ReAudio: ReAssess Your Workers Comp Toolbox
ReAudio goes beyond policies and regulations to explore the real impact of workers’ compensation. We break down key industry trends, workplace injury data, and best practices while diving into the human side of recovery. Through expert conversations and powerful stories, we uncover the challenges, emotions, and perspectives that shape the experience for employees and employers alike.
Whether you’re an industry professional or just curious about the system behind workplace injuries, this podcast brings you the facts you need and the stories that matter—because workers’ comp isn’t just about processes, it’s about people.
The award-winning ReAudio podcast is presented by your partners at ReEmployAbility. Thanks for listening!
ReAudio: ReAssess Your Workers Comp Toolbox
Reimagining Workers’ Comp Education with Qiana: Creative Strategies That Work
What happens when you blend creativity with one of the most traditional industries out there? Woodruff Sawyer, Senior Claims Consultant, Qiana Redmond—better known as "Q"—is flipping the script on workers’ comp education through personalized learning and interactive games. From turning HR trainings into Family Feud-style competitions to hosting her signature “Ask Q Work Comp Sessions,” Qiana makes complex topics not only accessible but also fun.
With two decades of experience as a claims examiner and broker, Qiana brings fresh solutions to post-pandemic challenges like remote work injuries and industry knowledge gaps. Her innovative approach proves that even in insurance, creativity isn’t just welcome—it’s essential.
How do you get better at what you do? Time management assistance.
Speaker 2:AI.
Speaker 1:Webinars, mentors, open platforms like Coursera Live and virtual Live training Live course, live training.
Speaker 2:Live course, live training, live training.
Speaker 1:Live training, live training, live training, live training, live training, live training, live training, live training. Whoa, that's a lot. So focus, communication, regulation and direction REA Audio. I'll give a little bit of background and then let you tell your background right? So I was fortunate enough to kind of do an update on the re-employability program for Woodruff Sawyer and got to meet some really, really nice and interesting and really engaged people. While I was doing that and as I was doing kind of my debrief, I was looking through and I noticed some very interesting labels on your LinkedIn and that's what kind of caused me to reach out and as we talked I thought you know, it's so nice to see such a creative mind in the workers comp world and how you're working with your clients and we'll get into that in a few minutes. But but, kiana, thank you so much, much for being with us and joining me today. So why don't you give a little bit of background about how you got involved with Woodruff Sawyer and some of that?
Speaker 2:Sure Well, Todd, it is my pleasure. Thank you so much for inviting me to the podcast. Can you believe I have 20 years of work comp experience? I'm telling you, work comp keeps me young okay.
Speaker 2:So I spent the first 10 years of my career in workers' compensation as a claims examiner. I was a medical. Only then, a lost time I spent time on a future medical desk, a settlement desk, and just between those collective experiences I learned so much what to do, what not to do, what works, what doesn't work. And then for the last 10 years of my career I spent on the broker site. I worked at Epic Brokers for a little while and now I am here at Woodruff Sawyer doing senior claim consulting.
Speaker 1:So do you mind sharing, like how did you originally get into workers' comp?
Speaker 2:Sure, it's a funny story. So I was at a well, I did retail management before for a major retailer. We won't talk about the name, retail management before for a major retailer, we won't talk about the name. But I was like I am so sick and tired of working weekends and overnights. I was very young at that time and I was just thinking I need something different. So I actually went to a job fair I don't know if they even still have those anymore Like this was pre-LinkedIn, pre-all that you know. This was back in the day when you would fill out an application and turn it into personnel, right?
Speaker 2:So, I went to a job fair and this particular manager that worked for AIG at the time she says hey, I think you'd be a good medical only claim specialist. I didn't even know what it was. I said does that involve weekends? She says no, it's an easy job. Here's the application. Go ahead and apply. I applied, I had one interview and next thing I know I was on the desk. I didn't even know what workers comp was.
