Culture Plus Opportunity Yield Success for Synergy Comp Insurance Company

After six years working in the insurance industry, Lew Kachulis was invited to join Gilbert’s Risk Solutions Insurance Agency, where his father was one of three owners. Lew had another job offer, but he accepted the hometown invitation on condition that he would stay only if the company was a good fit for him. And it was. Lew never looked back.

When he began his career at Gilbert’s, a 140-year-old insurance agency in Sharon, Pennsylvania, the company sales were stagnant. Lew decided to focus his energy on sales. His success in growing sales led to a pivotal point in his career at Gilbert’s. He knew he could not continue to grow sales and offer quality customer support to his clients. Lew approached the owners asking permission to hire a support person to manage his clients. Lew’s next move is instructive of how he managed his desire to grow the company and to maintain quality relationships. Expecting some resistance, he offered to pay for this support person out of his own commissions. The partners agreed, allowing Lew to continue growing his book of business and support his customers. Lew saw this as a win-win decision. He would grow his customer base at no cost to Gilbert’s. It is this win-win approach to business that would help Lew grow businesses while retaining quality relationships. Not long after his agreement with Gilbert’s owners, he was promoted to be its president.

An astute observer, Lew noticed that many of the firm’s customers had high numbers of accidents, leading to high worker’s compensation claims. He believed that most of these accidents could be eliminated if the company developed a loss prevention plan. Lew saw this as an opportunity and created a subsidiary, SOS Safety Solutions, to provide loss prevention strategies to its insured customers.  Realizing success, he created Synergy Claims Management Company, a third-party administrator (TPA) to administer claims for self-insured companies. The success in claims reductions for TPA companies using loss prevention strategies of SOS Safety Solutions prompted Lew to hire an actuary to statistically validate his observations. The actuarial study showed a 62-percent reduction in claims for companies that adopted his loss prevention strategy.

Based on the actuarial findings, Lew embarked on a new opportunity. He wrote a business plan, pitching it to friends and family to raise enough capital to form a new company, Synergy Comp Insurance Company (Synergy Comp). The purpose of Synergy Comp was to insure companies for worker’s compensation and develop loss prevention programs to reduce claims. If Synergy Comp could help these companies become safer, it would achieve what Lew would call a triple win. First, Synergy Comp would help provide a safer environment for its insured customers. Second, with its safety programs, Synergy Comp would be able to reduce the cost of worker’s compensation claims by over 60 percent, as it had done with previous customers. Third, Synergy Comp could grow and prosper as an independent Insurance company. In fact, Synergy Comp did grow, as evidenced by its inclusion in Inc. magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest growing companies for the past five years.

When asked about the role of culture, Lew described the culture when he joined Gilbert’s as customer focused and community minded but stagnant when it came to growth. His commitment to growth brought a renewed entrepreneurial spirit to the company and a customer-driven strategy that contributed to its growth. His win-win business strategy spilled over to Synergy Comp, which he built on both customer focus and a value-driven culture. Lew was enthusiastic in talking about Synergy Comp’s culture. His desire was to create a great place to work and offer great customer service. To support a culture that would accomplish both, he crafted 14 principles that would act as guidelines for everyone in the company. These principles included values such as honesty, a strong work ethic, learning from mistakes, professionalism, continuous improvement, and family.

At Synergy Comp, culture started with the hiring process. Each employee was interviewed based on the 14 guiding principles. Responding favorably to them was required for employment. This process continued with the onboarding strategy. Meetings with top company executives expanded on the guiding principles, often with stories to illustrate behaviors that supported the guidelines. Once onboarded, each employee would meet monthly with a team leader to review both performance goals and culture.  

Synergy Comp has zero tolerance for counterculture behavior. Lew offered several examples of the consequences for employees at all levels who failed to live up to the company culture, including letting employees go who had made a positive impact on the company’s revenues. He was willing to accept short-term setbacks in profitability for the long-term goal of being a principle-driven company.

Synergy Comp has added some unusual programs to support its people-oriented culture. The company has a wellness coach to support the personal health of its employees. It also hired a non-denominational corporate chaplain to support employees who were dealing with personal issues and needed someone to talk with. Upon hearing that one of its employees was not contributing to the company 401K plan, Lew learned that this employee was saddled with a substantial high-interest student debt. This led to a company program to help pay for a portion of student debt for all employees who were struggling to pay off student loans.   Blessed with low turnover, many employees spend their entire careers with the company. Wanting to help those employees feel secure, a profit-sharing program and an enhanced retirement program were established so every employee would have financial security when he or she retired.

Giving back to the community is a big part of the Synergy Comp culture. The company allows time for employees to be involved in community organizations during normal working hours. The company also created a foundation to support pre-K education scholarships for tuition reimbursement to needy families within its geographical footprint.

The company measures its success in several ways. Based on employee feedback, Synergy Comp is annually recognized as one of the top insurance companies to work for in Pennsylvania. The Central Penn Business Journal recently named Synergy Comp as one of the best places to work for the fourth consecutive year (2017-2020).

Customers also rate Synergy Comp high using the Net Promotor Score (NPS) as a measure of satisfaction with the service provided by the company. Financially, Synergy Comp measures 20 points better in claims reduction than the industry average. Lew attributes Synergy Comp’s success to its safety programs that reduce accident claims, which in turn reduce fees and increase customer success and retention.

The company has never had a layoff and has maintained full employment during the COVID-19 crisis. Any turnover is related to employee failure to live up to the company culture or for poor performance.

When asked about the future of Synergy Comp, Lew is unwavering in his commitment for the company to remain independent. This is also true of Gilbert’s and each affiliated company that evolved from its growth and expansion of services. Through careful succession and financial planning, and maintaining independent ownership, these companies will be able to retain their culture and local control. For a community like Sharon, Pennsylvania, this is a welcome commitment to future employment and support for its economic vitality.

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