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MODERATOR:
In this program, you're gonna learn how two top companies have implemented employee-centric supports that reflect the needs of their workforce and how you can do the same. To moderate our program, we're pleased to introduce Alice Lindenauer. She is the Senior Director of Solution Strategy at Bright Horizons. Ms. Lindenauer, floor is yours.

Alice Lindenauer:
Thank you. Good afternoon everybody, and welcome to our webinar. I'm Alice Lindenauer, and I'm broadcasting to you live from the Fairmount section of Philadelphia. If you ever saw Rocky run up the steps, the art museum is just a few blocks from where I'm at. I work for Bright Horizons in a position that I adore. I work with corporate clients just like you guys and I help them explore the feasibility of offering sponsored high-quality, on-site childcare for their employees. I'm a recovering HR executive, having spent 20 years in senior HR roles in the financial services industry, and I transferred to HR from finance roles, also in financial services. So this job ties together my experience in finance, HR, and childcare advocacy into a perfect bow, and even sweeter, I'm able to help employers such as you engage their workers and help families including young children succeed economically, socially, and developmentally. This is a dream job for me. I'd like to introduce Lauri and, Lauri, will you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Lauri Tenney:
Sure. Great. Thank you, Alice. So my name is Lauri Tenney. I'm Executive Director at CVS Health. I've been with CVS Health for a little bit over five years. Prior to that, I was leading benefits for a very large high-tech company. And I have always been in the healthcare space and well-being is my passion. And part of my role at CVS Health is looking after the specialty benefits, which is inclusive of obviously, wellbeing, our voluntary benefits, Bright Horizons and all of our data analytics, and the life and disability as well as all of the programs that kind of touch our colleagues and families on an ancillary basis in terms of how they look after themselves. So, very happy today to be here and to talk about family and educational benefits.

Alice:
Naomi, will you introduce yourself?

Naomi Tyre:
Absolutely. So great to be with you all. My name is Naomi Tyre. I'm with Northrop Grumman, and I've been with Northrop for about eight and a half years, and I lead our workplace accommodations and NG Care programs and our NG Care program is specifically the program that is responsible for providing complementary emotional well-being resources for our employees and their family members, which includes things like our caregiving resources. So very happy to be here also to talk about how at Northrop Grumman, our culture really works to support employees through these resources and benefits and I'm looking forward to the conversation today.

Alice:
Fantastic. Thank you, guys, for joining us for our session, Perk Up, the must-have family and education benefits for today's employees. Let's get started. So for many of your employees, family needs come first. They come ahead of KPIs, they come before business strategy, and yes, they even come before your bottom line. And that is okay, it is right, and it is human, and it can't, and it shouldn't be expected to change. When employees have peace of mind and believe that their family concerns and obligations are being met, they're able to focus their talent, energy, and creativity towards their role in promoting the success of their employer. And that's what we're gonna talk about today, ensuring that you are providing the right support for your employees so they can show up every day and succeed. 2023 is off and running and in so many ways, HR is dealing with similar challenges that they've dealt with in recent years, which is one of the reasons why I'm no longer in HR. This includes continued employee burnout, high employee expectations, fierce competition for talent, labor shortages, inflation and concern about the economy, return to work stressors, and shifting issues still relating to the pandemic.

We at Bright Horizons hear time and time again never has so much been asked of employers and of HR teams, and we are really lucky to partner with so many employers who are stepping up to solve these challenges of today's workforce. Take a breath, again, that's why I left HR. So now is a really critical time for all of HR to double down on investing in your biggest and most important resource, your employees. Today we're here with two amazing organizations that I really admire, CVS and Northrop Grumman, both have begun the journey of implementing holistic solutions that support family and education needs of their employees. They are shining examples of what it really means to invest in the advancement, in career advancement that CVS Health and Northrop Grumman are working to create. So I thought maybe we'd start with you, Lauri. Can you tell us a little bit about what you're doing at CVS?

Lauri:
Sure. So at CVS, we have what we call our "Heart at Work Behaviors," and the very first one, appropriately so, is called "Put People First." And that also extends to our own colleagues and their families. And always, you know, we wanna try to walk in their shoes and improve their experience and, you know, treat them not only the way, you know, we would think they wanna be treated, but the way they wanna be treated. And the next "Heart at Work Behavior" would be, you know, "Rise to the Challenge," right? And as Alice mentioned, HR really has had to rise to the challenge over the past few years, and as many of you employers out there have had to do. And we know our colleagues have more responsibilities than ever and are looking to us to help solve some of these challenges.

