![]() "We tested it and kept it," Giampietro said. Where ideas overlap, the firm paired the employees suggesting the idea and asked them to work together.įor example, as the firm transitioned to a hybrid work environment, it tested a transition fund to help employees cover the expenses of returning to the office on certain days of the week. "The challenge is to see who can come up with the best ideas." To help evaluate the ideas received, the firm requires certain standardized information from all submissions. "Only a handful of ideas are likely to be implemented," Giampietro said. ![]() The key to success with this approach is in setting expectations. "It is this agility that we try to carry forward, leaving the door open to pilot some ideas" in the future, noting that the firm may reintroduce this process every couple of years. This went beyond just listening to employees to being open to idea generation. "We crowdsourced benefits ideas and whittled down the list to four or five programs from 98 suggestions," said Frank Giampietro, the firm's chief well-being officer. For example, during the pandemic, professional services firm EY pivoted to a "test and learn" model by quickly putting new benefits in place, then analyzing how well the programs were working in terms of employees' receptiveness to the programs and their efficacy. "Benefits decision-making requires a lot of deliberation."Įven if they are not able to move as quickly as they did during the pandemic, employers are taking lessons from the health crisis in terms of how they change benefits. "There are structural reasons why HR and employee benefit decisions don't happen quickly," he said. However, Levin-Scherz is skeptical that the speed and agility with which employee benefits changed during the pandemic can be duplicated in less urgent situations. With access to a deeper provider pool, "people are more likely to find a provider with whom they feel an affinity." ![]() "This is particularly valuable in rural areas and for people with transportation challenges," Levin-Scherz said. Greater and more convenient access to these services, particularly virtual care that expands provider networks well beyond geographic boundaries, is also a lasting improvement brought by the pandemic. For example, "the pandemic changes introduced a real increase in meaningful mental health programs that will stick and be beneficial." "It showed that employers can change when they need to," said Jeff Levin-Scherz, M.D., population health leader at WTW in Boston. Now, with the public health and national emergencies officially over, employers and other industry experts are evaluating which pandemic-era benefits remain popular among workers-and if the speed with which new programs were rolled out could or should be replicated in the future. And they did so at an unprecedented pace. In response to the health crisis, employers quickly rolled out new offerings, and enhanced existing benefits, to help employees. The COVID-19 pandemic changed many things-and employee benefits are no exception.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |