CompQuotes | Fall 2024

Short agent survey is coming October 28

SAIF will conduct a survey of our appointed agents and key agency contacts later this month. This is your opportunity to share opinions and provide feedback to help us improve the agent experience with SAIF and better meet your needs. This survey will be much shorter than previous surveys and will focus on SAIF's services to our agency partners and digital tools.

The survey will be available online and should take no more than 2 to 3 minutes to complete. All individual responses will be kept strictly confidential.

You’ll receive an email from feedback@surveys.saif.com the week of October 28 with more information, including a link to the survey. Your input is extremely important to us and will make a difference.

Please check your junk and clutter email folders if you do not receive the email. If you do not find it or have questions about the survey, please get in touch with Lyn Zielinski-Mills.

Thank you in advance for participating in this project.

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Payroll inflation factor renewal

Effective January 1, 2025, voluntary and assigned risk policies will be renewed with a 5% payroll inflation factor, which is unchanged from the prior year. The inflation factor increases renewal payroll to account for expected wage and employment growth and is based on historical average payroll growth for SAIF policyholders and Oregon economic data.

Our agency partners are critical in ensuring 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 to override the inflation factor. This will also prevent re-estimates based on audited payroll received after the policy term begins.

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Digital Payment Platform implementation is on hold

The digital payment project team has been extremely busy since our last update, focusing on user acceptance testing, implementation planning, and training preparations.

While significant progress has been made, we have encountered some regulatory challenges that are out of our control. Due to this, our implementation date is on hold.

We do not take the decision to move the launch date lightly. While it is disappointing, it’s the right thing to do for SAIF and our customers. Once we are confident that all issues are resolved, we will communicate an updated implementation date.

Thank you for your patience.

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SAIF’s annual agriculture safety seminars return for the 27th year

SAIF’s annual agriculture safety seminars are back! Held in 16 cities across the state, these free trainings will begin in November 2024 and run through March 2025. Ten of the trainings are conducted entirely in Spanish. 

Although the seminars are designed for owners, operators, supervisors, and foremen, anyone working in the agricultural industry, as well as agents, is welcome to attend. Small agricultural employers attending the seminar will meet one of the four requirements that exempt small ag 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 pending approval by the Department of Consumer and Business Services. We are pleased to announce the Oregon Department of Agriculture has approved the seminar for two core pesticide continuing education credits.  

Topics for 2024-25: 

Navigating Oregon OSHA’s top citations

Coexistence with agriculture chemicals revisited

Winter warriors: Cold stress safety on the farm

Emergency first aid on the farm

Presenters: 

Eric Lloyd, safety consultant with Risk Management Resources, Inc.

Wes Koester, SAIF safety management consultant

Edgard Garcia-Ramirez, SAIF translator

Emmanual “Manny” Arrellin-Lara, Oregon Risk Management Solutions bilingual safety consultant

Locations 

The seminars start in November of this year and last through March 2025. Check here for dates, locations throughout Oregon, and to register.

If you have questions, please get in touch with Brittany Wilcox at 503.373.8678.

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Regional operations updates and changes

We are excited to announce that our North Bend office officially changed regions, moving from the Eugene region to the Southern region. Please note that the office location did not move – only SAIF’s internal region alignment changed. This regional change will have minimal impact on policyholders in the area. The North Bend office will continue focusing on Coos and Curry Counties policyholders. The SAIF service team in the North Bend office remains unchanged, and there are no plans to alter team assignments. The only change is the transition of the regional operations director (ROD), who oversaw the office from Rob Miller to Katie Sesepasara.

In addition to the North Bend regional alignment change, we made a couple of tweaks regarding the RODs that we are calling “RODs across borders.” In the past, the RODs were only responsible for their regional policyholders. With this new approach, we have RODs working outside their home region to provide additional ROD support in some regions with larger regional books.

Rob Miller, Eugene region ROD, will oversee all regional policies in Linn and Benton Counties (part of the Valley region). Darlene Morris, valley region ROD, will oversee the regional policies in Clackamas County (part of the Northern region). Rochelle Null, our policyholder services senior director, oversees policies in Columbia, Clatsop, and Tillamook counties. We chose not to redraw the regional boundaries since these changes were specific to the ROD position and have no impact on existing or future service team assignments.

These strategic moves are part of our ongoing effort to serve our clients better and enhance our operational efficiency.

If you have any inquiries or need further information, please do not hesitate to contact Rob Miller at robmil@saif.com or 541.338.6763.

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Our Portland and Bend offices are now open by appointment only

To streamline resources and ensure that all customers are receiving the support they need, SAIF’s Portland office, located at 2 Centerpointe Drive, in Lake Oswego, and our Bend office, located at 999 SW Disk Drive, are now open by appointment only.

Customers, agents, and community partners can call the appointment scheduling line at 503.673.5499 to make appointments at the Portland office. To make an appointment at the Bend office, please call the appointment scheduling line at 541.383.2956.

A secure lockbox has been installed next to the front door for drop-off payments, payroll records, or other documents at the Portland office. It is accessible Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Similarly, a secure lockbox has been installed next to the front door of the Bend office for customer convenience. It is accessible Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

For Portland office questions, please get in touch with Jessica Jack, regional operations director, at 503.673.5218 or jesjac@saif.com. If you have Bend office questions, please get in touch with Scott E. Clark, regional operations director, at 541.383.2277 or scoecla@saif.com.   

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Save the date for the 2025 Workers’ Comp Seminar

The annual workers’ comp seminar will be held at SAIF’s Salem office on April 3, 2025. Registration information will be emailed out in early 2025.