IAIABC Perspectives

NextGen Profiles: Magnum Dampier

Perspectives / December 2019

How do overcome barriers in the workers’ compensation system to use datamore effectively in performancemeasurement and management? First find out the metric(s) you are wanting to put into place, or the understanding that you are wanting to gain; think of this request agnostic of the current data automation systems, leveraging data decisions for existing and new clients in the workers compensation space. Magnum completed his graduate data science certification program through Harvard Extension School recently, and volunteer teaches computer science AP course work through Microsoft TEALS. MagnumDampier is the Director of Information Systems for CompAlliance, and a member of the company’s executive committee. In his position, he oversees the application development, technical support, security, project management, and data science teams. He currently spends most of his team’s efforts on the implementation of NextGen Profiles: Magnum Dampier DIRECTOROF INFORMATION SYSTEMS, COMPALLIANCE

What is the biggest challenge you have overcome to find success professionally? Transitioning from the person doing the work to the personmanaging the people doing the work. Early on inmanagement, I thought helping/fixing problems for my team at the working level was the right thing to do, and it often has the opposite effect. My job was to leverage my technical background to find the best people, give them the tools and authority to do their job, and to get out of the way. This wasn’t something that came natural tome, and I was fortunate enough to be surrounded with several more seasoned leaders/ mentors to always keep that at the forefront. What have you learned in amulti-generational workforce and how has that shaped you as a manager/leader? I’ve learned by managing a multi-generational workforce that the difference of concern should never be generationally based, it boils more down tomixing the appropriate experiences. In the technology world, it’s a constant battle of what language/tool is going tomake us more efficient; and what technologies are truly worth implementing and which are just the hot “buzz”word. My personal belief is you need tomaintain an appropriate amount of experience and green in any group to balance both the risk of driving your car off a cliff, while ensuring you don’t keep the car parked the whole time in the name of staying safe.

Quick Facts • First Job: Bizarrely enough, my first job was a company I created at the age of 10, running a poultry farm that expanded into selling exotic chicken eggs/chicks online via a website called eggbid.com! • FirstWork Comp Job: Current role • FavoriteTravel Destination: U.S. Virgin Islands • Favorite Social Media Platform: LinkedIn • Hashtag: #thedatadoesntsupportthat Magnumhas brought together staff from three of our divisions into a cohesive workgroup, that is accomplishing all of their internal goals within cost and time parameters.” - Linda Van Dillen, CompAlliance “Magnum is a very positive influence at our company and is always looking for ways to elevate CompAlliance to a national best practice standard, within the IT industry. Magnum personifies leadership, cooperation, vision persistence and professionalism far beyond his reach as IT Director.

you have, and more along the lines of what could be available. With this metric understanding in place, map the dependencies for the metric as it relates to the data you have/need. For the data that is lacking, ask the question if a customer/vendor would have this data, is it data I can buy, would this data require another business line, or do I have the capabilities of deriving this data via enhancements to my current process. Once these items are laid out, it’s a simple decision if this metric request is possible and/or plausible. Traditionally speaking however, I would sum up the barrier question with one key phase, persistence in your data relationships.

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