Congrats to the 2024 Q1 Assurant Way CEO Award Winners!

Lessie Taylor 

Lessie has been with Assurant for 17 years and currently works as an Executive Resolution Manager. Lessie and her team are responsible for protecting Assurant’s reputation and minimizing Assurant’s risk exposure by effectively addressing and resolving Executive Level complaints while protecting the client’s brand and focusing on the overall customer experience.  

She received The Assurant Way CEO Award for demonstrating her Commitment to Being Curious to Inspire New Ideas and Solutions by coming up with a new solution to effectively address customer pain points. 

In the past, Lessie’s team dealt with redundant and manual processes to address customer escalations. Over the past few years, Lessie created best practices to overcome this manual work. Lessie took it upon herself to conduct extensive research into alternative tools that could effectively address the team's pain points and simplify their processes. Her proactive approach not only demonstrates strong leadership but also underscores the team's commitment to continuous improvement.  

Early in 2023, Lessie was asked to participate in a project that would finally address her manual efforts and the need to simplify. Lessie was instrumental in advocating for the needs of Connected Living and encouraging other team members to challenge the status quo. She worked tirelessly with the project team and Salesforce developers to achieve the right solution that benefits Assurant, the customer, and her team. 

She shares, “I believe the Customer Experience is internal (within Assurant), as well as external. I genuinely care about the work I produce and how it impacts Assurant, my team, our clients, and customers. That passion drove me to go ‘above and beyond’ while working on the project."

Lessie comes from a small county town in Southwest Virginia and says she enjoys the little things in life, like spending time with her family and two girls – one in college pursuing a degree in Physical Therapy and the other a young toddler. Lessie also enjoys going on a beach trip from time to time. 

Mohit Kumar 

Mohit has been with Assurant for almost four years and currently works as a senior data warehouse developer. Mohit’s role involves designing and building solutions to bring data into the data warehouse and data engineering skills to develop solutions. 

He received The Assurant Way CEO Award for demonstrating his Commitment to Spending Time on What Adds the Most value, specifically for designing and building a framework that can be used to bring internally supplied data into our data warehouses.

Additionally, Mohit delivered a Proof-of-Concept solution to handle the processing of 18 months of backlog of hourly files. His solution reduced processing time from days and weeks to just over an hour. This transformational change not only saved valuable time and resources, but also significantly improved the team’s operational efficiency, enabling us to deliver results faster and more effectively. The success of this solution is evident through its widespread adoption across multiple business units. 

He shares, “My approach to work is guided by a dual commitment to innovation and value creation. By inspiring new ideas and solutions and prioritizing activities that add the most value, I'm dedicated to driving sustainable growth and success for Assurant and its stakeholders. To me, The Assurant Way is not just a trait, but a way of life. It’s about adaptability and the ability to pivot swiftly and effectively in response to changing circumstances guiding me as I navigate challenges and strive for excellence in everything I do.” 

Outside of Assurant, Mohit enjoys hiking and camping to connect with nature. Mohit also cherishes quality time spent with family and friends, building lasting memories together. 

Utkarsh Varshney 

Utkarsh has been with Assurant for a little over 10 months and is responsible for conducting business process analysis, providing support for the development and implementation of new products and processes, and performing End User Acceptance tests. His role also includes analyzing existing methods for improvement, assisting in the implementation of new systems, and coordinating policies among departments, while carrying out varied analytical assignments and resolving processing issues for our Claim Transfer operations. 

He received The Assurant Way CEO Award for demonstrating his Commitment to Being Curious to Inspire New Ideas & Solutions for utilizing pulse survey data to identify areas of focus to improve engagement, recognition, and the team's eNPS scores. Utkarsh demonstrated an exceptional ability to analyze complex challenges, identify areas for improvement, and implement innovative solutions, resulting in a significant transformation of our claim transfer operations.  