Speaker 1:Right? Well, it's funny because that's a very close story as to how the founder and CEO of re -employability. She was in retail. She didn't want to work weekends anymore and you know she ran into somebody that said, hey, how about you try insurance and workers' comp? And here she is 25 years later. So it's a great story for people that want to get out of that type of a routine. For some people it's great, and I know exactly how you feel.
Speaker 1:My first job was in radio. I was in the promotions department and I worked every Saturday, every Sunday, all week long and made like no money at all and finally I just kind of gravitated towards sales and that eventually to workers' comp too. So anybody that might be listening, that might be in a job like that, because there's a lot of opportunity in insurance. And when I was 20-some years old, if you had told me you're going to go work in workers' comp, I told you you were nuts. There was no way that I thought I'd be able to do, or even want to do that, right, right. So what are some of the things that you experienced in your previous days or even now in the workers' comp world that maybe you didn't expect?
Speaker 2:days, or even now in the workers' comp world, that maybe you didn't expect. Great question, I would say, the changes since the pandemic. I am a very people person, right. I am so used to being on site with my clients, taking tours with them, I'm used to just really being side by side with them. As a consultant, I specialize in that. I'm able to make recommendations, I'm able to see things from their purview. Well, when COVID happened, I had to really just kind of reimagine what my role looked like, and with that you kind of have a great resignation. So a lot of folks that I worked with before I no longer worked with them, and then you had a different generation of the workforce come in, and so with that, one thing that I didn't expect is you know the amount of injuries that I saw during COVID, especially working from home. You'd be surprised.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2:And just the just the different, just how COVID just affected the industry in general. You know, with telemedicine I also noticed that, you know, usually withComp, the human resource department, manages it. There is an expansion in that. So there is a bit of a knowledge gap. That's another thing I did not anticipate.
Speaker 1:So while I am consulting with clients and giving recommendations, I'm also teaching them as well also teaching them as well, and what I, what really drew me to want to have a conversation with you? As I mentioned on your LinkedIn profile, are you kind of what what you had had put in there? Claim client ambassador Now, that's not your official title, is it?
Speaker 2:It's not so one of my beloved clients that's what they call me.
Speaker 1:I have clients that call me a bunch of things and they're all great, but when he said client ambassador, I said whoa yeah you know, that makes a lot of sense because you know, um, we were talking a little bit before we started recording how much I'm sure your clients appreciate your energy and your creativeness, and and you came up with what you also have listed on LinkedIn as the creator of Ask Q Work Comp Sessions. Tell us what Ask Q is and how did you come up with the idea?
Speaker 2:Sure, sure. Well, my name is Kiana. Everybody calls me Q inside the workplace, outside the workplace it's just a part of my brand. And I had a client that I was helping with a work comp program and she said to me wow, if I don't have a clue, I'll ask you. Then I had another client. I was just doing a work comp 101 with them and again, this is a multi-generational workforce and at the end they were saying if I don't know what to do, ask Q. And I was like this kind again, a knowledge gap, with just different workforces, retiring the great resignation things of that nature, and just trying to figure out how to get certain clients up to speed, because what happens is the claims aren't a point right, they're always processing. But claims aren't a point right, they're always processing. So again, just trying to figure out what is going to work best. How can I teach? I love teaching.
Speaker 2:And what's going to make them feel comfortable. So ask you, sessions are essentially where I can take an external client, an internal client, anything that they have a question about, I'm the subject matter expert. If I don't know, I'll go ahead and ask others. I just want the clients to stay away from that AI realm, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's very dangerous, especially with WordComp, and this is really a session, so it's their session, whatever they have on their mind, whatever they want to learn more about, and also I always tell them what is to your advantage. Ok, so I know that certain organizations have certain goals, they have certain metrics. Let's get, let's put this in an ask you session and you are empowered to go for it.
Speaker 1:Why do you think that AI is dangerous in workers' comp right now?
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, Well work comp is very nuanced, right. I don't just handle California, I handle all states, and I think what tends to happen, what I'm seeing in certain generations is AI is their first tool. Instead of asking me a person that has 20 years of experience I've been around the world once. I've seen it twice. Nothing has caught me by surprise. It's just dangerous because, yeah, there are some truths, but how does it relate to your actual situation? That's the gap. So that's why I'm here. Yeah, there's no context.
