Another season of Camp CoLo has been going on this week on the Vermont campus.
The camp is an initiative to bring people together, break down silos and encourage networking at National Life Group. Five participants and two camp counselors are selected and brought together for a week to work in a shared space (co-location).
This session’s participants are Danielle Franklin from the Outbound Payment Center – Policy Tax, Sam Reed from Compliance, Cathy Fisk from Law, Dan House from Equity Services, Inc. and Allison Steinmetz from Communications. This year’s counselors are Nicole Friend from the Contact Center and Christie Keene from Compliance.
So, what is really accomplished in these camp sessions? We asked Christie that very question. Here’s what she had to report.
One of the best parts of Camp CoLo has been the bridges we have already built between each other and our areas. Here are some examples – there really are too many to provide a complete list:
- Discussed Fraud, which typically starts with someone calling the Call Center or from Danielle’s team in the Outbound Payment Center and is then sent over to the SIU team that Sam works on, which could result in state fraud filings and being sent to Christie for a potential Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) filings. Learning the whole process was definitely eye opening!
- Nicole from the Call Center and Christie from Compliance discussed what makes a complaint and how the number of “official” complaints can impact National Life as a company.
- We all learned about the new authentication that is being tested in the Call Center – Ideology.
- Lined up a contact in Texas for Dan in ESI to discuss 401k paperwork for a change they are implementing in ESI.
- Found out how much work goes into The Scoop, The Weekly, NLToday and the monitors from Allison.
- Learned about the ELI projects from Cathy, Allison, Nicole and Dan.
- The Camp CoLo (Co-Location) participants volunteered on Wednesday to put together Literacy Kits for Hunger Free Vermont through a partnership with The United Way. The children’s book and the accompanying crafts that were created will be given out to children to help avoid “summer slide” where children take a step back in their schooling because of the long summer break.
- We also learned through the Branches of Hope event more about the history of the Do Good Fest.
- We were lucky to have visitors all week– last year’s Camp CoLo participants and counselors (Kate Shore, Elizabeth Waring, Mallorie Manosh, Christie and Bennett Law), Sharon Butler from Texas, Michele Dungworth, Barb Fitch and Travis Kupiac from Compliance, Ann Rangaviz and Carolyn Kittridge from Claims.
We definitely have a new appreciation for what each of us does every day and have gained valuable insight and contacts throughout the company.