Your Personal Five-Star Attendant

May 11, 2012 3:07 pm Businessolver Banter, Industry News

What’s the secret to business success? We believe it starts with delighted clients. Businessolver knows the importance of client happiness, and we believe that client delight starts with employee delight. We know that when employees are happy, they go out of their way to please their clients.

One way Businessolver helps keep employees happy is through our concierge program. Much like a concierge at a hotel, Businessolver aims to provide five-star service to our employees, clients and potential clients.

Client Delight

Erica Adams runs Businessolver’s concierge program and is committed to client delight. The concierge services provided by Businessolver ensure that our guests have an enjoyable and productive visit.

This means that travel plans are arranged, meeting preparations are complete, and a smiling face is there to greet visitors at the airport. “We want to go above and beyond the normal eight to five,” said Adams. Before a visit, Erica checks to see if there’s anything we can do to make their stay more enjoyable. Whether it be arranging lunches or providing ideas for things to do in Des Moines, Erica makes sure visitors feel at home.

A great example of Erica’s commitment occurred during a recent client visit. A broken shoe resulted in an uncomfortable situation for one visitor. Rather than going shoeless the rest of her trip, she was rescued by Erica, who brought her a new pair of shoes.

Employee Delight

But Erica’s commitment doesn’t stop there; she knows that employees today wear many hats, and schedules can be demanding both at work and at home. Businessolver created a concierge program to “help employees live the Businessolver values to the fullest,” said Adams.

Many of the concierge services that Businessolver provides allow employees to spend more time focused on our business and our clients. If an employee is worried about everything they need to get done outside of work, they may not be fully engaged in best serving our clients. That’s why Erica arranges a variety services for employees, from dry cleaning pick-up to on-site haircuts to travel accommodations. Erica also coordinates a number of fun activities throughout the year to reward employees for their hard work.

“A lot is expected of employees at Businessolver, we all work very hard. The concierge services are just another way that Businessolver keeps employees engaged and provides a fun work environment,” said Adams.

So what does a typical day look like?

Drive to the airport and pick up a client. Smile! Give a brief introduction to Des Moines on your way to the office.

Go to Casey’s and get breakfast pizza for an employee anniversary.

Deliver Swag tokens (recognition for being awesome) to five employees who have been recognized by their peers.

Take a manager’s car in for service; stop by the store on the way back to pick up materials for a marketing presentation.

Send out three employee anniversary emails.

Order lunch for 170 employees.

Order client lunch requests.

Arrange for the dry cleaning to be picked up.

Coordinate a schedule for employee massages.

Meet the caterer at the door and help them set up lunch.

So THIS is what a company concierge does all day. And it’s only 11:15!

Success One Happy Employee/Client at a Time

Businessolver has seen the positive impact of the concierge program come to life. Employees have more time to build impactful relationships with our clients, and they feel rewarded and excited to come to work each day. Clients know that when they visit Businessolver, their stay will be enjoyable and their visit will be hassle-free. The concierge program and Erica’s dedication to client and employee delight are just another way Businessolver is creating and building strong relationships throughout our business.

Internalships Develop Talent from Within

May 7, 2012 2:50 pm Businessolver Buzz, Industry News

Nate Saul is checking out Process Excellence. Rachel Pirkl is exploring implementations. Tori Peterson tried her hand at recruiting for HR. All three are current Businessolver employees, taking part in a unique “Internalship” program which introduces employees to different areas of the company to help them understand their current positions more thoroughly and also give them an opportunity to visualize their own role and growth within the company.

“Our Internalship program is an opportunity for current employees to see other aspects of the business,” said HR Manager Mimi Kelly. “It allows the business not only to get extra help from someone who does not require an onboarding” plan, but also allows us to better utilize the ebb and flow of work volumes in different areas. “

Kelly said that another great feature of the program is the opportunity for people to work with others within the organization who may have a different perspective on how or why things are done. “This allows us to collaborate on better ideas and to information and process share,” she said.

“The job is bigger than I expected,” Saul said of his experience. He has been with Businessolver for about a year, as a Service Center representative. He is working with Shari Naughton in the Process Excellence area, helping to develop process documentation. “I have been taking completed documentation and picking it apart,” he said. He is testing and editing the documents before they become part of the Helpsolver tool found on the Benefitsolver platform.

“I knew there was a lot to learn,” Saul said, “but I didn’t realize how deep it went.” Saul sees this opportunity as a win/win. “Here I am, 23 years old, at the beginning of my career, and I’m being given this opportunity to explore other areas of the business without having to change jobs, and the company gets the added bonus of getting new content.” Saul Internalship is expected to last about three months.

