at a discounted rate.

To qualify for a referral, an employer must be an active policyholder in the voluntary market (not in assigned risk), have an employment law question related to a claim, and not already have a relationship with a labor law attorney. Each policyholder can have two accepted referrals, and most of the claims are rated as “actionable” by our complexity model.

Results to date

Since the inception of the program, we’ve received over 140 referrals for claim consulting. The program continues to benefit our smaller policyholders, who would otherwise not have an employment law expert readily available.

Contact the adjuster on a claim if you believe there is value in using this feature.

Agent trainings on saif.com

Remember that you can keep track of, and sign up for, our free agent trainings on saif.com. Check out the list today. Live webinars for SAIF agents

Comp Quotes | Fall 2022

Comp Quotes articlesIn this issue:

Comp Quotes archive

Payroll inflation factor for 2023 policies