This document summarizes insights from a roundtable discussion of HR professionals on healthcare benefits and wellness programs. Participants discussed how the Affordable Care Act is impacting benefits offerings and the labor force. They also shared strategies for engaging employees in high deductible health plans and wellness initiatives through education and incentives while controlling rising healthcare costs.
How to work with a recruiting search firm january 14th 2010 for launch summit
People toknowinhumanresources
1. In the
room A lite paper on what we learned
in a room full of People to Know.
The Human Resources Edition
2. Julie Kara Nicole
Holbein Manz Smith
Cardinal Health, Inc. Jacobson Cos. Trustaff
George Lynn Fran
Kademenos McNabb Wahrman
VSP Vision Center, City of Whitehall Huntington National
Eastern Operations Bank
Center
Anne Jamey Scott
King Miller Warrick
Motorists Insurance Walmart Logistics Scott Warrick Consulting
Group & Employment Law
Services
Kim Tessa Fran
Kocher Pekarcik Watkins
Delphia Consulting, Germain Motor, Co. CareWorks Family
LLC of Companies
Ken Chris Monica
Lazar Rutter Yanscik
McIntyre Global CallCopy Inc. National Registry of
Executive Search EMTs
3. The People to Know
‘In the Room’ Initiative
At Clark Schaefer Hackett, we’re proud to be industry specialists. We strive to know everything we can about
the industries we serve, and to share that insight for the good of our clients and communities. When we
gathered the 2013 Human Resources People to Know around one table to talk, we were privy to profound
thought, unique perspectives, and intelligent understanding. Here, we share their wisdom with you.
4. What we learned
pg 1 Unexpected ways that healthcare benefits
shape the labor force
pg 6 Swaying workforce culture for their benefit
and yours
pg 13 The altered, social world of recruiting and
retention
5. Unexpected
ways that
healthcare
The country’s healthcare industry is in a state of
transition and the American workforce is well aware
benefits
of it. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) alters the
employee benefit landscape by mandating that
employers make significant healthcare decisions
shape the
this year, and also establishes new marketplaces for
healthcare coverage called exchanges.
labor force
The history of rising healthcare costs threatens
employers’ ability to continue to offer attractive
benefits. And the U.S. healthcare delivery system
has found itself stressed.
That leaves Human Resource professionals to
thoughtfully navigate an uncertain environment
that impacts recruiting, retention, and productivity.
HR professionals are on the frontline of identifying
and responding to workforce shifts and trends.
1
6. Insight
from roundtable participants...
When it comes to competing for talent, you
want to have a great benefits package. So my
Julie Holbein
organization is not changing the healthcare Cardinal Health, Inc.
coverage we offer our associates, even in the
wake of the ACA. Benefits are an important
aspect of recruiting, so we can’t leave it to
chance. We don’t know how the exchanges are
going to look, and what the benefits are going
to be.
A lot of my clients are working hard in this
economy to recruit top talent. And I can
tell you that there are employers using the
existence of the ACA like a bargaining chip
when they try to make their employment Scott Warrick
opportunity attractive to a candidate. Scott Warrick Consulting &
They are positioning their own company’s Employment Law Services
healthcare benefits package as an advantage,
compared to competing companies who may
send their workforce to the exchanges.
7. Insight
from roundtable participants...
You’re not going to attract talent when you
can’t say, “Here is what we are offering,” and
right now it’s unclear what the federal and state
Kim Kocher
exchanges will be offering. Employers that are
Delphia Consulting, LLC
unsure of their benefits just can’t be competitive.
If a candidate has a choice between going to a
large organization that clearly communicates its
benefits package, and coming to an entrepreneur
with 45 employees who will be utilizing exchange
benefits, they will choose clarity. It’s going to be
tough to hire for a while.
My company also intends to maintain its
Anne King
healthcare coverage for our associates. But Motorists Insurance Group
having said that, we’ve taken a good look at this
legislation and we have some concerns. First, it
looks clear we’ll incur more expense, particularly
due to the legislation’s $63 fee for each member
- not just for each associate - which is significant.
We’re also concerned for our employees now
that more people in the general population are
going to have access to insurance. The fear is
that this change in the healthcare market will limit our employees’ access to physicians,
affecting their care and overall health. We also think the legislation will shift our employee
population. We anticipate more early retirees, because they’re going to have other
options now. They don’t have to wait until becoming eligible for Medicare. 3
8. Insight
from roundtable participants...
