To date, 44 Selective employees have received their Certified Praesidium Guardian (CPG) status – the most of any U.S. insurance carrier. The rigorous certification process consists of eight to 10 hours of online courses, followed by three full days of in-person training. After that, each candidate presents an Impact Project that demonstrates the employee's knowledge of abuse prevention tactics and applies what they learned from the training to their jobs.
I was one of the first few Selective employees to go through the certification. While I did so as an insurance professional, it also affected me profoundly personally. Learning about abuse at such depth is life-altering. Prevention becomes your overriding focus.
This kind of reaction is not unique to me. Other Selective employees who completed the CPG training said it opened their eyes to the unseen exposures around us and the magnitude of the problem.
Training Customers on Abuse Prevention
As a result of the knowledge my colleagues and I gained, we gave our customers detailed written policies on topics like abuse prevention, zero tolerance, transportation, and crisis response, along with employee/volunteer selection toolkits. The policies and toolkits often focus on each customer's specific needs. Many customers have comprehensive abuse-prevention policies, procedures, and training in place because of their partnership with Selective.
We also provide online abuse prevention training, which about 900 customers have taken over the past two-and-a-half years. In addition, we have trained our agents on abuse-prevention tools that they, in turn, can use to serve their clients.
Our training has enabled us to have more in-depth conversations with our agents and customers. When we speak with new customers about abuse prevention, they frequently do not have policies or training in place on the subject, and their previous agent and insurance carrier never adequately helped them address the exposure.
None of our offerings are mandatory. All are available at no additional cost, except for access to discounted background screenings through Praesidium. Our commitment to abuse prevention is not merely a value-added service we provide but part of a deeper and ongoing commitment to protect the organizations we insure, the vulnerable populations they serve, and the communities in which we live.
When we started on this journey over four years ago, we knew it would be a long one as we educated ourselves, our agency partners, and our customers. I know we will continue that education for years to come. Safeguarding the vulnerable in our communities is more than a business need. It's what we owe each other as humans.
About the Author
Allison Paulson is Assistant Vice President, Community and Public Services Strategic Business Unit (CAPS SBU) Leader at Selective and is responsible for Selective’s overall profitable growth strategy for this business unit. Allison joined Selective in 1983 and has held a variety of leadership positions throughout the organization, including Business Segment Manager in the Contracting SBU, Underwriting Manager for Large Accounts and Business Segment Manager in the Mercantile & Service SBU.