Good Humans Doing Good Things in Our Industry: Jen Pille

Speaking with Jen Pille, Vice President, Specialty Operations at Sedgwick 

"No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another." -- Charles Dickens 

Good humans are doing good things in our industry. We need to see it. Hear it. Read about. Share it. Help it spread, because we need to see the goodness happening. There’s a continued search to help others shine in our industry that are doing things. The more we see others doing good, it gives hope that others will do the same.  

In this read, Jen Pille, VP of Specialty Operations at Sedgwick, was generous enough to share her insights and valuable wisdom on how she has been able to keep a positive team culture in her unit at Sedgwick. Jen operates on her belief to “refuse to deviate” from her ground rules in her unit and always going back to where it all started, growing a team of two, and now having 60 individuals reporting to her.  

Jen shares how she built a grass roots culture, supporting and empowering her team to thrive in their environment with their own ideas. She runs on the basis of being fair, implementing initiatives in the office to generate community involvement, growth and empowerment.  

Let’s embrace these thoughts and try to implement this so we can build cultures to directly impact the injured employees and their families. Remember we have a job because they got hurt. Everything we can do internally and externally matters. Looking at how leaders work with their teams will give us a peek under the hood on how this can help make a difference.  

“All change starts with a distant rumble at the grassroots level.” -- Tom Coburn 

Grass Roots Efforts – where the change begins  

Do you think about grass roots efforts? Starting from scratch and building from the bottom up – cultivating a culture you want in an organization, from leaders, from your team. Grass roots efforts are what Jen Pille did. She started out of a team of just two. From there, it grew, but she was intentional about hiring individuals that were like-minded with the culture she was building in her unit. Jen was able to create a team that shared common values, build an office culture where there was support for each other. She started it with these grass roots efforts, and it has directly impacted the success of her unit. 

Think about who you bring on your team. Do they align with the values and mission you want to create on a team? Who we have on our team will directly impact the people we work with and take care of in the industry. Bringing in good humans that have a purpose to help others, be positive, helpful and supportive will not only reflect on what happens internally, but it shines externally with who you work with. 

If we create a culture of good humans, that are kind, have empathy around others – it can directly impact the injured employees and their families – remember we are dealing with human transitions.  

Believe in Fairness  

“Fairness is giving all people the treatment they earn and deserve. It doesn't mean treating everyone alike.'' -- John Wooden 

Jen runs her unit on fairness (this is something she will not deviate from), truly giving her team an opportunity to lead and setting expectations for round table discussions throughout the year. Everyone has an opportunity to speak and they are well prepared with results to review. Being proactive with her team and giving them a powerful open forum to discuss successes and challenges their teams may be facing. She believes in giving everyone a fair opportunity to showcase themselves, and with good results they have the chance to grow in their roles/career.  

Giving your team a chance to be seen, heard and acknowledged makes a huge impact on their daily activities and how they also treat others. We need to embrace being fair to our colleagues, the injured employees – we can do this professionally, but with kindness.  

Remember, set the tone and stay true to who you are. Being genuine and intentional in your efforts with others will always win.  

Empowering Your Team and Creating a Safe Space 

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose." -- Dr. Seuss 

Being curious on how this directly impacts clients, I asked Jen to share how she works with her employees. Empowerment, trust and respect – all on the top of the list. She creates a safe space for her team to grow and thrive – giving them the opportunity to be successful with the tools they need. This in turn empowers her team to challenge themselves to be productive and make improvements in their roles for their clients.  

Her team has a safe environment where she has built trust for them to share their ideas and any struggles they face in their roles.  

Thinking about how we can relate this back to the injured employees that we speak with daily – if we create a team environment that is safe, where they feel empowered to lead and have their own ideas, this will directly have an effect on who we take care of each day.  

How much difference could that make on your own team? When we are dealing with human beings, it’s important to look at things holistically from how your organization is run to how it effects your clients and the injured employees. Create an environment that can promote good humans to do good things in an environment that they thrive in.  

Building Initiatives  

"Alone, we can do so little; together, we can do so much." -- Helen Keller 

As Jen spoke with so much passion around her team and the things they are doing, learning about the initiatives in her office to help the community will also help other organizations do the same.  

Community give back is very important for so many of us and we often wonder how we can get everyone on board to do the same. One of the qualities good humans have, is giving back, volunteering their time – just doing good where they can.  

Jen started an incentive award around community involvement in her office, quarterly, which has prompted her team to bring in new ideas to support community outreach programs. Employees can come up with their own ideas around giving back and will get rewards for doing so.  

Any team, organization, leaders, can create initiatives that will help others, and it may not be community involvement – it may be things you are doing just for your team.  

Everything we do will have a direct impact on the humans going through this tough transition – it’s all connected in some way.  

Regardless, there are things we can do to help, so let’s do more. Let’s be good humans in our industry, support the good, be kind, help where we can – make a difference!  

There’s so many things we can do, that are so simple. Every time we do good in our industry it’s a trickle effect. Let’s keep coming together to share our stories and ideas. We can do more. We can make a difference. -- Kristin Green 

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