Welcome back to the A.I.M. Mutual podcast. My name is Chris Sharp and this is part of our Team Behind the Team series, which aims to take a look at some of the individuals and jobs at A.I.M. Mutual that play a vital but often under-recognized role in the policy cycle for our policyholders. Today I have the pleasure of talking with Ben Kounnaves, IT associate about his role and how his work supports the greater service efforts of the company. Welcome Ben. Thanks so much for talking with me today.

Pleasure to be here.

Excellent. So to start off, can you tell us a little about your background, why you joined A.I.M. Mutual and how you became part of the IT team?

So the job kind of fell into my lap and I decided, you know what, I'll go for it. And that's how I started off as an adjuster back about six years ago.

And then, I mean, I liked it, but then about a year and a half ago there was an opportunity to switch to IT, which granted, I don't have any formal IT experience or background, but I've always kind of been, you know, exposed to computers and technology ever since I was young. And so I've always had kind of a knack for it.

Excellent. I mean, so you mentioned it there, but how did your previous experience as an adjuster of the company prepare you for your current role?

Well, I mean, I wouldn't say it prepared me in terms of the actual work I do, but it definitely helped in terms of knowing, not necessarily everyone, but a lot of people already in the company and knowing how things work. I love problem solving..

I've heard from some of your co-workers that you've brought some real creativity and levity into the IT communications department. Can you tell us how that came about?.

That is just kind of part of my personality <laugh> and I'm assuming you're probably referring to the tech tips that I do every week. They had been going on kind of off and on sporadically a couple years before that. But then Shawn, my supervisor, not too long after I was hired,  [wanted to] restart these, so [he said] give it a go. And I just decided I was goinginject a little bit of humor into it just, you know, just because it's how I am. And luckily I actually have an English degree, not an IT degree, so I'm fairly decent at writing I would like to think. And so it just kind of meshed well and people seemed to enjoy it, so I kept going.

So you officially have taken over the tech tips part of the job?

Yes. <laugh>, they're all mine.

Is that a daily thing or a weekly thing? How does that work?

So it's once a week, every Tuesday. I'd like to say that I plan them well in advance, but I'm usually scrambling near the end just because there’s already always so much else to do. But I always have ideas for upcoming tech tips, what I might want to do. The hardest part is just trying to figure out how to make them enjoyable. Honestly, the informational part's not that hard.

Well, by all accounts you do a good job, so well done. How would you say the IT group works to support one another and how does working in that team influence how you do your job?

We regularly bounce ideas off of each other all throughout the day. Especially me because, and actually my co-worker Ethan, who also helps with a lot of the tickets, because we man the help desk and, therefore, we're doing most of the troubleshooting for when these tickets come in. And I mean, I can't tell you, but every day I'm turning around and just asking him: Hey, what do you think of this or that or wanting a second opinion. I've actually always been an athlete, so the whole idea of being on a team, being a team player, has just always kind of been a part of my life. So that fits in pretty easily.

I mean, it sounds like you help support almost every function within this organization and resolve tech issues for coworkers kind of across the board, whether they're hybrid or remote or in the office. How do you work to prioritize and how important is response time in what you do?

It kind of varies. It depends on, you know, how much time I have available at that given moment. It depends on how significant the problem is. Like if [someone] can't get the font quite right, that's not going be as important as “my computer won't turn on.” So a good example is we have the check printer up here. When something goes wrong with that, we know that's important. Checks have to go out [so]  if a ticket comes in about the check printer, we know we prioritize that above pretty much anything else. Another high priority would be if faxes are down and not working.

So there isn't a definite formula, but we just, over time, we learn certain things are more important, especially things that involve communication with the outside world. Those will tend to be prioritized higher.

How does your role in IT work to help keep the entire engine of A.I.M. Mutual moving and processing and not lagging in the kind of the service that it's able to provide for the policyholders?

Well, I guess on a purely technical standpoint, literally what I do can help keep it running. I mean, people need to have their equipment functioning at any given point during the day, whether it be calling people on the phone or on Teams or Zoom, getting faxes, going out, getting forms to show up on their computer properly, being able to go various places online to do what they need to do--there's a lot of moving parts and it doesn't always function as a well-oiled machine, but that is the goal and that is what I try to help happen. And I think by being able to at least let people know that I'm trying to help and that I'm doing the best that I can, that can then kind of have a ripple effect when they are dealing with other people, whether that be policyholders or when an adjuster is dealing with injured workers. It's funny actually in my role as an IT Associate, I don't really deal with people outside the company except very rarely, if we have vendors come in. Whereas when I was an adjuster, I mean, my whole world was dealing with injured workers and employers. So it's a big shift, but in both instances it's about doing the best job that you can and just being upfront and honest with people and usually you get the same in return.

Well Ben, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story with us and to the listeners, thank you for joining us today. If you'd like to hear more about the team behind the team, please tune into some of the other podcasts in this series. And if you have other questions about how A.I.M. Mutual can support you and your business, please don't hesitate to reach out with your specific needs. Thanks again, Ben.

No problem. My pleasure.