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Digital EditionLeading with Curiosity: Nora Deveau’s Vision for a Dynamic Claims Culture
Bringing about change at any organization requires a combination of a strong work ethic with a genuine desire to learn and grow. Arch’s Nora Deveau has those attributes in abundance, according to those who know and work with her.
“Nora is one of the most intelligent and intellectually curious people I know,” said Patrick Nails, the chief claims officer for Arch Insurance North America. Recently, Deveau led 300 claims professionals through a departmental transformation while increasing the group’s headcount by 50%.
In her own words, here is what Deveau thinks are the crucial elements to a top-shelf claims team. “I think that there are three key elements of the claims team culture and Arch’s culture as a whole that have empowered and inspired our colleagues to strive for excellence,” Deveau said.
“First, we aim to strike a balance between emphasizing a collaborative environment that’s all about teamwork, while also acknowledging individual contributions to that team. In order to encourage collaboration, we avoid siloing off our different claims units,” she said.
“We train our leaders together so that they all have an in-depth understanding of each other’s work, which leads to increased cross-collaboration on different projects,” Deveau added.
“We also try to recognize individual accomplishments. If a customer gives positive feedback about an adjuster, we share that in our quarterly all-hands claims call. Back when we were in the office full-time, we even had a whiteboard outside of our chief claims officer’s office that we would update with positive news and individual compliments. In recognizing their good work, we hope to make our team members feel appreciated,” she said.
“The second key element of our culture is that we strive to encourage and celebrate intellectual curiosity. We seek to hire people who want to learn, who share our emphasis on collaboration and who want to be exposed to different parts of the claims department. If a current employee expresses an interest in learning more about a part of the insurance business, we work with them, supporting their education and helping them to seek out opportunities where they can expand their skillset.
“Finally, we’ve recently put a concerted effort into increasing transparency around how each of our initiatives and projects affect the bottom line. We try to make it clear to each of our employees what the organization’s goals are and how their work is ultimately contributing to these goals. I think that this is effective because it helps people not to feel like a cog in a machine. When our employees can clearly see the positive effect that their work is having on the organization, I think that motivates them to strive for excellence.” &
Nora Deveau has been selected as a 2025 Risk & Insurance® Executive to Watch. To see the other executives selected this year, visit here.
