CHAMBER OF COMMERCE HELPS YOUNG STUDENTS
Insurer designs workplace to appeal to young recruits
Chamber is collecting donations so children will get two books and a gift card for a dinner at a local restaurant.
Norm Becker knows his industry isn’t glamorous.
But during his 13 years as CEO, New Mexico Mutual has made an effort to appeal to the next generation of insurance professionals.
“It’s considered a stodgy business,” Becker says. “So college graduates aren’t necessarily attracted to it.”
Becker, who spent his entire career in the insurance field, retired April 2. Kellie Mixon, a 25-year veteran of New Mexico Mutual including her most recent role of chief financial officer, has taken over his position.
The company, which marked its 30th anniversary last month, was created by the state legislature to provide workers’ compensation insurance to New Mexico businesses. And that is where its focus has remained.
“All we do is workers’ compensation coverage,” Becker says. “And the only territory we serve is the state of New Mexico.”
To counter an aging workforce and a pedestrian reputation, New Mexico Mutual runs three programs that introduce young people to their world: a high school internship program, a college internship program and a two-year post-college program.
Even their headquarters, a 15,000-square-foot building completed three years ago, was designed in part to attract younger workers. The workspaces are collaborative and ringed with windows. There’s a fitness center on-site and trails around the property. The result is “a really open, inviting, bright, positive environment,” Becker says.
“We got to get them in here to look around and live our life for a while,” Becker says.
Once there, he says, young recruits see that New Mexico Mutual needs people with a knack for technology, finance, customer service, human resources, marketing and more.
Some, like Becker, find their niche and stay.
I understand that New Mexico Mutual grew during your tenure. Can you tell me more about that?
Becker: “The best measure, or metric of growth, in our business is the market penetration. And so we had a market increase from 27% of the market share to 33% currently. … Another metric, it’s common in the insurance business, it’s called surplus. Surplus growth. The amount of money that you have in the bank, basically. And that’s tripled in the 13 years since I’ve been here.”
To what do you attribute that growth?
“One of the things that we introduced not long after I got here — and we not only introduced it, but we owned it and we live it — is our valuesbased culture. … With that (in place) you can focus on your customer, which is what we do focus on. … We’re here to serve our injured workers.”
Tell me about the technology you brought in during your time as CEO.
“We dedicated about five or six employees to an innovation team and all they did all day long is develop this technology. It’s appbased. It won’t sound terribly innovative to you, except that this just doesn’t happen in the insurance business. … Our agent partners can be on-site with you if you’re an employer and, within five minutes, quote a product with New Mexico Mutual including a price. All off of an app. … It’s been incredibly beneficial. Because we didn’t know, of course, in February of last year, that we’re going to go into the environment we’re working in right now.”
You mentioned earlier that the workforce is aging out. Why?
“It’s just the last generation or two, particularly the Gen Xers and millennials, didn’t go to school thinking that they’re going to come out as a home office person in an insurance company. … The older
generation, who’s in this business today, has been in it for a very long time. They’re going to retire from this business. … We’ve gone from whatever the percentage of baby boomers was to where 42% of our employees now are millennials, 37% are Gen Xers and 21% are older than the Gen Xers. So you’ve got 79% of millennials and Gen Xers walking the halls in our company. That’s atypical for an insurance company.”
Why do you think it’s important to have that mix?
“Well, the immediate importance is to bring those fresh ideas and innovation and open minds . ... (Gen Xers and millennials) don’t think about the way things have been done. They think about the way things can be done. So it’s pretty exciting. … In the longer term, it’s a succession plan. You’ve got to have folks on the bench with experience when the retirees are starting to roll off the payroll.”
Can we talk a little bit more about New Mexico Mutual’s succession plan?
“We actually have a succession plan in place all the time … So if somebody leaves, you got somebody that can step right into that job. … We’ve got a history of advancing our employees. But I will say Kellie’s succession of me as the CEO is the first time any employee in New Mexican Mutual’s history has been elevated to CEO. So it’s a pretty big day around here.”
Business Outlook’s In-Depth item features interviews with leaders of well-established New Mexico businesses about the practices that have allowed them to weather ups and downs. Send suggestions of locally owned businesses that have been in existence for at least a decade and that employ at least 20 people to gporter@abqjournal.com for consideration.