The Future of Insurance Podcast – Don Jones
Head of Claims, US Insurance Operations, MassMutual
Season 2, Episode 7, December 14, 2021
Guest Bio
Don Jones is the Head of Claims in MMUS Insurance Operations at MassMutual, leading the charge to achieve our vision of becoming a digitally enabled organization with richer customer data, streamlined processes, and automation to pay our claims faster, more accurately and provide service on the customer’s terms.
Don has more than 25 years’ experience in the industry, including nearly two decades in claims leadership. Most recently, Don provided private claims consulting to a wide range of clients. Prior to that, he spent many years with Nationwide Insurance in senior leadership roles of increasing scope and responsibility of the firm’s property and casualty claims organization.
Over his career, Don has specialized in setting strategic direction and executing key business transformation initiatives, including technology adoption and digitization as well as process optimization, automation and continuous improvement solutions.
As a note, Don’s views are his own, and not those of MassMutual
Highlights from the Show
- Don came up in P&C after getting into it in the 1990s, and built his career in Claims
- He made the move to Life when he joined MassMutual, making him one of the very few who have worked in both Life and P&C
- Don sees a lot of similarities because of the ultimate need to stand by people and try to help them with money and caring for those worst moments in their lives
- Don says, “We are in the business of helping people solve problems to the extent money and caring can do that”
- For Claims in Life, the pandemic has made the ability to deliver empathy has only amplified
- Coming out of the pandemic, how we do look at recruiting, attracting, retaining and developing talent differently? Can we be more flexible across so many factors that allow for more scalability as a business?
- Talking about Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Don shared that he sees things that happened in 2020 as turning points rather than momentary flashes that we can now build from, and need to build from
- Diversity is what makes us stronger as communities, companies and a nation, and if people don’t feel that they have a voice in what they’re doing, how can we expect them to help move us forward on innovation, on delivering the best we can of ourselves and what our customers need from us, or move our industry ahead?
- We discussed the flight to purpose amongst consumers and employees, which is already started today, but will increase as Millennials and Gen Zs become a majority of consumers and employees
- The business case for DE&I is strong and proven already, and we need to amplify that and expose even more value from it because it is there, well beyond it just being the right thing to do
- As our customer base is and becomes more diverse, the people who we hire to serve them need to also be diverse to better connect with those we serve
- Going forward, we need to find ways to move faster and understand customers more holistically so we leave customers feeling like we are here for them, and we’re the kind of company they’d want to pass down from generation to generation
- On systemic racism, while realistically, it may not be solved in Don’s lifetime or his kid’s, that doesn’t mean we don’t go after it with the rigor and determination like it could happen so we stand the best chance of making that a reality
Watch the Episode
Listen to the Episode
Thank you to our sponsor
Special thanks to VPay (vpayusa.com), part of Optum Financial, for sponsoring this episode.
Like the music in the show?
Stream or download music from UPbeat Music on your favorite platform.