Speaker 1:Right, I think that's such a big deal. I mean, that's a good lesson for not just work comp. You know all the conversations I think that people are having online and even in person now. Even in person now, they lack so much context, which is why I love doing this podcast, because it allows us to bring some context to some things that that are kind of happening in the workers comp world right now and just having a little further discussion and really getting to know the people that are involved.
Speaker 1:And that's again what impressed me so much when we started talking was your ability to really bring creativity into the job that you do. I know that that's, in most cases, not the first word that comes to somebody's mind when they think of a work insurance broker Right, but you've gone above and beyond for your clients to be creative and helping them to learn, because you're such a good teacher. To be creative and helping them to learn because you're such a good teacher. One of the things that we were talking about was a game that you created for one of your clients at their request in order to help teach them about work comp.
Speaker 2:Can you tell us about that? Sure, so this is a big reemployability client.
Speaker 1:I just want to plug them there.
Speaker 2:I was asked to go to an HR summit. Usually claim consultants aren't even invited, I think because of my jovial personality and just working with the client for so long. They were like hey Q, we have 50 HR professionals. They were like hey Q, we have 50 HR professionals. Some are here in America, some are in other countries, some are in other states, other grids, other territories.
Speaker 2:How can we get everyone together on one page and what's a fun way that they can learn work comp? And I was working with the work comp manager. We were thinking about a few things and then I'm like we should play Family Feud and when I tell you the excitement and the amount of adults that were wanting to get the right answer and hogging the buzzer and just asking questions, like even when they would get a question right, it would be a but what if this scenario and what if that scenario? So that's what I did for them and it worked out so well. They want me to come back, of course, but we're going to play a different game. I was just trying to think of what else we could do to play a different game. I was just trying to think of what else we could do, but it was not to brag. But they said that the work comp session was the most memorable. You know when people are having fun they forget that they're learning.
Speaker 1:Yeah no doubt I have.
Speaker 1:I've given so many presentations with re-employability, both in person and through teams and through Zoom calls, and I would always rather be face to face because I feel like you know whether we're doing a refresher for you know 50 or 100 adjusters, just to re familiarize them with what our program is and the benefits to their clients, just to re-familiarize them with what our program is and the benefits to their clients.
Speaker 1:Much rather do that in person, because I feel like there's just you can look at somebody, you know they're not off feeding their dog if you're doing it on a team's call, right. But to engage with a game is so creative in such a way, like you said, to make it memorable, and that's how people are going to remember and they're going to remember you and they're going to remember what you're telling them. So did you get much pushback internally or how was that taken? Because obviously I mean all, all organizations within workers comp for the most part are more of a straight-laced, conservative type of business. Right, it's insurance. So I would imagine coming to somebody and saying, hey, we're going to play Fun Feud or Family Feud for this big client. What happened? How did that?
Speaker 2:get accepted. So it's interesting. I think the question was well, why would they want a workers comp person there? Cause work comp people are never at, uh, hr summits. It's usually benefits, or you know, I was the only person invited time. Okay, um, did I get pushback? No, but I got. Well, q are you sure you know? Is this really what the client wants?
Speaker 2:And I was like, yes, this is what the client wants. And again, after you know, I presented everything to my manager, the account executive. They were excited. No one could go with me that day, so I went up there by myself, I bought prizes. And when I tell you, even when I do go on the campus of this particular client, they still remember the stuff that I said last year and I'm like I don't even remember. And then you know, one thing I leave them with is, if you don't know what to do, ask you, pick up the phone and call me. Right, won't remember everything. I don't want you to remember everything. So, um, that's one thing that they did walk away with well, we stylized your game for re-employability and I suckered.
Speaker 1:I mean, I asked a few people from uh re-employability to join us to try a couple questions of the way that you put this together. Um, with some re-employability to join us to try a couple questions of the way that you put this together with some reemployability questions. So how about we give that a shot and see how it goes?