I think it’s legitimate to wonder about the quality of care the healthcare system is going
to be able to offer employees going forward. I work in healthcare, and there is a concern
from the industry - doctors, large hospitals, acute care facilities - about the volume of
Julie Holbein
people that will suddenly be in a healthcare delivery system that already lacks efficiency.
Cardinal Health, Inc.
So there is a big concern about quality, efficiency, and access to care because so many
people will be added into the system. It needs help.
I’ve seen that the ACA legislation is changing how
some employers anticipate staffing positions. There
are organizations that will be forced to consider
limiting the hours of part-timers, likely hiring a greater
number of individuals at lower hours, to avoid the Lynn McNabb
expense of enrolling them in healthcare coverage. City of Whitehall
It will result in under-employment for people who
would’ve been offered more hours under other
circumstances. Of course, perhaps you could argue
it provides a greater number of people with at least
partial employment. But for those individuals who
aren’t getting as many hours as they might have, that’s
not a good thing in my estimation.
4
9. Insight
from roundtable participants...
You can be creative in the benefits you offer in order to
make them appealing. When we were forced to raise Monica Yanscik
our deductible we knew that wouldn’t be an attractive National Registry of
change. But we put an HRA in our plan in order to Emergency Medical
reimburse employees when anything hit their deductible. Technicians
So it actually became a zero deductible plan once we
implemented the HRA. And it meant the world to our
employees. Interestingly, at the end of year it became
clear we only used about 38% of what we had budgeted
for that HRA reimbursement.
I’m seeing that the general labor force is already behaving in reaction to trends in
healthcare benefits. I work for a municipality and people are knocking down our doors Lynn McNabb
for employment because of the perceived stability and high level of benefits in the public City of Whitehall
sector. We can look back to a time when individuals focused more on salary. Now it seems
they’re willing to forgo that high compensation for strong, reliable benefits.
Compensation - salary and benefits together - is a financial issue, but its’ also an emotional
issue for that person you are trying to recruit. I mean, for some people there’s a high level Scott Warrick
of fear surrounding healthcare. If you are over 40, if you have a serious condition in the Scott Warrick Consulting &
family, if you have kids, or God help you if you have a kid with special needs, these benefits Employment Law Services
trump everything else. The healthcare benefit makes a big difference in the decision to take
one job over another.
10. Effecting
workplace
change that
As providers of healthcare insurance benefits,
today’s employers find themselves walking a
delicate balance. They must consider their desire
employers
to shed burdensome coverage costs against their
need to attract and retain talent.
Human Resource executives stand at the
crossroads of these competing wishes, managing
employees
to find strategies that simultaneously reduce
healthcare costs while increasing employee
and
satisfaction. By offering attractive, cost-reducing
appreciate
plan options like high-deductible HSA plans, as
well as wellness programs that encourage the
heath improvement of the entire workforce, HR
addresses both business goals.
But the greatest challenge is engaging employees
to support these efforts. Successful methods that
create a culture of engagement are sought after
and replicated.
6
11. Insight
from roundtable participants...
We’ve been promoting high deductible health
plans for the last three years, and more people
are moving to that. But others can’t quite get George Kademenos
over their fear of the unknown, and of the VSP Vision Center, Eastern
possibility of incurring a high medical cost. So
they’ll sign up for managed care plans like a
Operations Center
preferred provider organization (PPO) plan or a
health maintenance organization (HMO) plan.
So we have to work to educate about that.
Huntington Bank has a strong wellness program
that, as of January 1st, includes a tobacco-free hiring
policy in states where it is permitted. The policy
aligns well with our focus on total health and is
Fran Wahrman
strongly supported by our senior leadership. While
Huntington National Bank
employees who were in place prior to the tobacco-
free hiring policy are not held to the same tobacco-
free expectation, we do provide strong incentives for
employees to stop tobacco use by offering nicotine
cessation programs and a medical premium discount
to non-tobacco users.
12. Insight
from roundtable participants...
We now offer three different PPO plans and a high deductible plan with an HSA. We’ve
priced them appropriately, so the HSA is a pretty clear value. If people want that 90%
plan for instance, they need to understand that they are going to have to pay for it.