So what we are doing is rising to the occasion and inventing and hopefully introducing new ways to support them at work and at home. And also with the competition for top talent, which I'm sure that you're all experiencing as well, medical, dental, retirement savings are really kind of just the table stakes or foundation, right? Of what we want, of what, you know, employees want from their employer. And then attracting and retaining talent requires really going kind of beyond the basics, right? So we really need to kind of look beyond and see, you know, what the perks are available.

Alice:
I love something that you said because it reminded me so much of some advice that I got early in my HR benefits career, and you are meeting people where they are. So we always learned about the golden rule, do unto others as you would like others to do unto you, but the reality is that there's no place for that in business. It's really the platinum rule, right? Do unto others as others would like you to do unto them, right? So really, you know, we're seeing a lot of benefits teams looking at persona groups and providing wide range of benefits to meet the needs of everybody, you know, in the way that they need. So I thought that was really interesting and it totally reminded me of that conversation I had 25 years ago. Naomi, will you chime in and share a little bit about what you're doing at Northrop Grumman?

Naomi:
Absolutely. And I also want to reiterate Lauri's point at the end about, you know, really health and welfare benefits are kind of table stakes. And really what we need to do to attract and retain talent is so much broader than that. And Northrop Grumman is really committed to being an employer of choice. And for us, that means that we believe that diversity in our workforce strengthens our company, it enhances our capabilities, and it also enriches the work lives of all our employees. So employee-centric resources and programs are a way for us to ensure that employees have access to the work, life, and career solutions that they need, and to also live our core company values. We do the right thing, we do what we promise and we commit to shared success. And so through that, we expect that we enable our employees to pioneer in creating and delivering the new technologies and products that are key to that mission.

And for us the other piece when we think about this is we have about 95,000 employees across the globe, and we really have a lot of diverse work environments as well, manufacturing, classified environment offices as well. And those diverse environments also then create diverse needs for our employees and their families. And so we really need to kind of work to think about how do we work differently to support our employees where they are, and where their families are as well to help meet those needs and get the employees what they need so they can be their best when they're at work.

Alice:
Yeah. You guys both have ginormous workforces which is fantastic. Naomi, tell us a little bit more about how you are sort of meeting people where they're at when there are so many thousand employees and I imagine your workforce is pretty spread out too.

Naomi:
Our workforce is very spread out, and the other thing is that we do have a lot of diversity. And so when we're thinking about that diversity in our workforce and also the various generations in today's workforce, I think we've got five generations in our workforce today, we then know that that translates to different needs, but also different expectations and desires. So we do really try and work creatively to think about how we can connect with employees to understand what their needs are so we can meet them. And one piece of this connection for us is through our 13 employee resource groups which we call our ERGs. And they do support various race and ethnicity affinities, women, people with disabilities, veterans, LGBTQ+ community members, parents and caregivers, multiple generations, remote employees, and environmentalists as well.

And this is really a great way for employees to engage with each other, to build a sense of belonging within the company, but also to create a professional development. And importantly for us, when we think about our role as the employer and also our role in providing these resources, it gives us an avenue to understand how our existing benefits are meeting the needs, but also how different programs and resources and thinking creatively in this space can help meet those diverse expectations and needs. And I would also add, just in terms of how we try and reach employees and understand what their needs are, now that we are "post-pandemic", we are also on the road more, again, visiting our sites, hearing firsthand from leaders and employees about their lives, and also making those virtual connections as well to reach our employees where they are.

Alice:
You know, I thought it might be interesting to share another sort of story around ERGs that one of our clients has introduced. And this is a client from the healthcare space. And we know that healthcare employers are in a really, really difficult position right now. The stressors from COVID drove a ton of frontline workers out of the sector and when you think about nurses especially, in 2022, the average age of an American nurse was 52. So many are nearing retirement, and with an aging population, the need for nurses has never been higher, and it's growing. This healthcare system has an ERG for experienced employees, and it's called Retro, although I don't know what Retro stands for.