Speaker 2:Sure, sure, all right, all right, all right. Are you guys ready to play Friendly Feud?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're ready.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we have asked the top 100 people about re-employability. Can you name a re-employability core value?
Speaker 1:Oh, look at Angela.
Speaker 2:I think that was the purple team that got that first Entrepreneurship Absolutely. Would you like to continue, angela, or would you like to turn it over to the green team? I think we'll play Right, jolissa, yes, we're going to play. Ok, ok. So what is another? Reemployability, core value, service oriented, absolutely, absolutely. I just keep going, keep going. Passion, that's number one Woo.
Speaker 1:Integrity.
Speaker 2:Team awesome job. Can I interrupt Partnership?
Speaker 1:I think they have it written on their wall, oh, we're working from home, we're from home Okay.
Speaker 2:And partnerships was the last one. Well, you guys win this round. There we go. Okay, so let's go to the next question. Reemployability just celebrated its anniversary of blank number of years. Todd, go ahead, 20. You are correct, Woo. So this is going to stump you guys. We asked the top 100 people what is workers compensation? It is, I'm sorry, you didn't make it by the buzzer Purple team what you got. Insurance, yeah, insurance Sorry.
Speaker 1:What about any sort of benefits that protect the employee?
Speaker 2:It's a system of benefits that protect the employee so they are able to come back to work. This is what it is not.
Speaker 1:Q. Thank you, that was fun. I don't know, I don't know if everybody expected that so, obviously, when you do it in person, sometimes doing this over Zoom and stuff can be a little bit technically difficult, so we'll make sure, if you, so you do this in person. Right, when you've done this right, I do do it in person.
Speaker 2:I sometimes do it in Zoom, but however usually Ask Q sessions are, I put together a PowerPoint but these are questions that folks have had but maybe are afraid to ask and I give them the why, the why not, the what if scenario. I kind of look at it from that aerial view lens and it really just kind of helps them out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's awesome. And so let's say, somebody's listening now and they're like you know, I'd kind of like to do something out of the box, something a little bit different for a client. Do you have any advice on how to approach approvals, things like that? Obviously, every company is a little different, but I would hate to stifle anybody's creative ideas just because they think they can't get something okayed.
Speaker 2:Love it. So what I will say is creativity takes courage. Okay, so you can't be afraid to demonstrate courage. I think that companies are more apt to creative ideas when they understand the why and the impact of retention, of possibly you know this attracting other clients, of folks having the warm chatter with upper management. That's huge. I mean, when you have someone who came from you know, let's say they are a first-year HR rep and they talk to their C-suite folks about what they learned here, that adds value. It speaks volumes. So I would just say just have the courage, Ask.
Speaker 2:All they can do is say no, Right, yeah, and also one thing that I always think about is what problem am I supposed to solve? We are all here to solve problems, and why don't we just have fun with it and do it in a fun way?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. So you mentioned that you're thinking about doing some new things. What do you have planned for the year? You want to share any of your ideas.
Speaker 2:I can share a little bit of course, I have two current new videos out for Ask Q and they're just little tiny snippets. These are questions that I get all the time, so the two that I have are for early claims reporting and I'll be doing some more and hopefully some more podcasting as well.
Speaker 1:Good, good for you. Is it okay if we provide a link to your LinkedIn page in the show notes?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Is that the best way for folks to get a hold of you?
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, excellent.
Speaker 1:Q. Thank you, it was a lot of fun and I hope that we don't stop talking now that we've stopped planning to have this conversation, but, oh no, it's been so enjoyable. Your, your energy is infectious and I would encourage, you know, everyone listening to just you know, give it a shot. Like you said, don't be afraid to be creative and and and have some fun with what you're doing, because, at the end of the day, it's just about, you know, getting our message out in the right way to the right people, and, uh, and being creative will do that. So thank you so much. Thank you so much, Todd. Thank you. Thanks for listening to REA Audio. I hope we opened up your brain a bit and helped you be better at what you do. Please follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music. Please follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. If you have input or suggestions, email Todd at reemployabilitycom. Be grateful and have a fantastic rest of your week.
.png)