Vice President, Case Management

THE COMPANY

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board is one of the largest insurance organizations in North America, covering over five million people in more than 300,000 workplaces across Ontario. Recognized as one of Greater Toronto’s top employers, the WSIB plays a vital role in Ontario’s workforce ecosystem by supporting individuals in their recovery and return to work after workplace injuries or illnesses, and by helping businesses maintain safe and productive work environments.

Guided by the core values of accountability, collaboration, empathy, and integrity, our workforce of over 4500 people contributes to a culture that prioritizes diversity, inclusion and belonging that helps the injured workers of Ontario return to work better, easier and faster.

The WSIB operates under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997 (WSIA). Its core mandate is to:

• Administer Ontario’s no-fault workplace insurance for employers and workers.
• Promote workplace health and safety.
• Facilitate return-to-work programs for injured workers.
• Provide compensation and support services to workers who are injured or become ill because of their work.

Some of the current key priorities of the WSIB include:

• Improving customer service for both injured workers and employers.
• Modernizing operations, including digital transformation and streamlining claims processing.
• Enhancing recognition of occupational diseases.
• Real estate optimization, including reducing the agency’s downtown Toronto footprint.
• Financial sustainability and ensuring the long-term viability of the insurance fund.

THE OPPORTUNITY

The WSIB is undergoing a significant transformation to modernize its operations, improve service delivery, and foster a culture of innovation and accountability. The organization is committed to delivering private-sector outcomes within a public-sector framework, with a strong focus on operational excellence, employee engagement, and client-centric service.

Reporting to the COO, the VP, Case Management is responsible for providing leadership and direction in the development and delivery of Operations divisions functions which may include but not limited to: eligibility, short-term and long-term case management, specialty teams, quality programs and other operational teams, activities and strategic initiatives.

The role is responsible for ensuring programs are integrated across WSIB offices within Ontario and divisional services and products are developed and consistently delivered in accordance with established regulatory, quality, health, safety and performance standards and within expected budgets. The role is responsible for effectively managing division projects and service deliverables, providing leadership, structure and process to division staff, managing key internal and external stakeholder relations, identifying and developing improvement opportunities that are aligned with WSIB’s strategic priorities and ensuring quality performance and compliance with policies and practices. Total headcount is 400 – 700 with 5-8 direct reports.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Functional Leadership:

• Provides leadership and direction in the development and execution of WSIB claims management programs and services, ensuring WSIB’s objective and goal achievement are supported and that all established processes are in compliance with WSIB policies and practices and regulatory and legislative requirements.
• Provides guidance and technical expertise to facilitate the delivery of services, ensuring ongoing work quality levels are maintained, deliverables are achieved, resolving complex, confidential and potentially high-profile issues, and managing internal and external stakeholder expectations. Ensure activities are fully integrated to provide consistent and seamless responses to stakeholder submissions and inquiries.
• Establishes processes, protocols and procedures through collaboration with all related parties to manage the stages of claims management, may include but is not limited to: 1) eligibility decision making, 2) effective support involving claims for injured people requiring greater support with their recovery and return to work, or with more complex physical injuries where the focus needs to be squarely on supporting the unique needs of these injured people and their employers, and 3) effectively manage permanent benefit claims, specialty teams and the provision of recovery services and return to work services, inclusive of work transition programs.
• Designs and develops frameworks for managing and evaluating the quality and success of the WSIB’s case management, identifying program parameters and success metrics, developing guiding principles and tactical approaches for program delivery, gathering stakeholder group feedback on program issues, conducting forecasts and audits of program deliverables, and identifying and evaluating program changes and resource impacts.

Planning & Development:

• Collaborates with the COO and Cluster counterparts to develop cluster strategic and business plans to support the organization’s strategic priorities, providing input on strategic initiative and priority development and ensuring alignment with overall WSIB strategic direction.
• Develops strategic and operational goals for the division, ensuring their alignment with the broader cluster/division and WSIB strategies and operational priorities, determining success and reporting metrics, evaluating changing priorities, workforce reports/statistics, attrition rates and caseloads, analyzing impacts on operations/business activities and adapting strategies and plans accordingly to achieve desired results.
• Ensures division operating and capital budgets are developed, approved and managed, identifying operational and staff budget requirements, preparing budget forecasts and projections, monitoring budget adherence, identifying/explaining variances and discrepancies and authorizing expenditures within budget and approved limits.
• Participates on cross-organizational committees, to understand broader issues, share insights, lead initiatives, manage project activities and influence outcomes.

Relationship Management:

• Develops and manages relationships with Executives and Senior Managers across the organization to understand business activities and issues, share information, resolve issues, support and facilitate planning activities and project deliverable achievement, and identify opportunities to leverage resources, collaborate on projects and initiatives and influence outcomes.
• Identifies and leverages relationships with key external stakeholders across industry/labour groups, associations and government agency representatives, conducting regular stakeholder meetings to exchange ideas, gather feedback and intelligence on areas of broader concern or interest, identify program and service delivery improvement opportunities and promote the organization’s services and mandate.
• Identifies and leverages relationships with professional associations and industry colleagues to share information, maintain currency on emerging best practices, trends and/or legislation/regulations, and identify opportunities for new program/product development.

Quality & Risk Management:

• Provides leadership in developing an effective operating framework, ensuring all legal obligations are fulfilled and that there is transparency around how service delivery and program management decisions are made and how quality controls are established and monitored for compliance.
• Monitors quality and relevance of divisional services and programs, evaluating and auditing processes, best practices and results, developing and maintaining appropriate measurement and reporting metrics, identifying areas of risk and opportunities for improvements, developing strategies to address issues and coaching staff to ensure initiatives/changes are incorporated into day-to-day activities.
• Identifies issues having potential high profile/ organizational reputation impacts, ensuring issues are understood and relevant, investigating root causes, determining the degree of severity/ sensitivity and potential implications to WSIB reputation and results achievement and developing strategies to address issues.

People Management:

• Manages division staff planning activities, ensuring division infrastructure, staff numbers and skill mix support delivery needs, opportunities for skill development and training are in place and utilized, and performance and career development activities are effectively managed.
• Participates in collective bargaining, grievance and arbitration processes on complex/controversial issues, collaborating with HR, labour relations and legal representatives to understand and resolve issues.

THE CANDIDATE

The ideal candidate will demonstrate the following knowledge, experience, skills and attributes:

• Progressively more responsible and accountable senior leadership experience in an organization of similar scope, scale and complexity
• Demonstrated achievements of leading and successfully executing large change initiatives with sustainable outcomes in a customer centric environment
• Proven ability to modernize operations and integrate technology to improve service quality and delivery
• Leads by example as an inspirational leader and builds high performing teams
• Leads with empathy and integrity while holding themselves and their teams accountable
• An effective communicator and ability to engender respect, trust and credibility with diverse internal and external stakeholders
• Skilled at navigating and shaping organizational culture
• Experience working in or with unionized environments is considered an asset
• Relevant university degree or an equivalent combination of education and experience