And we educate our workforce about the benefits the HSA offers the employee. We’ve
Tessa Pekarcik
probably sounded like an advertisement; we were pushing people so clearly toward
Germain Motor, Co.
the HSA. But we feel strongly about its benefits. We especially try to emphasize that
annual visits to the doctor are covered. And when I have personal conversations with
others, I acknowledge that no one can decide what’s right for their family except them.
But I also share my family’s own experience with the HSA plan – which is an annual
savings of about $4,000 compared to if we’d had a PPO – to demonstrate how the math
might work out to their advantage. And we go over the plan’s maximum out-of-pocket
expense to address that worst-case-scenario concern, the worry that they are going to
have an unexpected, terrible occurrence that results in a $100,000 claim. Education is so
important because people need all the facts to make the best decision.
Educating employees about healthcare coverage is
so important and so challenging. It has never been
easy to communicate to the workforce what’s in
their plan, how it works, and how it impacts them. Fran Watkins
Now the message is more complex because they CareWorks Family of
must understand and evaluate high deductible Companies
plans versus managed care plans. And when you
think about what is going to be next – the need
to convey how the ACA will impact healthcare
coverage - it will be really challenging. 7
13. Insight
from roundtable participants...
I have also been part of putting together a high deductible health plan. When we first
implemented it, we continued to offer the PPO as well as the high deductible health Monica Yanscik
plan, and we just educated that first year. We had just a few people take it. And after National Registry of
they enrolled in it, and saw the cost difference and its association with an HSA, they were Emergency Medical
pleased with their choice. So they started doing word-of-mouth education and promotion. Technicians
By the second year, we had over 50% of our employees on that plan. And it has continued
to grow.
We’ve completely dropped the availability of a PPO plan. But when we did, we gave
every employee five extra paid time off (PTO) days. On another occasion when we were
forced to drop a particular aspect of our medical coverage, the company took over the Kim Kocher
employees’ total premium payments for dental and vision, we jacked up our contribution Delphia Consulting, LLC
on life insurance, we gave them five more PTO days, and we added a floating holiday. So we
couldn’t give them back the medical benefit we had to stop offering, but we tried to give
them something else of value in its place.
If you want to attract good talent, you need to offer personal development and a culture of
wellness, in addition to a foundation of competitive compensation and desirable benefits.
It’s part of that total package that you present when you are recruiting. We all know that
wellness is a tool to lower premium costs; we have to remember that it also creates a
Julie Holbein
desirable workplace. And to have a healthy culture, you can’t just offer a program. You truly
Cardinal Helath, Inc.
have to foster a mindset.
9
14. Insight
from roundtable participants...
And I’m not sure the industry has been honest about how we use and promote health
and wellness programs. When we use the term “health and wellness” maybe we fail to
properly communicate how much employee’s choices affect our health coverage costs.
Employees see their rates go up, and they seem to feel that the company shouldn’t be
Jamey Miller
passing those costs on to them. Education should be our top priority, teaching employees
Walmart Logistics
how their behavior can control our cost, and explaining how that will help their cost.
For last year’s open enrollment period, our company
enacted a new policy that required a preventative
physical in order to get the lower wellness premium
rates. Without the physical, the employee’s rates would
go up. Many members of my workforce will not go to
the doctor unless they really have to, so these exams Kara Manz
were valuable. Through those physicals our workforce Jacobson Companies
discovered all kinds of conditions and indications of
health risk. Physicians diagnosed issues, detected risk
factors, and discussed prevention, which are all proven
to “nip conditions in the bud” and drive down the future
costs for your plan.
When the over-age dependent requirements went into effect, we added approximately
40 additional dependents. It was a nearly 10% increase and that’s a large group to add.
And it’s difficult to encourage this group toward healthier lifestyles, so they add greater
risk to our pool. “Wellness” is the warm, fuzzy word that we use to describe our health
encouraging programs. It’s an appropriate word because it communicates that we care Lynn McNabb
about employees’ well being, which is certainly true. But these programs are also part of City of Whitehall
risk management, identifying potential liabilities and enacting strategies to negate them.
15. Insight
from roundtable participants...
