WTW future-proofed its statutory actuarial reports

When municipalities and regions are self-insured against occupational injuries, there are large financial benefits in strengthening prevention. That is the task WTW wants to help its clients address. So it offers an actuarial report that goes far beyond the statutory figures. Since 2023, Datasolvr has been responsible for the actuarial work and the graphic presentation in the report.

For many years we wrote the reports ourselves, but in 2023 we wanted to develop our delivery model further. So we went looking for an actuarial firm of a certain size. We wanted a robust partner with some years behind it, who would help develop the report, says Kurt Henriksen, Head of Group Solutions at WTW. Thanks to a good, close collaboration, the first report was delivered in just a month – even though the area was new to Datasolvr.

The statutory part of the actuarial report puts figures on the organisation’s provisions for occupational injury insurance, but the report contains much more – including the number of payments, injuries by type and employee group, and information on prevention.

Datasolvr does the calculations and sets up the figures, bars and charts, while WTW writes the report. But the report also develops year by year. WTW gathers input from the clients, the data supplier Sedgwick and Datasolvr, and most recently the report was improved with data going back 5 years.

If the report shows that a municipality has had many falls, for example, they can target that specifically. It can be a long haul, but over 3-4 years they should be able to see whether there is a decline – and what the financial consequences are. That is where we want to help our clients get to, says Kurt Henriksen.

He sees more municipalities and regions working proactively on injury prevention, and WTW’s ambition is to create the best possible tool for exactly that.

Absence in itself is costly for them, and add to that compensation for the injured, the human costs and the pressure an employee’s absence puts on departments and colleagues. Here the actuarial report can be an important element, and overall there can be many millions of kroner to save, Kurt Henriksen points out.

When Datasolvr stepped in at short notice in 2023, the calculations ran on the technical setup WTW had used in house until then. The following year, Datasolvr introduced a new solution that WTW is very satisfied with today:

We certainly had a well-functioning setup before, but Datasolvr still managed to build an even more reliable model. It is robust, it handles data more efficiently, and there is less risk of human error. So we now have an even more precise method for processing the data relevant to the occupational injury liability, says Kurt Henriksen.

Every year, WTW invites all municipalities and regions to a webinar about the report – from the statutory material to the potential the report can show for prevention. And not least: news and improvements in this year’s report. Here, too, WTW has drawn on Datasolvr’s skills:

We present the health aspects ourselves, the relevant findings in the reports and what they can be used for. Datasolvr’s role is to explain the actuarial side, and I must say: they are surprisingly good at explaining it to non-actuaries. We see a formidable communicator of fairly complex material. That is what I call a really skilled actuary.

Today, Kurt Henriksen has no doubt that WTW hit the mark in choosing Datasolvr:

We have a good, constructive collaboration. In the months when we prepare the actuarial report, we have frequent status meetings with an open and honest dialogue, where they are always available. Together we improve the report with input from all parties, so it can actively contribute to injury prevention out in the organisations.

WTW delivers the actuarial report to 25-30 municipalities and regions in connection with their annual accounts.