Original HIROC team members look back on 20 years
Friday November 30, 2007 -- Deron Hamel
Heather Jakobsen and Rob Chang have been a part of the team at the Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC) since the company formed in 1987 as the Hospital Insurance Reciprocal of Ontario (HIRO).

Along with then-CEO Michael McNeill, Jakobsen, 
Executive Assistant and secretary to the Board of Directors, and Chang, Manager of Information 
Technology and Administration, were two of the three original employees with the organization.

When Jakobsen walked into HIRO’s head office in 1987 in response to a job posting, she was looking for an opportunity to improve her interview skills. A legal secretary who had worked for law firms, Jakobsen was looking to expand her career and was seeking employment with a large corporation.

A company consisting only of a CEO and an IT person working out of the Ontario Hospital Association board room didn’t exactly fit the profile of what Jakobsen was looking for in an employer at the time.

However, the interview went well and Jakobsen accepted a two-week trial period to see if she liked the job. What started as an exercise in self-improvement would turn into a 20-year career with the organization.

Jakobsen says the company’s concept of helping healthcare providers save money through their insurance premiums and continually improve the risk management  in their facilities are what she likes about her job. She adds that she and the company are a perfect fit for each other and that she has settled into HIROC for the long haul.

“I love my job . . . I’ll retire from here,” she says. “I have not looked through a newspaper for a job since the day I came in.”

Over the past 20 years, Jakobsen has been a part of some major developments with the organization. She’s witnessed the subscriber list expand from 42 healthcare providers to over 400.

Like Jakobsen, Chang says he has many memorable moments in his 20 years with the organization.

Learning and watching the organization grow from three to 50 employees, the camaraderie amongst the HIROC’s players and “building a great IT team and working closely together to ensure we deliver high standards of customer service and solutions” are a few of the things Chang says he looks back at fondly.

And what are some of his favourite success stories?

“Recruiting good people into the organization and watching them move throughout the organization into different departments and roles,” he says, adding HIROC’s new social committee and building a stable and reliable IT network are also benchmarks in his tenure.

As for the future, Jakobsen says she’s looking forward to seeing HIROC continue to partner with stakeholders to promote and educate healthcare providers about patient safety.

Jakobsen is also proud to work for an organization which has an extremely low turnover rate.

“Other than a few people leaving for personal reasons, most employees have been here for years,” she says. “I work with my friends (employees and Directors) every day.”