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Digital Edition2026 Theo Award Winner: Kelly
Kelly has been connecting people to work for nearly 80 years. Today, the Troy, Michigan-based workforce strategy and solutions provider places talent across a broad spectrum of industries — from light industrial and clerical roles to science, engineering, technology, education, and pediatric therapy. With employees working in every state in the country, often embedded at customer worksites far from Kelly’s direct oversight, the organization faces a workers’ compensation challenge that is, by its very nature, complex.
“Our biggest hurdle is training and ensuring all of our people across the country who manage our talent understand the requirements — reporting claims timely, directing medical care, things like that,” said Lesley Zielinski, Vice President of Risk & Insurance at Kelly.
“We’re not always having boots on the ground in the location where our employees are working. We don’t always have as much control as we would if our employees were working in our own factory.”
That structural challenge became acute in the years following the pandemic. Kelly’s longstanding third-party administrator deployed a new claims system in 2021 — at the same moment when workforce upheaval was reshaping the industry. Experienced adjusters retired. Leadership turnover left gaps. Escalations went unanswered.
“Our claims were being neglected in some of our highest exposure states,” Zielinski said. “We were begging, waving the SOS signs.” After three years of trying everything to work towards a resolution, Kelly made the decision to act.
Finding the Right Partner
Kelly issued an RFP and, in January 2024, launched a new partnership with Gallagher Bassett (GB). The decision wasn’t made lightly — Kelly had been with its previous TPA for 17 years, and only the final two or three had been problematic. But the impact of the issues had become undeniable.
What distinguished GB, in Zielinski’s view, was transparency and genuine partnership.
“There was a lot more data and analytics built into their system, and that was really valuable to us,” she explained. “There was transparency in claim handling and in results. We could see which adjusters were struggling. That visibility meant we were not spinning our wheels thinking we were seeing something while hearing, ‘oh, they’re doing great.’ With Gallagher, you could see: Yes, they’re struggling, and Gallagher knows they’re struggling.”
That transparency mattered, especially because Zielinski and her team bring formidable expertise of their own. Every member of Kelly’s workers’ comp team has more than 25 years of experience — and all of them have sat in the adjuster seat themselves.
“We play a big role in helping adjusters move claims through the process,” she said. “We needed a TPA that was willing to partner with us in that way and willing to respect the expertise we bring to the table.”
The transition itself was a massive undertaking — Kelly moved tens of thousands of historical claims, including roughly 1,000 that were still open at the time. For a period of weeks, those legacy claims couldn’t be touched while data reconciliation was underway. “We were very concerned about what was going to happen,” Zielinski said.
Lesley Zielinski, Vice President of Risk & Insurance, Kelly
“Would those new adjusters be able to hit the ground running, get those claims moving, get reserves appropriately set?”
The answer, ultimately, was yes — and then some.
Putting Injured Workers First
Among the most consequential elements of the new program was the introduction of Gallagher Bassett’s Clinical Concierge Services — early outreach to injured workers within ten days of a claim being filed.
The program addressed a critical vulnerability for a company whose vast number of employees are spread out across the country and working from customer locations where they may be unfamiliar with the workers’ comp process, uncertain about what to expect, or even fearful about how they would put food on the table if they were unable to work.
“The Clinical Concierge program had the biggest impact on new claim litigation,” Zielinski said. “If employees don’t get their answers from us, they’re going to get them from somewhere else. Maybe they are talking to a family member who had a bad workers’ comp experience and is going to say, ‘You need to get an attorney.’ When you force people to go and get the answer somewhere else, it is more likely to lead to legal representation. And that person who ends up seeking an attorney unnecessarily is not going to benefit at the end of the day.”
The results were striking: A substantial majority of injured employees engaged with the Clinical Concierge program, with satisfaction scores approaching a perfect 10. Early identification of barriers — psychosocial factors, comorbidities, confusion about the process — allowed for customized interventions that meaningfully reduced claim duration.
A rebuilt analytics infrastructure supports the clinical model. A dedicated GB analyst produces custom reports tracking new and pending claims, closure ratios, litigation counts, lost workdays, attorney fees, and more — segmented by business unit so the Kelly team can identify and address patterns at a granular level.
Monthly, quarterly, and annual strategic sessions between Kelly and GB keep the partnership aligned and accountable.
A Transformation in the Numbers
The results of the first two years of partnership have been significant. Kelly closed a substantial majority of its legacy claims in the first year alone — including a large share of legacy indemnity claims — at well below their reserved values.
The percentage of new claims leading to litigation dropped sharply. Average attorney fees declined. Claim duration fell. And a $5 million reduction in outstanding liabilities on losses from those years that were transferred to GB having been recognized by Kelly’s actuary provided concrete validation of the program’s financial impact.
“True to their purpose as a global strategy and workforce solutions provider, Kelly has developed a workers’ compensation program that maintains a people-first approach,” said Kapil Mohan, Chief Client Officer — Risk Management and Carrier Practice, Gallagher Bassett.
“They lead with sustainable and scalable claims and risk management best practices, built on strategic alignment, partnership and collaboration, targeted analytics, and a commitment to continuous improvement.”
Perhaps equally meaningful was the shift in the employee experience.
“We were having employees coming to us fairly frequently regarding late payment of benefits, or delays on their claims that didn’t make sense,” Zielinski noted. “Since moving to Gallagher, we’ve gotten maybe one or two justified complaints from employees.” That improvement — from frequent complaints to near-silence — reflects a program that is now, fundamentally, working.
For Zielinski, the hardest-won lesson of the past few years is also the simplest: partnership isn’t optional. “It doesn’t work if anybody is working in a vacuum,” she said. “We can’t do it ourselves. They can’t do it without our help. We look at it like we are partners — we’re in this together, making these bigger decisions together on where a claim is going to go strategically, and how to get the best outcome not only for Kelly, but also for the employee.”
Managing a distributed, multi-state workforce will always mean playing what Zielinski calls a game of Whack-a-Mole — new challenges popping up as fast as old ones are resolved. But with the right partner, the right data, and a genuine commitment to the people at the center of every claim, Kelly has found a way to stay ahead of it.
“You want to make sure that we have the best representatives out there,” she said, “representing Kelly, representing Gallagher Bassett, to the benefit of our employees — who are injured on assignment when they’re at their lowest point. You don’t want to make that process more complicated.” &
The Theo Award celebrates its sophomore year, honoring 28 workers’ compensation programs for their excellence and service to workers across the nation. To learn more about the award and amazing qualities each winner possesses, visit here.