And feedback from this group has led this healthcare system to introduce a program that's focused on bridging the gap to retirement. So it offers a way for people to work part-time as a look forward towards retirement. So nurses who no longer want to work that side, especially after almost three years of COVID, can instead move to support on-call status or to a position in the clinic, or even, you know, to mentor younger nurses. It's a win-win for the organization, staff can ease into retirement with additional financial security and the organization gets some relief from the ongoing and looming labor shortage that it's facing. For me, it speaks to employers being super creative and using flexibility in a way that helps solve some strategic issues. And it confirms the value of ERGs. And I love that you mentioned the developmental value of ERGs, but it is, it's developmental, it's great for peer-to-peer coaching and support, but it's also feeding up some really, really useful information to our HR teams. Lauri, can you talk a little bit about dealing with the remote workforce that you have?

Lauri:
Right. So one of our realities of the current workforce is keeping our remote and our hybrid remote employees engaged. And we do have you know, very similar to Naomi's employer, we have 16 ERGs of what we call our colleague resource groups and colleagues receive support for their professional development through networking, mentoring. They, you know, have you know, similar peers where they can, you know, listen to one another as well as learning and development opportunities. But they serve as, you know, further focus communication channels, right, as we have such a large and vast organization and can use these as to further communicate our programs and resources. And as we, you know, struggle to keep folks engaged and keep the communication flowing, we have a virtual CRG and that addresses the needs of our virtual hybrid workforce as well and promotes connections, and engagement, and collaboration across our organization and our efforts to maintain and attract talent.

Alice:
That's awesome. So the information can flow down from corporate through the ERGs, back up to corporate through the ERGs, and across these groups, which is great. Let's turn to an employee group that is near and dear to our hearts here at Horizons, and that is working caregivers. Let's take a break, do a little poll. Oh, there it is. Here's a poll for you guys. What percentage of employees have some caregiving responsibilities? And we've got about maybe 15 seconds to answer this. As you think about your answer, I wanna remind you guys that caregiving goes beyond just children, there's older children, there's ill spouses, aging parents, and even pets. So I've got all of those things going on at the same time. So think broadly about caregiving, you know, just even past employees with young children.

Okay. Do you guys think we've had enough time on the poll? Okay, let's see our answer. Okay. So let's see what we got. So, 73% is our highest. That's actually spot on. The answer is 73%. Harvard Business School recently released a report saying that 73% of employees are caregivers of one kind or another. And interestingly, according to AARP, only about half of caregivers share this information with their supervisor, which is not helping us help them. Correct? So let's hear how CVS and Northrop Grumman support working caregivers. Lauri, can you start?

Lauri:
Sure. So, you know, we recognize now in our environment that when we go to work, we don't leave all our troubles in the parking lot. We don't leave our troubles when we go into our home office, and as you said, Alice, I mean, you know, whether you have an aging parent, a child, an older child at college, you know, a spouse, I mean, I think I can check the box to all of those, as you mentioned, that life happens, right? And, you know, we have many colleagues who are on the frontline working in our stores, the clinics, the pharmacies, and we offer a flexible backup care program that can help them find care for their family members when their regular care falls through on holidays, vacations, in the summer, or when their school or childcare may be closed, and even when weather events, which, you know, here in Massachusetts, we've had, you know, a remarkably unremarkable winter except for this last week or so.

But even when that weather disrupts care, so this includes care for young children, school-aged children, aging parents, spouses, and other adult relatives who they may be caring for. So this is a benefit that our colleagues have been relying on. And in fact, from June to December of 2002, we actually saw over a 700% increase in our usage year over year. And 80% of our registered users are hourly employees. So we rolled out our backup care specifically as a way to support our frontline staff. So additionally, our workforce is about 70% women, and women, as we all know, are often, you know, the caregivers in the family and really need that support so we can specifically support them. And for CVS as a company, backup care translates to days of work saved, and it means our colleagues don't have to call out of work because of responsibilities that they have at home, so we can support them through that.

Alice:
Wow. Before we move on to Naomi and Northrop, I just wanna call out CVS's commitment to frontline and hourly workers. And that's a trend that we're seeing from many clients. There's a recognition, especially since COVID, that frontline hourly entry-level and lower-income employees, they may need different or additional support systems from other employee groups. Naomi, can you share how Northrop supports working caregivers?

Naomi:
Absolutely. And I would reiterate some of what Lauri said as well. Backup care from our perspective really does support employees who are caregivers, and most importantly, it really enables our employees to come to work with that peace of mind because they do know their responsibilities are being met at home. So Northrop Grumman does also provide a backup care program to our employees, and I'll note that while the majority of our backup care resources are used by caregivers with children, almost 9% of our use at Northrop is for adult care. And we also recently instituted a benefit where we allow employees to exchange backup care hours for things like a virtual camp or virtual tutoring, again, trying to speak to the need of our employees with various caregiving responsibilities, not just young children, but older children and our elder population as well. And from an equity perspective, this benefit is really important to us because it demonstrates our commitment to our employees in all stages of their lives with varying responsibilities.

