Tyler Lipositz, '17

For his first project at his summer internship at the GEICO regional offices in Fredericksburg, Va., Tyler Lipositz, ’17, was among a group of four interns tasked with collecting, reading, and analyzing formal claims complaints data to find areas of opportunity for improvement. This was just one of the tasks that the Jepson senior took on during his internship that helped him to gain insight into daily life at a large, for-profit company.

While sorting through claims complaints might sound disheartening, Lipositz says he found the assignment enjoyable.

Lipositz says, “We analyzed 148 formal complaint files in various states and searched for trends. We knew that our project needed to be data driven, so we created our own coding system that allowed us to organize complaint files by key words. We then created an Excel sheet and used pivot tables to search for correlations between different variables, i.e. codes, and found a number of trends and opportunities for GEICO to improve their claims complaint process.”

The group collaborated on a series of recommendations, which they presented to the regional management. Ultimately, some of the actionable recommendations were positively received and are likely to be implemented in the near future. The reception to the interns’ presentation underscores the importance of valuing all employees, which Lipositz says is important to creating a supportive work environment.

“My time at GEICO has made clear the importance of valuing the unique skills and perspectives of all employees. Every member of a team has the potential to add value to their team. A supportive work environment, which encourages employees at all levels to communicate their ideas, is an important part of maximizing the value of a company,” says Lipositz.

Through his interactions with regional managers, Lipositz, a double major in leadership studies and philosophy, politics, economics, and law, was able learn about not only GEICO’s corporate strategy and culture, but also its leadership philosophy.

“One of the characteristics of GEICO’s leadership that I found impressive was its consistency. Every leader, whether it be a sales supervisor or the COO, has demonstrated a clear understanding of GEICO’s core principles and commitment to profitable growth,” explains Lipositz. “That is to say that every leader at GEICO seems to be working toward the same goals.”

For Lipositz, these pieces of insight will be valuable assets as he moves forward in his career search.

“I will be able to apply much of what I have learned from my experience with GEICO regarding the importance of profit, growth, supportive work environments, and leadership to my post-college life,” says Lipositz.