Integrating Employee Benefits and Perks Makes a Difference in Employees’ Lives

By Melissa Robbins

At Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company, our employees are our greatest asset.  We strive to provide a supportive and healthy work environment and couple it with meaningful and effective employee benefits and perks. These efforts helps us be an employer of choice with a focus on employee engagement and wellbeing. We have compiled and integrated a set of employee benefits and perks which provides valuable resources for our employees and their families. Our focus on the integration and effective communication of these resources has optimized participation and engagement to meet employees and their families where they are in their life journey. As HR professionals, we are focusing on changing the perspective of our industry from being the “police” to being the supportive and empowering department we should be to help employees develop their skills, advance in their profession, and navigate the complicated world of employee benefits and perks.  

Identifying and Selecting the Right Programs and Vendors

With the help of our consultants (HUB and Murray Harber), we have spent the better part of the past fifteen years putting together an elite set of resources which gives access, provides value, and engages employees and their families with a variety career, health, financial and community resources. We take our time to identify needs, use our professional networks and consultants to identify quality programs and providers, and vet them to see if our values and perspectives align.

We have assembled a great set of vendors for our self-insured plan including our TPA (UMR), PBM (RxBenefits), onsite clinic (Vigilant Health), EAP & Behavioral Health (American Behavioral), and a bariatric program (BARINET). We require these vendors to work together to provide a seamless resource for our work family where no matter where they are in their health journey, they can access when they are ready. Annually, we hold a Vendor Summit, where all of the vendors come in for the day and do an annual review of our plans and discuss ways to improve for the upcoming year. Our team and vendors finds this event extremely beneficial to ensure the vision, purpose, and strategies for our self-insured plan and its participants.

We have also worked with our other insurance vendors and financial partners to include them into our ongoing employee training and nationally-recognized health & wellbeing program. This integration equips our employees to a better understanding and engagement into these resources.

QUOTE: In a candidate driven job market, we are laser focused on offering relevant employee benefits as part of or our overall total rewards packet to attract and retain top talent.  Our HUB consultants, Leslie Arcana and Scott D’Aunoy, are top-notch in keeping us informed on market trends and the constant evaluation of our benefit partners.  Employee benefits are a huge investment of our Company’s resources and it is very important that we, as HR professionals, are doing our due diligence in protecting this investment in our employees.    – Shonda Kines, SHRM-CP, PHR, CBP, CCP – Manager, Human Resources

Integrated and Multi-Channel Communications is Critical

We have a great internal Corporate Communications, Training, and Health Promotion department that works very hard to communicate to employees through multiple channels using a variety of tactics. Our HR team works very closely with this team to create effective communications that takes our benefits terminology and turns it into consumable consumer language. We realize that sharing all the benefits information during a new employee’s first days is overwhelming and a once a year Benefits Fair still does not give employees enough opportunity to truly understand all the benefits afforded to them. We have worked to promote benefits throughout the year in various manners including specific communications, trainings, meetings, and events. We offer employee meetings, include vendors into our employee activities, and provide specific benefits communications through the year to continue the promotion and awareness of each of them. We have promoted our vendors’ web pages and apps, and have included these links within the health portal, which is a centralized portal for our health plan participants.

Quote: “We view our employee health and benefit program as a team effort, where we do all we can to ensure our employees are the most informed health consumers they can be. Knowledge is power and we know that giving our employees the right information at the right time will allow them to make the most beneficial decisions about their health. Our employees are engaged in our benefits programs and it is always a pleasure to see great utilization and positive health results. “ – Matt Ginn, FLMI, ACS – Manager, Corporate Training and Communication

An Employee Success Story

When Beverly first visited our onsite clinic, she had a BMI of 51, complex hypertension, type 2 diabetes, severe osteoarthritis, lymphedema, lumbar stenosis, an external stimulator for relief, cataracts, and needed her left knee replaced. She could not have the surgery because she was morbidly obese.

Upon receiving this news, Beverly decided to invest in her health. While she began going to The Clinic in 2015, she increased her engagement to get her health under control. She joined and thrived on The Clinic’s intense diabetes and hypertension care programs, and also had bariatric surgery.

During Beverly’s annual exam The Vigilant Health Nurse Practitioner Navigator noticed some abnormalities on Beverly’s skin and recommended she see a dermatologist. At her appointment, she was diagnosed with a melanoma and basal cell carcinoma, which, since they were caught early enough, were curable. She maintains a relationship with her dermatologist to this day.

During her time visiting The Clinic and after her surgery, Beverly has lost 90 lbs., lowered her BMI to 38, and is off all related diabetes medication. Her hypertension and lymphedema have greatly improved and she is now only on one hypertension medication. Beverly finally had the knee replacement surgery she so desperately needed and is feeling like she received a new lease on life!

“You go into a doctor’s office and the doctor doesn’t touch you.  They give you two or three minutes and ask you a few questions.  The Clinic (Vigilant Health) always looks at everything that’s happened in my history and takes the time to treat the whole person and they support me.  They look at everything.  It’s knowing there is an advocate there to make sure you are on the right path.” – Beverly Ivers, Marketing Operations Administrator

Beverly’s story is just one of many among our employees here at Southern Farm Bureau Life Insurance Company.  Having the right partners, who are willing to come together to meet the needs of our employees, has been a game changer for us.  We look forward to fostering these relationships and researching even more ways to improve our health and wellness offerings in the years to come.