And I would actually give a shout-out to a recent Bright Horizon study that cited that I think 62% of millennials and Gen Z'ers are caregivers. And that includes 50% caring for children and 27% caring for a person who's elderly or disabled. And I think that this is another really important factor is we're thinking about that generational diversity in our workplace. As baby boomers age, we're expecting that an even greater share of millennials and Gen Zers will enter what it will now be that sandwich generation, which creates an ongoing need for our programs to meet employees where they are in life, but then also to be able to retain those employees and as they grow in their careers, but also as their needs and their lives change as well.

Alice:
Yeah, I mean, we found across our client base that backup care is immensely valuable to employers in terms of productivity. I wish we called it something other than backup care, because I feel like that really sounds like childcare and it is so broad now. Last year across all of our employer partners that we support, our backup care program helped save more than 1.2 million workdays. And like what we've just heard, a little bit more than 10% of the usage is for adults and elder care. The Rosalyn Carter Institute for Caregiving recently put out a report that quantifies the cost of caregiving, and they found that caregivers are more likely to miss work, but even if they don't miss work and they come to work, caregivers really need peace of mind to be at their best on their job. The Rosalyn Carter Institute estimated that average productivity loss due to, you know, what we are calling presenteeism per caregiver employee was almost 11%. And that if you were to the average annualized at work, productivity cost was $5,000 to $181 a year, and that's assuming a wage of $25 an hour. As you can imagine, as employee wages go up, that cost also rises. Naomi, Northrop also has on-site childcare center to support working parents and families, can we hear how the center fits into your NG Care overall strategy?

Naomi:
Sure. So I am a mom of two young children, and I'm sure many parents can attest to, whether you're speaking from an employer perspective or just kind of living your daily life, finding available and quality childcare is an increasing challenge across many markets in the country. And we do have an onsite childcare center at one of our primary facilities in California. What we've seen over the years is that for employees who have access to that childcare center, there is peace of mind to have the convenience of your kids onsite, receiving quality childcare, and there's a retention benefit as well as employees with young children can access childcare onsite and then can continue to come to work year after year as their child grows through that care center, and then even as siblings enter the program. And when we think about where that fits into our overall strategy, it really is one piece of that as our employees are spread across the country, and we wanna be able to continue to support employees and their families where they live, again, with access to those backup care resources, but also things like discount programs that they can use to support their ongoing caregiving responsibilities as well, and importantly, a culture that supports caregivers to use the benefits programs and resources that meet their needs.

And I will share, I didn't have kids when I came to Northrop Grumman, but as I grew to know the culture and understand that when I looked around and realized this was a culture that could support me professionally while I had my kids with the programs and the resources to empower me to grow my family while I grew my career, you can see and make the connection that that's a place that you want to stay with those benefits and resources in place. And ultimately, we want people to come to Northrop because they know they can grow a great career here while living their lives and meeting their responsibilities as well.

Alice:
And, you know, in one of the firms that I worked for, we also opened up a Bright Horizons Childcare Center on-site and the benefit of the center expands way beyond just the employee parents who use the center. It helps, you know, teams be productive and effective. And I always felt that it was a physical manifestation of our commitment to our employees. And in fact, when we would tour clients through our facility and our site to impress them with, you know, how sophisticated we were, one of the first stops we would make is our childcare center. And it was not a sophisticated site, but it was sort of this physical, emotional proof of what we stood for. I loved that part of it. Time and time again we see, and we hear that supporting caregivers helps employers attract, retain, and engage employees, just as you described, Naomi.

So I wanted to share with you a stat because it shows a direct quantifiable impact to retention. We partner with another leading healthcare organization who sponsors several onsite childcare centers. We did an ROI study with them, and we found some really telling results. They see a 25% attrition rate among nurses across the board, that's pretty average. And actually, it's better than a lot of our other clients, a lot of clients who don't necessarily have the amount of centers that this one does. So imagine 25% attrition rate across, but for those nurses who use the childcare center, the turnover rate is just above 5%, which is remarkable. Another client has even better turnover ROI among their center employees. And we have a video that we're going to attempt to play that they made talking a little bit about their center and the impact it has on their retention.

