The culture of ALE Solutions begins with having a servant’s heart. That’s according to Paul Storck, who started his career at ALE in Human Resources. He was only the second employee hired at the time in the department! Paul’s “people-first” mindset is what has set him up for success at ALE, and how he continues to find new ways to bring value to the company.
Here he tells us what he’s passionate about, how going digital helped the company progress, and why employee longevity at ALE remains high.
You’ve been with ALE for over 10 years. What keeps you motivated and inspired?
I think there are three facets—the first of which is that I love telling people what I do for a living. ALE Solutions is often the first human contact that families have when they have been displaced from their home. We are helping people every single day.
The second reason I love my job are the people I work with. When I was recruiting for HR, I hired people for personality, not always just aptitude. If you’re going to work here, you have to have a servant’s heart, an empathetic nature, care about what you do, and truly want to help people in their worst hour.
Lastly, ALE Solutions is constantly growing, and with growth comes new opportunities. I decided I wanted to go in a different direction with the company and they were completely supportive. In fact, it’s been nothing but support in my 10 years at ALE Solutions. They really do invest in and care about their employees, and it makes a big difference in the employee longevity that you see at ALE Solutions. We have a heavily tenured staff here.
Why was implementing scalable digital solutions at the company something you felt passionate about?
At the time, ALE Solutions was more of a family-owned organization and ran its entire HR department out of file cabinets and loose-leaf paper. One of my proudest accomplishments was to push for a true human resources information systems software. We implemented that software before I left HR, and it included payroll, time and labor, recruiting, and all other aspects of an HRIS that the company needed to scale. At the time, our MyALE Adjuster Portal was just being introduced so when I moved into product I took ownership of that software. It was a seamless transition for me moving from one software role to another, both people-facing.
What does a typical day at ALE look like for you?
No two days are the same for me as my product role tends to touch all facets of the organization, impacting operations, marketing, sales, revenue, and just general efficiency. This means there are regularly a lot of stakeholders that I need to meet with throughout the organization. It could be product reporting where I’m meeting with data analysts, product design to create a software experience, helping with different HR initiatives, or meeting on product sales and promoting what we have. The goal is to find the gaps of where the customer wants to go and help get them there.
ALE’s role is to take the pressure off the adjuster. What are some ways we do that for them?
It starts at First Notice of Loss (FNOL). In your homeowner’s policy, ALE Solutions falls under the “Additional Living Expenses” category. A policyholder has lost the use of their home, they need a new home, and ALE is going to coordinate those logistics. The first person a policyholder should call is their insurance company. The first phone call the policyholder receives back should be from ALE Solutions. We contact the family and get a roof over their head, in the form of a hotel, immediately. Then, we take care of the rest as it pertains to moving the family back into what they may have come from, which could include a furnished single-family home, apartment, condo, or even a travel trailer for our more rural families. We do all of this on behalf of the policyholder’s insurance company, and on behalf of the policyholder.
A new employee begins product training in your department. What are the steps you take to train them?
The first thing I do with any new employee is to describe the heart of ALE. I describe the servant’s heart mentality, both for policyholders and adjusters. Our products affect policyholders via the MyALE HOME App, and adjusters via the MyALE Adjuster Portal. Additionally, I would train them on ALE’s internal operational software solutions, as a new product employee will have an impact on the operations staff, the policyholders, and the adjusters. They need to understand the heart and the ethos of ALE just like any other employee that would be speaking to a family/policyholder or an adjuster.
Next, I would describe the natural cycle of product development from the origination of an idea to all the steps that launch a new product/feature/software. They would have to understand that workflow to then plug and play in assisting the workflow. Say for example, starting with a manual task like taking a phone call and digitizing that into a self-service solution in one of our product offerings.
What does ALE stand for and how do we support both policyholders and adjusters?
ALE stands for Additional Living Expenses. Let’s say you’re in a home and you’ve lost the use of your home, but you still have to pay your mortgage even if your house burns down. Temporary housing would be an additional living expense. It’s an expense the policyholder has incurred as the result of a loss. However, there are ancillary additional living expenses as well. For example, if ALE puts a policyholder in a hotel and the hotel doesn’t have a kitchen, the policyholder will need to be reimbursed for food receipts.
ALE Solutions has developed the first native application for policyholders in the industry, the MyALE HOME App available on Android and iOS. The policyholder can download the free app, take photos of all the food receipts they incur with their phone, and upload them, sending them digitally to their adjuster through the dashboard. We aggregate and organize all of the food receipts and allow the adjuster to make normal expense deductions. We make the receipt reimbursement a seamless and easy experience for both policyholder and adjuster.
What is something customers are surprised to learn about ALE?
I love it when I’m speaking to a customer and they don’t understand how detailed and sophisticated our digital and human process is at ALE. I love always having a solution to meet their need. ALE Solutions really is a proactive organization that tries to be consultative to customers. The number one thing customers say about ALE Solutions is that we think of everything. We create value in that way for our customers.
