11 Things You Must Know When You NAME Your Workers Compensation Management Program

The words, “workers compensation management” don’t readily lend themselves to snappy, project names. You must be creative when coining a project name that aptly sums up the concepts, attitudes, discussions and identity of your project.

Here are some “do’s” and “don’ts” you should know before you embark on your project naming venture.

1. Do keep the project name short, sweet, pronounceable and universally recognizable.

2. Do make the project name one everyone will remember. The project name is useless if you can’t remember it.

3. Do think about the project identity and use a name that encapsulates the program mission.

RIMS is a famous example. Rim is a simple, universally recognizable word. A rim is a circumference around another material body. Yet RIMS also stands for Risk Insurance Management Society – so its double meaning has a neat kick because RIMS supports the risk management industry in many ways such as networking and information sharing.

4. Make sure the name can be used with .com – otherwise, chances are someone else is using it. This may require research, but it’s worth the trouble because once a program is launched the name pretty much sticks. Even if someone else is already using the name you have chosen, it may not matter if it is in another industry or because you are not preparing your name for a commercial endeavor, but for an internal project.

5. Run your name through web search engines to ensure no redundancies.

6. Have a naming contest with lots of fan fare. You could include first, second and third prizes, using gift certificates as prizes. Make sure to have contest rules, the name has to reflect the project. The project name has to reflect the ideas, issues, discussions, type of business and other unique qualities that also reflect your company.

7. Pick a name with a good acronym such as CAT (Claims And Transitional Program) so you can refer to the program easily.

Brainstorm with the project implementation team participants and give yourselves time to name the project. As you are building your project, often a name will evolve on its own. This is a good time to let names percolate in the back of your mind while you bring people together to establish and implement a new workers comp cost management project.

Here are some don’ts.

8. Don’t pull your project name from obscure science fiction or Greek/Roman mythology.

9. Don’t use lewd references even if they are archaic and deemed socially acceptable today. It will make listeners think of something other than your intended reference.

10. Don’t call your program by a purposefully misspelled name If for example, the originators of RIMS had suggested RYMS, this would have caused confusion, especially in web searches and users would become discouraged and go else where. You don’t want that. (workersxzcompxzkit)

11. Try to avoid personalizing the project name. This isn’t always possible because many companies want their names included in the project name. However, if a corporate merge occurs later on, or the person for whom the project was named moves on , you are stuck with an obsolete title.

If you are desperate, here are a few name generating websites that may give you some ideas:

http://online-generator.com/name-generator/project-name-generator.php
http://www.yummynames.com/?src=adwords
http://www.visuwords.com/

In summary, naming your project is a good way to identify and define the project mission, and to bring it to the collective minds of your employees.

Author Robert Elliott, executive vice president, Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers’ Compensation costs, including airlines, health care, manufacturing, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. He can be contacted at: Robert_Elliott@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.

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Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws vary. You should consult with your insurance broker about workers’ comp issues.