VIDEO START

Dr. Kristian Stodghill – Palliative Medicine:
Five years ago, I completed my fellowship in palliative medicine, and at that point, I was looking for a full-time job. I had several options on the table, but one of the things that drew me to WellStar was their mission for being a good place for the working mother. And I saw that in, one, having the center available for childcare and, two, also having great maternity leave.

Video Narrator:
Dr. Stagell is one of many working parents drawn to WellStar because the health system invests in flexible childcare benefits, including two onsite centers run by Bright Horizons.

Courtney Kopsie – Employee Wellness Program Lead:
Having access to the childcare center is an incredible benefit that WellStar provides its team members. And I feel incredibly lucky that I get to work for an organization that puts so much value on being a mother, being a father, being a parent in general.

Video Narrator:
With women making up 80% of its workforce and competition for healthcare workers at historic levels, WellStar has made caring for its caregivers, especially working parents, part of its core employee value proposition.

Dr. Rebecca Gomez – Clinical Health Psychologist:
My work-life benefits are part of my village. You know, WellStar is a part of my village, and that goes for childcare. Those benefits are there to alleviate those burdens outside of work, creating that culture at the workplace where it's supportive of being a mom.

Video Narrator:
Both Bright Horizon centers offer the high-quality education parents and healthcare want, the extended hours they need to care for patients, and the convenience that helps ensure they don't miss the moments that matter.

Dr. Rebecca Gomez:
It's so powerful because I could go to the Muffins with Mom, I could go have lunch, I could go nurse my baby, and if they were sick, I could get to them in an instant.

Video Narrator:
The centers have become talent magnets for WellStar.

Michele Harris – Manager, Work Life Services:
In 2022. We completed an ROI study from the previous 12 months using turnover data for team members who use our onsite childcare centers. And we found that that turnover was about 1.5%.

Video Narrator:
The health system also offers backup care options to help employees fill in coverage gaps for older children, ailing spouses, aging parents, and even pets.

Michele Harris:
In 2022, our backup care program saved nearly 2000 work days, and that's a win-win. Our team members found high-quality care for their family members, and we had frontline team members coming into work to care for our patients.

Hannah Saporsky – Heart Failure Nurse Navigator:
I work right across the street at WellStar Cobb as a heart failure nurse navigator, and I would not have been able to continue working if it was not for this place.

Dr. Kristian Stodghill:
They're really trying to help me be able to do my job better, so I don't have to worry about my kids.

Video Narrator:
The benefits of WellStar's Total Rewards Program go beyond employee satisfaction, promoting overall wellness and helping minimize burnout and stress. The return on investment?

Sarah Elliott – Manager Employee Wellness:
You have happy, healthy team members taking care of, you know, our sick community. And so, if we are a healthy community, our patients will feel that.

VIDEO END

Alice:
I love that video and I swear the employee was not paid extra to cry during it, although it is very effective. It's become apparent through recent employee surveys that we do on behalf of our clients that expectations around return to the office have not been made clear across the board. We've also heard that the value of being in-person and how it contributes to individual employee development, team dynamics, innovation, the company outcomes has not been well communicated either. Even when they can find affordable, accessible, high-quality childcare, working parents of young children still worry about health and safety. What we're hearing is that parents are cobbling together childcare, very often not using any childcare when they're working remotely, we know that's not good. It's not good for parents, it's not good for the kids, and it's not good for the company.

Onsite employer-sponsored high-quality childcare makes a difference. It offers peace of mind for working parents to feel more confident when returning to the office. Our data reveals that employees who use their employer's onsite childcare center are more likely to spend time in the office than employees who do not use the center. And this is really cool, we found that for the month of October of 2022, center users average... this is across our client base, center users average 3.4 days per week in the office compared to non-users who average 1.3 days a week in the office. Onsite childcare is good for employees, it's good for companies, it's good for kids, and it's good for shareholders. Helping employees advance, we wanna talk a little bit now about education assistance. So helping employees advance in their career is also a very key strategy that's been embraced by both CVS and Northrop Grumman. How are you guys helping your employees advance and grow? Lauri, can you start?

