Amidst the threat of an approaching Tropical Storm Fay and her duties as state fire marshal, Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink took time away from her hectic schedule earlier this week to discuss some of the successes her Division of Workers' Compensation has achieved. The presentation took place in Orlando, Fla., at the 63rd Annual Workers' Compensation Educational Conference, which is presented by the Florida Workers' Compensation Institute (FWCI).

"As I listened to the companies that were nominated [for excellence in risk management] last year, I leaned over to [FWCI General Chairman] Jim McConnaughhay and said, 'We need to bring some of these corporate best practices to our state government,'" she said. "Subsequently, a couple of months ago we had some of the risk management people from Publix and Disney come up to Tallahassee and provide us with suggestions as to how we could improve the way we run our own division of risk management."

Many of these suggestions resulted in targeted improvements such as better measurements and communication, but the biggest change, according to Sink, was a attitude adjustment towards problem solving. This is especially important in a state like Florida, which pays out close to $100 million in workers' compensation claims to almost 90,000 claimants every year.