Based on an interview with Allison Kelly, Chief Revenue Officer at Ametros
Ask anyone in workers’ compensation who deserves empathy, and you’ll likely hear the same answer: the injured individual. Allison Kelly, Chief Revenue Officer at Ametros, agrees. She just doesn’t think the list should stop there.
“The professionals who are managing these claims also deserve a massive amount of empathy,” she said. “We are all just trying to do our best under a significant amount of pressure, and the stakes around these decisions are growing every day.”
Allison has seen that pressure from nearly every angle. With over 20 years in claims, underwriting and brokerage, each role has shown her a different side of the same claim and given her a deeper understanding of the people involved. “Each role gave me a very different perspective on one very similar challenge,” she said. “Everyone is trying to do right by the injured individual while navigating a complex environment and competing priorities.”
That experience shaped a belief that continues to guide Allison today: empathy can’t be reserved for one person in the claim. It has to extend to everyone carrying its weight. For Allison, that also comes down to something simple: treating people with care and respect, even when the circumstance is difficult. One risk manager she worked with showed her exactly what that looks like.
The Risk Manager Who Kept Showing Up
A risk manager Allison worked with had a catastrophic claim involving a woman who would never return to work. The claim was eventually resolved, but the risk manager didn’t simply move on. For years, she visited the injured individual at home several times a year to make sure she had the equipment and care she needed. She also called Allison regularly to confirm that every benefit had been paid. Nobody asked her to do any of it.
“It wasn’t about her expertise.” said Allison. “It was really about the commitment that she made to that injured individual for many years following her claim. She really treated her as a person and not just a claim number.”
No one was checking whether she made those visits, but she made them anyway. Her empathy didn’t end when the file closed. In Allison’s experience, the industry has many professionals like her. They regularly carry the human weight of their work, even if they don’t always receive the same understanding in return.
The Weight Behind Every File
Extending empathy to claims professionals starts with understanding what they carry. Adjusters manage large caseloads, often across state lines. Attorneys balance strategy with client expectations. Nurse case managers coordinate care during some of the hardest moments a person can face.
Then there’s the part outsiders may not see: the cumulative mental load. These professionals make difficult decisions with incomplete information, keep up with changing regulations and face constant pressure to move claims forward while still getting the details right. People outside the industry often use “defend, deny, delay” to describe claims professionals, but Allison’s experience has shown her something different.
“The best adjusters and attorneys I’ve worked with don’t just push paper and manage claims,” she said. “They absorb the weight of what they’re dealing with, the weight of those difficult conversations and the pressure that comes with making the right decisions.”
Understanding that weight shapes how Allison approaches every relationship. “When I approach conversations with clients, injured parties, or even our own employees, I have to remember that,” she said, “so I can become not only a better colleague, but a better leader and a better partner.”
Remembering what another person may be carrying changes the conversation. Instead of leading with assumptions or solutions, Allison starts by listening.
Listen First
Early in her career, Allison sat through plenty of meetings that opened with a pitch before anyone stopped to ask about challenges. She remembers how frustrating that felt. “You want someone who understands what you’re dealing with,” she said. “Your workload, your goals or, if you’re an adjuster, the reality of managing hundreds of files.”
Today, she encourages her team to take a different approach. At Ametros, listening has to extend across the entire claim because the customer changes along the way. “In the beginning, the customers are the payers, the adjusters,” Allison said. “But once that claim settles, our customer becomes that injured individual.”
Before talking about Ametros and how we support injured individuals, we always ask how our partners define success. They want to understand what’s getting in the way and, as Allison puts it, “what’s keeping you up at night.” They aren’t simply listening for an opening to pitch. They’re trying to understand what the people across the table are managing and how Ametros may be able to help.
“Silence from our side can be very productive,” she said. “Some of the best meetings and partnerships have been created on the foundation that our clients and partners felt heard.”
True collaboration begins after listening. When people feel heard, the focus shifts to developing solutions that balance the interests of all stakeholders.
Solving It Together
By the time an injured individual reaches Ametros, multiple stakeholders may have played a role in the claim. Each person brings a different responsibility and perspective, but they are often working toward many of the same goals. Allison’s years in brokerage taught her how to bring those people together.
“We’ve got shared interests and goals, even though the way that we get there might look different,” she said.
Sometimes, the most helpful response isn’t a product at all. It’s taking the time to think through the challenge with a partner before recommending what should come next. “Sometimes we just need to be there to help think through their problem,” Allison said. “Understanding their world comes before explaining ours.”
Conventional thinking may suggest that empathy and sales pull in opposite directions. Allison sees empathy as something that makes sales more effective because it changes the focus of the conversation. “When you work on being empathetic, when you’re actively practicing those things, it’s going to make you more effective in sales,” she said. “It shifts your focus from selling something to solving something.”
Sometimes, solving the problem means making a harder choice in the short term. Allison has slowed down deals that could have closed quickly because listening revealed that more work up front would better serve everyone involved.
“Is that a hard sell when you go to your boss and say, ‘I’ve got delayed revenue, or I’m creating more work for people’? Of course,” she said. “But if it’s the right thing to do, then I’d have that conversation every day. You could close the deal tomorrow and they could leave in six months.”
She credits Ametros’ culture of accountability and ownership with giving employees the confidence to make those calls. “If you’re willing to make the decision and own the outcome, whether that outcome is good, bad or indifferent, then you have decision-making authority,” she said.
It’s another example of the commitment that risk manager demonstrated: doing the right even when the easier choice is right there. Treating every partner as an important part of the claim means taking the time to get it right, not simply getting it done.
A Person, Not a Process
Underneath all these conversations, decisions and partnerships is a simple idea: claims may be measured through data, but they’re experienced by people. That’s why Allison encourages leaders across the industry to look beyond the dashboard.
“As organizations grow, it’s really easy to become focused on the metrics and the outcomes and the dashboards,” she said. “Of course those things matter. But every number or every color on that dashboard, whether it’s red, yellow or green, represents a human and a human experience.”
That person may be an injured individual adjusting to life after a settlement. It may be an adjuster managing an overflowing caseload, an attorney balancing competing priorities or a nurse case manager navigating a complex healthcare system. The leaders who shaped Allison most never lost sight of those people. They listened more than they talked and stayed close enough to the work to understand how their decisions affected the people they served.
“Start with a person rather than a process,” Allison said. “Make a commitment to be really connected to the people you’re serving, both internally and externally. Better decisions will follow.”
The risk manager Allison worked with understood that. Long after the claim had closed and her professional obligation had ended, she kept showing up. Her actions are a reminder that empathy goes beyond understanding what another person is carrying. It means allowing that understanding to shape what you do next.