Lauri:
Sure. So we have a colleague education program which offers $3,000 in tuition reimbursement per year, and it is also extended to our part-time colleagues, which also are included. Full-time colleagues are eligible starting the first day of the month following hire, and then part-time colleagues are also eligible within the first three months of their employment. And the program can be used for both undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as non-degree programs which would include professional certifications, certificates, and also what we lovingly refer to as MOOCs or massive open online courses. We recently also added career online high school, and then we've also removed the financial barrier to education through our direct bill no-cost program because this is really important for our lower wage colleagues so that they don't have to have any outlay in terms of out-of-pocket payments when they're trying to, you know, pursue education. So this program has grown significantly, over 44% in the past year, and we also have more than 15,000 participants in the program. And what we've found is that our ed-assist participants are three times more likely to receive a promotion than non-participants within our CVS ecosystem, and we've had over 2,500 colleagues complete degrees since 2020. So really seeing the value and the results there with the measurements that we have.

Alice:
That's an amazing amount of take-up in that program. Naomi, can you talk a little bit about what you guys are doing around development?

Naomi:
Absolutely. So we also provide a robust educational assistance program for our employees. We offer $10,000 per year for education at an accredited institution with manager approval and it is well-used by our employees. We did see an uptick in 2022, about 10% of our total employee population utilized our educational assistance resources last year, which is fantastic. And we have a highly skilled workforce, and we see that reflected in the use of our ed-assist program as well. So more than half of those who use our resources are pursuing graduate degrees and we see the rest of the participants split between undergrad degrees and certificate programs. We provide funding options for employees. There's a traditional reimbursement program, but we also provide a virtual credit card that employees can use for their educational expenses whether it's tuition, books, or related expenses as well.

And that provides a lot of flexibility to our employees at every stage of their career or their need because they can access that ed-assist without necessarily putting the money upfront themselves. And for us, we really do look at this program as another way to retain employees. As you can see on the screen, we're really proud that of those participating in our ed-assist benefits, 90% of those employees are retained, and we really see that payoff also in the growth. Anecdotally for myself, I've had a member of my team complete both a bachelor's and a master's degree over the past several years and gone on to grow her career. And we see that experience for other employees as well, both growing their careers, but also importantly for us staying with Northrop Grumman and continuing their careers as well.

Alice:
These programs are so innovative and using a credit card for educational expenses is really unique. I know through my HR career, that was never an option, and it was always like they'd have to put out a ton of money, get a certain grade, and then, you know, once like it, everything went through 400 or 500, you know, approvals they got reimbursed. The credit card makes it so easy to get started and more importantly keep going. That's very cool. Lauri, my ears perked up a little bit when you talked about an online high school offering. Tell us about that because we know that that is such a barrier for people to move up in their career.

Lauri:
So, you know, we've talked, I think it's probably one of the themes throughout this conversation is to be able to, you know, meet people, you know, where they are. And I know it's probably an overused phrase, but we know that there's many millions of adults in the country who are young adults who do not have a high school diploma. And we know that many of them are our colleagues who are, you know, working on our front lines and our career online high school program is specifically designed to reengage adult learners by, you know, making the content and value relevant to their lives with a career-based curriculum and mapping, and also helping them be more confident in their learning and removing any of the fears or apprehension in terms of what they may face with competency-based learning, providing hands-on support with a dedicated academic coach from start to finish, and also giving them the ability to complete their coursework when it's convenient for them.

Students find that they dedicate 10 to 12 hours per week on their coursework, and they can do it at their own pace. So it's important to have that flexibility. And most students complete the program within six to 12 months, but there is, you know, 18 months to get the course done if need be. And not having a high school diploma, as we know for any career advancement, can be a barrier for colleagues. And this program helps remove that obstacle so that they can, you know, continue to progress in their careers and, you know, also contribute to our own talent pipeline as well. And then we offer this to our colleagues at no cost to them, right? So it's really a win-win.

Alice:
It is really, that is a life-changing program. It changes the trajectory of that employee and potentially that employee's family. It's really unique. So we're gonna talk a little bit about employee well-being right now. You guys both mentioned the unique challenges of the modern workforce. In a 2022 Gallup report that recently came out revealed that stress and burnout has a huge impact on employers, resulting in $322 billion in turnover and lost productivity costs globally. Forward-thinking employers are actively working to promote employee well-being. Can you guys please share some of your thoughts on what you're doing? Naomi, can you start us off?

Naomi:
Absolutely. So destigmatizing mental health as a need and we're really working to creating more awareness of the resources that are available to employees. And this is kind of part of our journey in terms of what we're trying to accomplish in the mental health space for our employees. So we are working on messaging, mental health awareness, and resources at all levels of our organization. Over the past few years, we have certified 200 peer mental health first-aid employees. So those are folks who are across the business and in a position to both recognize a mental health crisis and help an employee get the resources they need to face those. And last year a significant number of our leaders also have gone through dedicated mental health awareness training.

