New Eyes = New Ideas

How are Your Enrollment Meetings Going?

In my experience, I can tell you that annual benefit enrollment meetings are unpleasant experiences for all who are involved.  Many employees enter the room and seem to be angry and defensive before they even sit down.  HR leaders and brokers who participate in the meetings often get smattered with verbal tomatoes.  Why?  Because employees have received bad news for the past couple of decades, and no one seems to be doing anything about it.  Year after year, premiums, deductibles, and max out of pocket amounts have far outpaced inflation, often to the point in which a person’s wage increase is washed away entirely.  It is not uncommon to hear of family premiums of $500 or more per month, with family deductibles of $6,000 or more per year, not to mention a greater coinsurance to pay after the deductible is met.  In this example, that’s $12,000 the employee would pay each year before the insurance even begins to help with the costs.  The result is frustrated employees (and rightfully so), who work hard every day to take care of their families.  Over time, if problems are not addressed, people tend to check out emotionally and stop caring.  They go numb from the neck up, because they are being affected by problems they are powerless to fix, or they check out physically, by quitting their job and joining another employer.

We must remember that not everyone is comfortable speaking in a large group and in those settings, it is more common to hear the opinions of the more vocal employees.  Keep in mind, they may be right and they may be wrong, but their “perceptions are their reality”.  Ask them questions, genuinely listen, and make it safe.  If you choose to take the time to do this, you have to be good at filtering and finding themes, but there is incredible value in these interactions.  Trust is built by taking the time to genuinely care.  You will get a lot of real information and while doing this, you will build credibility, respect, and trust with those you lead.  When someone feels heard and knows you care, and that you are truly willing to listen, address problems and make things better, they will give you their best and they will stay with you. 

In your annual enrollment meetings, it is important that the key leaders within your company play an active role. I understand that, historically, this has not been the case.  Company owners and executives must realize that healthcare is not just something provided to employees, it is also typically the second or third largest business expense of the company, yet it has not been managed as such. 

Now that we have the company executives in the game (I’m being optimistic), we can begin to assess how the healthcare benefits are perceived in your company?  The only way for you to know is to begin asking questions and talking with your employees.  You can likely presume that employees are unhappy with the trends in healthcare costs, but what are the specifics?  What parts of your healthcare plan do they like?  What parts are they concerned about and what things are affecting their family the most?  If cost is their biggest concern, which cost matters most - the premium, the deductible or copay, the max out of pocket, or all of the above?  If quality of care or accessibility to providers is the concern, which are viewed as strong and which ones are not?  Does everyone understand the benefit plan and if so, can they explain it to you?  It’s hard to navigate the trail if you can’t read the map.  If you can find themes and make things better, you can make a significant impact to your ability to recruit and retain the best talent. 

One note if you are an owner or a high-level leader.  Although it may not seem like it when you are talking with others, keep in mind that many will likely be guarded with you and may not tell you the full story of how they feel.  And just the same, you may have smiled as you read that, knowing that you have some employees who don’t have that reservation – at all. 

Your efforts in the enrollment meetings can be supplemented by talking with employees individually - outside of the enrollment meetings.  I have used the “candid question” approach for measuring a variety of things throughout my career, such as to understand employee’s perceptions of wage scale, benefits, communication processes, and overall culture.  It takes time, but it is far more valuable feedback in group meetings or an employee survey.  It allows for two-way communication, to clarify exactly what someone is experiencing.  It starts with a simple question, “How do you feel we are doing on __________” and how could we make it better”?  I have found that often we overcomplicate things and the best way to understand others’ perceptions of a “certain something” is to talk with them.  And then be sure to follow up and resolve the issue - or when they stop talking with you, it won’t be because they are satisfied, it will mean you have lost their trust. 

As a final note of advice on this topic, when you hear that other employers’ plans “suck”, that is not a good reason for yours to suck - or to suck less.  With costs skyrocketing the past couple of decades, employers have passed on a portion of the total cost increases to employees via premium and plan design increases.  Year after year, plans have deteriorated.   It’s been kind of a slow death, but a death by 1,000 cuts is still dying. 

At Merrill Steel, I witnessed these dynamics in the enrollment meetings and realized I needed to change the tone of discussion and the format of the meetings. We got to work in making changes to improve the performance of our benefit plan, and subsequently, we were able to freeze premiums and other plan costs for five consecutive years, while simultaneously adding a variety of no cost healthcare services.  I don’t know about you, but I have found that good news is easier to present than bad news.  We worked tirelessly to create good news.  By the second year, employees began to catch on and not only did they smile, they began to jump in and help find solutions.  To this day, even after embarking on new adventures, I still receive messages from employees with attached articles about new strategies to improve healthcare.  Healthcare became a positive topic within the company, and it can be the same for you as well.

Transformational Leaders

Memorable movements are created by and only happen when principally-minded, purpose driven leaders are called to action.  Teddy Roosevelt is one of my favorite people.  He was a fascinating man.  Teddy was not afraid to try.  Theodore Roosevelt said:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Change management is the overall process in which a transformational leader takes a group of people from “here” to “there”.  This journey can be within a business, such as implementing a new policy, a new electronic system, a new way of manufacturing, a new product line, new technology, and of course, a new healthcare strategy.  Steve Jobs might be considered an example of a great transformational leader in a business.  It can also be larger in scope, such as a widespread social initiative - a cause, such as to promote civil rights, public safety, or religious freedom.  Martin Luther King Jr. might be considered a great transformational leader for civil rights.  With our topic of improving employer healthcare, we are delving into both realms.  Individually, employers are leading transformation with their healthcare plan.  Collectively, as more and more employers implement this strategy, we will reshape how America does healthcare.  We will wash away the exclusive profit mentality, and put “care” back in healthcare, with a fresh new system that brings back old values.   

While it might be more emotionally appealing to say that a high performing, cross functional team was formed, and everyone sang Kumbaya as they rowed their boat down the river of change, my research of early employer success stories doesn’t indicate this.  The research of employer healthcare success stories indicates that in almost all cases, a single transformational leader led the journey.  In some instances, this person had a sidekick that contributed greatly on the journey, and in all cases, fellow team members contributed by doing a fair amount of the legwork, even if they did it begrudgingly for a portion of the journey, not yet being able to see the light.  This is not to say that if you have a culture that supports a team approach and this is the method you are accustomed to, that you shouldn’t take that approach.  Individual or team, it’s all good.  The key is that employers get in the game.

I once had a member of my team share something interesting with me.  This was after we had worked together for five years.  She said, “When you first started, you were full of optimism and excitement and you said we could improve all these things.  I share with you now that I didn’t think it could be done. I didn’t believe you.  However, I see now that it was possible and thank you for all you have done for our company.”  I appreciated her honesty.  She was like many – she didn’t believe.  Nothing in her past experience inspired her or allowed her to see that transformational change was possible. 

On one particular day, I had another valued member of my team show strong resistance to go forward.  She wasn’t rude – she just had a reason for why every idea I shared wouldn’t work.  It was like I was throwing clay pigeon ideas in the air and she was trap shooting them down, one by one by one.  I had thrown about five to six of these clay pigeons in the area and it became apparent to me that she had no intent to move forward.  I cared about her and I needed her with me.  I sensed she was digging in her heals and I immediately asked her to shut the door so we could talk.  I told her, “I want you on my team and I believe you are very capable.  However, I don’t need you to tell me all the reasons why something will not work.  I need you to figure out all the ways it can work. If you aren’t willing to go forward with this, I understand – but you must choose a path.  You cannot be on the team and resist my efforts to lead change at the same time.”