Janice Sorzano: Conquering through caring

The job itself, she has been doing for three years out of her 38 in insurance, a field she chose almost by accident. She stayed though, because it gave her the opportunity to help people.

“That is how I see insurance. As helping people. Insurance comes about when people have a need,” she said.

Janice believed her attitude was a holdover from her mother, who was going to become a nun when her own father died.

“She had to give up her dream and go out to support her family as she was the oldest at home. That is how she met my dad. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here,” Janice joked.

She got her start in the claims department, where people would come daily seeking solutions to sometimes highly stressful situations. She thought her mother’s humanitarian approach rubbed off on her, coupled with her own determination, served her well here.

“Anything I do, I do it to the best of my ability.

At the end of the day. I think the organisation has a certain expectation of me. If I am given a job, I am going to find out how it is supposed to be done, even if I don’t know how to do it. Because I don’t like to make promises I can’t keep. If I promise something, I must be able to deliver on that promise.” She said her first few days were spent moving around claims, taking the initiative to pull claim files, read through them to see how they were handled and formulate questions for clarification.

Superiors took notice of her and gave her progressively more difficult assignments and responsibilities as the years passed. When her company merged and became the newly formed Guardian General Insurance Ltd, Janice had reached management. However, she told WMN she did not view herself as a “career person”.

She said her time at claims helped to make her a “better” person, having to deal directly with the company’s customers.

“Experience with the customer made you reflect on how things needed to be done and where we needed to be as an organisation.” “When customers come and they are upset, they just really want a solution so they can get on with their lives. When we hold them up, we frustrate them and prevent them from doing the more important things they need to in their life.

As a service industry, we must think of ways to deal with issues quickly, efficiently, so that we can relieve that stress.

Janice switched from claims to being overall in charge of the Trinidad operations, being more exposed to the underwriting side of insurance, when the former VP for Trinidad Operations retired and she was selected to take up the position.

“My executives saw that I could do the job and I had no doubt that I could,” she said.

But it was not a one man show. Janice recalled that her staff and people she worked with through the years could also be counted on for support. She was lucky, she said, to have been in environments where people were loyal and knowledgeable, with none of the familiar turf wars that populate corporate life.

She also said they were the backbone of the company, which has been a market leader for several years running.

“You can have all the tools, all the mechanisms, but at the end of the day, it’s the people who make the organisation,” As a people person, Janice said she always encouraged the two-way flow of ideas and information between herself and the people with whom she works.

She did not think her collaborative style of management held her back in what has largely been seen as a male dominated industry.

“People say it’s a man’s world, and it probably is, but that doesn’t bother me in the least. I have a job to do. And if I need to confront something to do that job then I am going to confront it.” In fact, Janice believed more love was needed in the world. It is a maxim she practices at work.

“I like to see people grow. I like to see people develop. I think everybody has potential within them. It is really just a case of how much you are prepared to explore that potential.” She saw today’s social ills as a reflection of how little love there was in the society and wants to help there too. She is four years away from retirement and sees herself becoming more heavily involved in charitable work, particularly that which provided people with much needed support through difficult periods in their lives.

Her ability to climb as high as she did, Janice said is the result of love itself. Janice’s mother, who is now 85, helped her take care of her three children along with her husband as she pursued a career in the demanding industry.

The future of that industry now lies with Millennials, who she said, were not necessarily gravitating towards insurance as a career.

“Millennials want challenges, they are creative thinkers. I don’t think they want to be stuck behind a desk doing data entry and paper work. We have to find ways to engage them to ensure the longevity of the organisation and the industry.”