External comparisons can create unexpected outcomes

External benchmarking can deliver unexpected and additional results, it emerged during a question and answer session. Jeff Rieder, president of the Ward Group, said experience has shown that, when looking at the top quartile of performers, those companies often "achieve this with many fewer staff".

Pointing specifically to claims departments, he said this is particularly the case with first notification of loss and task assignment, where companies can be high fliers "with 30% to 40% fewer