Another important piece of this in terms of supporting our culture shift was a launch of our "Real Talk About Mental Health" storytelling series. This is a series that we've held periodically throughout the year and features our executives to talk specifically about their own mental health journeys so we can get that personal experience to our employees. Excuse me. Most recently in December, we hosted a men's mental health session. It's called "Real Talk About Men's Mental Health." And it did feature three of our male vice presidents sharing their own stories, and we really found a lot of power in seeing men who are executives talk about their own stories to create that culture shift and also to create the model for others to feel comfortable talking about their stories that we continue to work forward in terms of normalizing conversations about mental health.

Alice:
Wow. Lauri, can you share a little bit about what's happening over at CVS?

Lauri:
Sure. we recently joined the Sherms management and 80 other companies as well, budging to prioritize the well-being and mental health of our employees. And as you know, we have 300,000 colleagues and there's very diverse and unique needs for managing wellness and individual well-being. So that's why we have a very diverse set of benefits for both virtual and in-person to manage mental health and well-being across the spectrum. One addition that we have to our toolbox is the Thrive platform that we have rolled out. And that really supports colleagues' physical, mental, and emotional well-being. And Thrive really focuses on small steps to have big impact and we really find that that's infiltrated our employee population with different leadership journeys that we have rolled out as well to, you know, improve focus and strengthen connections and support our overall well-being.

We also offer colleague support groups that are facilitated by clinicians, and then we also publish our mental well-being resources guide for our leaders. And each issue covers a specific topic addressing burnout, and resilience as well as suicide prevention and includes relevant articles and topics that help leaders understand the topic as well. And then we also have what we call our stamp out stigma program where we had very heartbreaking and poignant stories where colleagues are sharing on our corporate intranet their own mental health journeys and really has promoted the idea to remove the stigma of mental health and that it's okay to not be okay. So really kind of normalizing the idea that, hey, we all have issues and that, you know, we can overcome them and we have the support of our community.

Alice:
Yeah, I find that, and maybe this was just my perspective, before COVID, I think many of us were sort of dabbling in mental health and wellness trying to put some things out there. Maybe there wasn't a ton of take-up in some of those offerings, but during the pandemic and the lockdown and the stressors, I feel like it really kind of exploded and made usage of those offerings, like, so much more robust and it kind of allowed us, not allowed us, but it made it just more normalized, like you said, to have these conversations in the workplace. So I thought that was like, I know COVID was a horrible, terrible thing, but one thing that came out of it that was really positive was making it okay to talk about mental health and take up some of these benefits that we've been sort of putting out there for so many years. I find it super interesting that both of your organizations are also focused on making sure that leaders are trained and prepared to support employee wellbeing.

A recent survey by the Workforce Institute at UKG, this is so telling and interesting, found that managers actually impact employees' mental health to a really high extent, 69%. That's more than the impact that doctors have on mental health, 51%, or therapists have on mental health, 41%, and it is the same impact that a spouse or partner has on employees' mental health, also 69%. Training managers and leaders is a really, really important part of the puzzle, it is where the employee experience begins and sometimes ends. So having them prepared on that front line of the employee experience is huge. Let's do one more quick poll. And the question for this poll is where does promoting employee well-being fall among your HR priorities? I'm giving you guys 10 seconds to answer this.

Okay. Magician in the back, let's see where we are. In the top three. That's very telling and I think it's a good thing. It really is. Okay. You know, it's interesting because I wonder, like, again, if we asked this question five years ago, what the answer might have been. For those of you who answered in the top three, we're in like an amazing company or at least on the same page as many of the CEOs that we work with through our clients. A recent KPMG survey of CEOs found that employee burnout, it still remains a very top concern. So we are approaching 10 minutes left and I think this is a good time to maybe answer some of the questions you guys have been posting. And for me to formally and sincerely thank our presenters today, I know this isn't part of your job description, but I think these types of conversations and hearing the stories and what works and what doesn't work is really key to success of any HR professional. So thank you for that. Magician in the back, are there any questions you'd like to share with us?

MODERATOR
Well, we can turn to our audience questions here and we will do that in just a moment. We'll start here. A viewer asks, "Unless employees know that there are high-quality resources are available and understand how they will help them succeed, these programs can never be optimized. How are you communicating your offerings to employees to ensure they know what's available to them?"