Because of some major claims made by family members of our employees in the
past, we’ve been forced to acknowledge how little we can influence the wellness of
dependents. We’ve slowly shifted our pricing structure so that we basically pay a flat Kim Kocher
rate per employee, toward whatever coverage they choose, whether they take single, or Delphia Consulting, LLC
family, or family with kids. In essence, employees pay for their additional covered family
members almost entirely on their own.
When you’re encouraging wellness you can’t stop with the employee. You also have to
engage the entire family too. They affect your premiums just as much as the associate.
Tessa Pekarcik
Germain Motor, Co.
For our employees we have an onsite wellness center and we offer biometric screening.
We also offer an annual health assessment that impacts the premium our employees
pay. It’s offered to spouses too, and there’s a monetary incentive for them to complete it.
Julie Holbein
Based on responses, the assessment program will suggest some things you might need to
Cardinal Health, Inc.
work on, and will offer the option of a free session with a health coach.
In my organization we have a tobacco discouraging
policy that applies to both employees and spouses.
We structure our plans with higher premium rates for
tobacco users. There are two different rates, depending
on the tobacco use of one or both spouses, and we
Jamey Miller
Walmart Logistics
rely the honor system for reporting that. We also offer
tobacco cessation support, such as free patches, gum,
lozenges.
11
16. Insight
from roundtable participants...
It’s easy to engage the already-healthy population in
your wellness programs. But those aren’t the people Tessa Pekarcik
who are causing your healthcare costs to go up. The Germain Motor, Co.
problem lies in encouraging the people who would
really benefit from the programs. So you have to
incentivize. Success lies in education, and reward. You
can’t just offer employees a 10% discount on gym
memberships and expect change. Employers need to
look outside the box a little bit.
We just launched an employee wellness center, which is rare in the public sector. But
it’s a response to our healthcare costs, which we had to start curtailing. So we now offer
completely free services to employees who go to these centers. The services are health
and wellness based, including nutritional counseling, disease management programs,
Lynn McNabb
free pharmaceuticals, free diabetic testing supplies, and free evaluations. The medical
City of Whitehall
team is truly attempting to create ongoing relationships with our employees. Part of the
benefit to us is the transparency of the cost. We’re paying a medical team a per-hour fee,
whether they see ten people or one person in that timeframe. It’s projected to be less
expensive than paying physician fees, per visit, to other providers. Also, when employees
fill generic prescriptions there, it will be much less expensive to us than when they have
them filled at a pharmacy. So this is an attempt to creatively provide a benefit while
recognizing cost savings.
12
17. The social
world of
recruiting
When it comes to recruiting needed talent, the
Human Resource profession realizes the need to
“fish where the fish are.”
and retention
From the executives who keep an updated resume-
like profile on LinkedIn, to the Millennials who traffic
Facebook and keep current through Twitter feeds,
the engaged, plugged-in worker is a social media
user.
Society’s collective comfort level with these
tools affects both recruiting and retention. For a
profession honed on protecting and respecting
employee privacy, this is a world fraught with as
many challenges as opportunities.
4
13
18. Insight
from roundtable participants...
Social media has impacted HR more than anything else in the last 20 years. It has raised Fran Watkins
issues for both recruiting and employee relations. CareWorks Family of
Companies
We’re on LinkedIn and we lead LinkedIn groups, we have websites, we’re on Facebook,
and we’re always looking for talent. We might post on our Twitter LinkedIn account
“really busy this afternoon, looking for a front end developer.” And then we’ll feed off of
that when they hit either Facebook or one of our websites. It’s been years since we’ve
used more traditional tools like an ad or a recruiter. The last 5 people we found were
Kim Kocher
passive hires. They were all done exclusively through social media.
Delphia Consulting, LLC
Human resource professionals who aren’t on board with social media are going to be left
behind, especially when it comes to recruiting Gen Y’s. It’s such an integral part of their
existence. Jamey Miller
Walmart Logistics
All of my recruiting efforts include social media. It’s
a critical tool because you can identify and attract
people who aren’t even looking for a career change.
That’s a huge population of people that are definitely
wanted because they are current and relevant in their
profession. From LinkedIn or Twitter, I’ll post things,
and refer them to our website. I’ll be honest; it has
helped my business tremendously. I also suggest Nicole Smith
targeting second connections on LinkedIn. Trustaff
14
19. Insight
from roundtable participants...