When Utkarsh joined the team, there were numerous difficulties in the claim transfer process due to organizational restructuring, resulting in a backlog of pending transfers. Utkarsh quickly recognized the importance and urgency of resolving this issue and proactively addressed it. Not only did Utkarsh dedicate time to thoroughly understand the existing process, but he also collaborated with other new hires to undergo comprehensive training and acquire the necessary skills to effectively contribute to the team's objectives. Because of Utkarsh’s innovative ideas and solutions, the claim transfer process made some significant changes, including time savings and same day completion, error limitation, streamlining, open, transparent communications, capacity planning, and job aid enhancements.  

He shares, “Since joining the team, I have strived to consistently demonstrate an unparalleled commitment to serving our clients with passion and dedication. Through my relentless pursuit of excellence, I have prioritized activities that add significant value to our operations and my insatiable curiosity and willingness to explore new ideas and solutions have inspired innovation and propelled our team forward.” 

Outside of Assurant, Utkarsh loves immersing himself in music, exploring new places, talking to new people, and making connections. Most importantly, Utkarsh cherishes spending quality time with loved ones, whether it's sharing a meal, going on outings, or simply enjoying each other's company. 

Meet Fred Reyes 

Fred has been with Assurant for 11 years and currently works as a Manager of Quality Assurance & Escalations. Fred is responsible for quality assurance and monitoring our interactions to ensure our calls and claims are processed accurately and efficiently. The Escalations team manages consumer and regulatory complaints, which includes social media complaints and negative survey feedback.  

He received The Assurant Way CEO Award for demonstrating his Commitment to Bring Grit & Determination to Get Things Done, for going above and beyond outside of his regular job scope. Fred always says “yes” to additional projects and collaborations with our cross-functional teams and goes the extra mile to see it through.  

One example of Fred’s grit and determination to get things done is by bringing awareness to a 70-second delay when processing claims. Fred worked with the development team and showed an improvement of over 30 seconds. He redeveloped the entire grading process of our QA Team to get a more complete understanding of our call center teams and their day-to-day activities. He personally pioneered our ‘call reason reporting’ by listening to volumes of calls to identify the reason so we could understand why people were calling to provide digital options.

He shares, “The four Assurant Core Values have always resonated with me. It’s not just a catch phrase, it’s the expectation for how we work, and it is supported in so many ways by Assurant. If you truly believe that there is value in your work, then you need “grit and determination” to drive your vision. I love that this is embodied in The Assurant Way and if you are committed to this, anything is possible. Without investment in employees, supporting a diverse and inclusive culture, and commitment to The Assurant Way, I would not have achieved this award. Thank you, Assurant!”  

Fred says he feels very blessed to come from a large and loving family – 19 aunts and uncles and more cousins than he can count. When his family isn’t celebrating a birthday (Fred’s family had eight alone in March), Fred spends his free time doing other activities with family. 

Fred also manages a co-ed softball team which plays on Sunday evenings and half of the team is his family!  

Meet Masayuki Sugimoto 

Masayuki has been with Assurant for almost three years, working as a Director of Sales & Business Development . Masayuki is responsible for sales and business development, strengthening connections to mobile carriers, creating business proposals, and account management.  

He received The Assurant Way CEO Award for demonstrating his Commitment to Engaging the Right People at the Right Time, for taking ownership and initiative, and engaging the right decision makers when bringing on a new customer. in Japan

Just recently, Masayuki and his team were working with a new client who requested an application that Assurant Japan had never conducted before. This was an important opportunity for Assurant to deepen its business relationship with a new carrier, so the team gathered information from outside sources on pricing and delivery dates.

He proactively obtained additional information and clarification, using his own experience with distributors and setting aside time to meet with key informational resources.  

Masayuki consistently brought the right decision makers into the discussion at the right time, understanding the needs of the client and Assurant, liaised with the right people, proactively took the lead in negotiating detailed quotes, and more. Masayuki took the necessary actions to make the project a success. 

He shares, “I am creating new business in Japan by leveraging my own experience in the mobile industry, among other things, as I strive to live The Assurant Way. I am especially proud that I was also able to win this business with the cooperation and support of my wonderful colleagues around me as we achieved this business development.”  

Outside of Assurant, Masayuki enjoys golfing and skiing with his wife.

Congratulations to all! We are so proud of our Q1 winners and are honored to call them part of the Assurant team. Make sure to check back each quarter as we continue recognizing some of our employees' hard work!