American Fidelity finds camaraderie with other IT-related companies

Two American Fidelity employees discuss a technology solution.

It’s been almost 60 years since C.W. and C.B. Cameron founded American Fidelity Assurance Company in Oklahoma City. The company that now occupies the tower along Interstate 235 is more technology-focused than the founders likely ever dreamed. But the care and respect for fellow colleagues, while taking care of the customer, still guides everyone at the company.

American Fidelity provides supplemental health insurance to professionals in education, healthcare, public sector and automotive industries. One of their most popular products is disability insurance.

But there’s more technology in insurance than someone might expect, such as keeping up with and meeting the needs of the millions of customers and millions of policies. Chief Technology Officer Diana Bittle helps make sure all those technology pieces are working together properly.

She fits the company’s pattern of promoting from within. In 2018, almost 40% of the positions were filled internally and on average, employees have worked there for 10 years.

“Culture is very important to us,” she said. “We have a scorecard that measures internally on how we do and we’re very transparent with that and share it monthly. We foster an environment of strong colleague feedback, openness and transparency.”

The company has been rated by Computerworld and Fortune magazine as a best place to work in information technology for millennials, for females and other accolades.

In 2019, American Fidelity was also the only Oklahoma company to make it to Fortune magazine’s top 100 places to work in the U.S. The company has made the list for 13 years.

While the company has a work environment that’s attractive to people, and the amenities built through the MAPS program certainly help attract people to OKC, Bittle said there’s a shortage of information technology talent.

“Our state’s unemployment rate is very low, so that also makes it harder to get the talent that you need,” she said. “(The city) needs more talent overall, but in the IT world, we see it more pronounced.”

Bittle has learned about the IT needs in the city through regular meetings with other companies’ professionals. The group discusses developments in cyber security and other technology advancements. Since the IT professionals are in different industries, competition doesn’t keep them from sharing what they’re seeing in their own offices’ systems.

“We’ve really built this collaborative group of people who we chat with and we meet with and we work with so we can truly help one another,” she said. “That’s one of the great things about being here.”

One way American Fidelity is helping to improve the IT industry’s future workforce is by showing teachers what the company needs from their students. Every summer, teachers from various districts across the state apply for a STEM teacher fellowship. The science, technology, engineering and math educators get a $2,000 stipend as they learn alongside American Fidelity’s technology professionals.

“We want to get the teachers excited about technology and their students’ future careers in technology,” she said. “Technology is no longer an IT concern. It’s a business concern.”