"Our clients demand that we 'go into bat for them'," says Paul Marsh, Gallagher Divisional Manager, Injury Management — Workplace Risk, of the basis for building from scratch a business which challenged the status quo for managing workers compensation and injury management in the workplace. The BRW Fast 100 2012-listed company became part of the Gallagher family in 2019.

"For a company with the wonderful global reputation of Gallagher has, to want to acquire our business model was an absolute career highlight," Marsh says.

The attraction for him was the unique nature of the Gallagher business culture: "Having access to global scale while being able to maintain an entrepreneurial mindset," he explains. "It's rare for a global organisation to have that in their DNA and Gallagher has it in spades — the opportunities are endless."

Industry recognition of the Workplace Risk team's performance

The acquisition has given Workplace Risk the ability to continue to grow the practice on a national scale. Marsh believes that it's an "A grade team that always delivers" and that the scope to help employers protect their people is enormous.

The specialism has won multiple iCare Industry Champions awards in the Excellence in Improving Employer Performance category, based on real life cases where the team works closely with businesses that fall below industry standards in safety to make substantial improvements. These include reduced frequency and severity of injuries through a partnered approach to adopting a strategic and proactive methodology to injury prevention.

Immersion in workplace risk clients' businesses to achieve safety results

Gallagher Workplace Risk partners with client organisations to help them create a workplace environment that positions the business's people as its single most important asset.

This is achieved through strategies and programs that either pre-empt and manage the risk of workplace injuries via a safety first approach or mitigate and manage employee injuries through early intervention in the management of employee injuries via workers' compensation and bespoke employee risk solutions.

Marsh says that when working with clients he adopts the attitude that he's a shareholder in their business and treats their business and their issues as if they were his own. "This helps me hone in on the best strategy to assist them and provide the client with the best return on their investment.

He rates client-centricity as his most important skill, saying no matter how complex the people risk matter is there is always a way forward. "My job is to ensure we continue to move such matters in the right direction and leave no stone unturned. There is always an answer," he says.

"We are fortunate that clients let us through their doors to gain a deep understanding of their business and work with them to help protect them and their people to the benefit of all," Marsh says.

"A health happy workforce results in a profitable and productive company. It is the ultimate win-win when rolled out correctly."

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