Alice:
I just wanna talk about that. We hear that a lot in surveys, that employees are not aware, especially in organizations where the workforce is really distributed. What are you guys doing to get the word out?

Naomi:
This is Naomi. I can start a little bit on that. And I do think it is one of the challenges that we face in terms of how we communicate and reach folks. And I talked a little bit earlier about some of our diverse work environments and also the challenge there is, what that means is that not all of our workforce has access to a computer, email, some of those traditional means of communication. So this is really one of our focus areas for 2023 in terms of how we're continuing to spread the word to make sure that we are creating broad awareness about [inaudible 00:48:42]. And so that does include some of the traditional things like signage, posters, rotators, and the site facilities.

We also provide a lot of webinars, so folks might have a reason to come, view a topic of interest and then stay to learn more about the resources. But we are also thinking about getting back to some of those original communicating devices, so tabletops in the cafeteria, signage like that. Looking at partnering with some of our internal stakeholders about home mailers reaching our employees at their home which also has the added benefit of reaching their family members as well to continue to spread the word. And then also we work to get the message out consistently to our human resources counterparts and our frontline managers who often are the conduit of so much information for our employees on the frontline as well.

Alice:
Great. Thank you. What else we got, Magician?

MODERATOR:
We've got another viewer here who's asked, are you communicating beyond your employees to promote these offerings? For example, do you reach out to employees' family members who may be responsible for making decisions on behalf of the employee in his family?

Alice:
Yes, I mean, we found in our surveys, especially with backup care, that it may not be the employee who is dealing with the day-to-day challenges. It could be the employee's partner. So what are you guys doing? Naomi, you mentioned you do some home mailers. Anything else that you guys are doing to reach out to that group?

Naomi:
I mean, we do have, it's part of the new colleague experience. We also have our benefit moment site, which we had just launched, which is a public-facing site that all colleagues can access, you know, from beyond the firewall. So that's something that we're, that we're doing. And we're also working on a whole mailer right now with Bright Horizons, so that's something we're doing too.

Alice:
Great. Any other questions out there?

MODERATOR:
Let's see if we can get a couple more in. We've got a viewer who asks, "As you look to the future, what are some of the challenges and what..." I'm sorry, I said that poorly. "What are some of the challenges that you believe you'll face?"

Alice:
What do you guys see coming down the pike?

Lauri:
Yeah, I mean, I think engagement's always a challenge, right? And then obviously getting people to understand the offering. You know, we also have the challenge of the economic environment, right, which just seems to be one of those things where when we're just not sure which way it's going to go with in terms of the overall economy and the headwinds that we're facing. So there's that, and then there's just the challenges of a very multi-generational diverse environment, right? How do you communicate with the frontline workers versus the corporate workers versus, you know, how do you meet the needs of those who are, you know, just starting out their career versus those that we know are, you know, exiting their career? So we do have these kinds of challenges, and again, just being so large, it's, you know, thinking about the strategy from that perspective.

Alice:
Yeah. One of the things that keeps me up at night, well, actually since I'm not in HR I now sleep better, is I really do wonder how everything is gonna settle out. Like the clay is still wet on remote work and on hybrid work. And I worry a little bit that some people that we've worked so hard, you know, to get up and running in their career and take on leadership positions that if they're not around or if they're caring for their kids or parents while they're working, that they might stall out in their careers. And that would be a terrible thing, especially when you think that you know, as we mentioned before, a lot of those people potentially are women. So I do worry about that. Naomi, what is keeping you up at night?

Naomi:
So I think two things. One you just touched on, Lauri, you know, kind of, I'm sorry, Alice, thinking about what is the future of work here. And certainly, we are in an environment where we are for our folks who have been able to work remotely thinking about what it means to come back on-site or not come back on-site. But also I think that folks' home lives have shifted so much over the past three years that the expectation that we would ever return or expect our employees to get their home lives in a way, to rearrange their home lives to meet where we were three years ago is unrealistic.

So thinking about how we are flexible as a company to meet employees where they are now, which is different than where they are three years ago. And the mental health piece that we talked about is really, again, a big focus area for us and a big concern area for us. Thinking about how we continue to sustain ourselves as individuals, as employees, as a company where we need to be from a performance perspective, but also how we can continue to support employees to get access to the resources and care that they need themselves to continue to bring their best self to work as well.