I’ve had a lot of success with using Facebook to lure
people into my website, where they can apply online.
Twitter has been huge. We tweet about the benefits
of working for our company. We just encourage them
Chris Rutter
to check us out. That has probably been responsible
CallCopy Inc.
for 80 percent of how we’re getting our candidates in,
the other 20 percent is through actively searching on
LinkedIn.
I’m not a huge proponent of doing any direct recruiting through Facebook , except
to post things, and refer people to our website. As far as looking for candidates on Nicole Smith
Facebook the way we do on LinkedIn, it’s just not effective. I think it can create biases Trustaff
up front, and that’s not helpful.
I’m also wary of viewing candidates’ Facebook pages. You want to protect yourself
from accusations of bias. We’re all curious about who they are, and if they would be a Monica Yanscik
good fit in the company. But that might not be the best avenue for answers. National Registry of
Emergency Medical
Technicians
20. Insight
from roundtable participants...
I’d bet that when most HR professionals receive blind inquiries into a job, we all look for
their LinkedIn profile as part of our research. Just to see, what do they care about and
Kim Kocher
Delphia Consulting, LLC
how do they present themselves? Candidates who are members of Gen X and Gen Y are
very sensitive to the brand of a company they are considering. Well I want to see what
their brand is, and that includes their photo and interests.
I schedule introductory meetings with people out of the office, and I nearly always
look at their LinkedIn photo so I can recognize them. And I do see their profile as their
Nicole Smith
personal brand. I’ll be honest; right now I’m doing tons of interviews. And it blows my
Trustaff
mind how many people have neglected to create a LinkedIn profile, or, worse yet, they
have a half of one. And they’re looking to make a change? Really? Your LinkedIn profile is
the very first thing you need to get in order.
Ken Lazar
It’s important that everybody has a very robust McIntyre Global
LinkedIn profile. You have to get your brand out there
and make it visible. Be sure what you have on LinkedIn
Executive Search
is what you want the world to see. Because even
though it’s not a resume, it is a valuable document.
Today it’s possible to be introduced to an employer,
go through an interview and receive an offer, and then
be asked to submit a resume for the files as a mere
formality. People are being recruited solely on the
basis of their LinkedIn profiles.
21. Insight
from roundtable participants...
By putting very specific search terms and Boolean into LinkedIn, I can find just the Kara Manz
perfect fit for an open position. That’s what you want, people who aren’t looking. Jacobson Companies
LinkedIn is a real blessing for finding and actively recruiting qualified candidates. But
it can be a challenge to employee retention. That’s because the other side of the Fran Wahrman
coin is that employers are vulnerable to losing great employees. When you employ a Huntington National
really strong, talented individual, everybody now knows about it by reading it on their Bank
LinkedIn profile ... those wonderful skills, expertise, and recommendations are all out
there for anyone to see. Recruiters have an easier time finding them now, so you can’t
feel safe that your best employees are never going to leave.
Social media can also have a place inside your organization, and innovative tools like
Julie Holbein
that can affect retention. We’ve created an internal Facebook-like site called Engage. It
Cardinal Health, Inc.
has the same purpose as any social media, which is to connect people. As a company,
you want that for your employees. We have over 3,000 people in Dublin, but our
organization is so matrixed, it’s difficult to know people you don’t work with directly.
So you can connect on Engage. It helps people keep in touch, and it promotes our
culture. It’s pretty cool.
We allow and encourage using social media at our company. It’s a part of our
Kim Kocher
workplace culture, and there is something to be said for that when it comes to
Delphia Consulting, LLC
retention. We’re a little different because we’re an IT firm, but a lot of companies have
embraced this idea. They feel like employees are going to be on it anyhow, and they
17
won’t spend any more time on it because it’s approved as opposed to hidden.
22. About Clark Schaefer Hackett
The core competency of CSH is to provide best-in-class technical
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their stakeholders. For 75 years, our accountants have served as the
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Learn more at www.cshco.com.
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Benefit Plan Audits. Over 10 percent of our clients have used our plan administration services for more than 20
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We have a critical mass of seasoned accountants who view employee benefit plan work as their primary specialty
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Top right: Bill Edwards, Shareholder and Chair of the Qualified Plan Administration & Consulting Group
Middle right: Tiffany White, Principal Accountant, Employee Benefit Plan Audit Group
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