Rachel Pirkl, another first-year Businessolver employee who works in the fulfillment area, is learning about the implementation process as part of her Internalship with senior implementation architect Amy Wilson as her mentor. As part of that process, she has met and worked with the Implementation Architects and others on the Client Centric Teams. “It’s given me the opportunity to put names with faces and make sense of what they do,” Pirkl said. She is helping review last year’s implementations to help improve the processes for those going forward. “Seeing it broken out in all the steps that they take is really amazing,” she said.

Tori Peterson has completed her Internalship as a recruiter for HR, and her experience led her to a new position within the company. During her Internalship, she helped recruiter Lori Vander Zyl with phone screens and other recruiting processes. “I’m definitely sales oriented and I loved helping to sell our business,” she said. I learned so much about Businessolver and the other areas in the company.” Her Internalship also helped her gain confidence and build communication skills, she said, which she believes helped her earn a new position with the sales team. Like Saul and Pirkl, Peterson has been with the company for about a year.

The Path to Real Innovation

April 26, 2012 5:01 pm Businessolver Banter, Industry News

Innovation is the buzzword of the day. Google it and you’ll get more than 400,000 results. It’s fun to talk about, but true innovation takes the right culture to foster.

Businessolver has prided itself on innovative technology and service since the doors opened in 1998. We’ve learned the challenge in innovating with the input of team members, clients and consultants isn’t the lack of ideas – it’s formalizing a plan for drawing out relevant ideas, evaluating the details and making a plan for implementing the innovation.

Businessolver formed a plan for intentional innovation more than a year ago. At the center is a tool that allows the Businessolver team to submit, build and vote on ideas, and innovation campaigns that draw out ideas related to specific topics. The results are a plethora of innovative ideas, some simple to implement and others that are larger in scale. “We’ve had almost 150 ideas submitted since December,“ said Shari Naughton, director of Process Excellence at Businessolver. Of those, 10 percent have already been implemented.

Ideas are submitted and reviewed by a cross-functional innovation team to understand the impact of each idea. “The team evaluates, scopes and prioritizes each project,” Naughton said. “From there, we begin implementation on the ‘Just Do It’ ideas that are fast, easy and inexpensive, and kick off project plans for the more intensive ideas.”

What makes Businessolver’s innovation plans especially relevant is the development cycle. “We push new updates to Benefitsolver every week,” said Naughton. That allows clients to reap the benefits of technology innovations immediately, not months or years later.

“We develop innovations that make a difference,” said Naughton. “Our intentional innovation plans are helping us be more strategic for the sake of clients – which aligns with our ultimate goal of delight.”

If you’re looking for a benefits partner focused on consistent innovation, talk to your Businessolver representative.

Businessolver Teams Stand Up for Client Delight

9:42 am Businessolver Banter, Businessolver Buzz

Walk into any company and you will probably see their mission statement printed and hung on a wall. But are these more than words on paper? How do these missions come to life?

Businessolver follows “The Businessolver Way” as a guiding set of principles to help us reach our mission: Grow our business, Delight our customers. One way Businessolver is making our mission come to life is through our daily Stand Up meetings. The goal of each meeting is to make sure we are driving our business forward and sending a consistent message across the organization.

When team members hear Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up” every morning at 8:25 they know it’s time to do just that. Teams head to their meeting rooms to begin discussing the day’s activities, challenges they face, and successes they are experiencing.

Any onlooker will quickly notice, these are not your typical meetings. Employees are engaged and the energy in the room is contagious. Each team receives an agenda each morning, following a similar agenda each day.

First up, team members share one success from the previous day. This can be something positive that happened at work or in their personal life.

Next, team members discuss any events happening in the company such as client visits, events within the company, etc.

The third agenda item is called Raving Fans. A testimonial or piece of client feedback is shared. Hearing this positive feedback is highly motivating. It congratulates the teams for going above and beyond for our clients.

Next up is Feature Flash. This is where one piece of functionality in the system is discussed. System knowledge is incredibly important to providing superior levels of service to our clients. This agenda item allows team members to learn something new or interesting that our system provides and how it can help our clients.

Each day a principle from The Businessolver Way is selected for a discussion or activity. The next agenda item focuses on an activity or discussion around this principle. For example, active listening was chosen at a recent meeting. Team members watched a quick video and completed an interactive exercise to work on their own active listening skills.

The last agenda item focuses on the team and individual operational metrics. Teams are given an update on their metrics, such as how many outstanding projects they have, what the call volume is, and client satisfaction levels. Next each team member gives their own personal metrics. This is a great example of the teamwork that takes in Businessolver. As members share their personal metrics, they are given the opportunity to ask for feedback, solicit help on a difficult project, or offer support to other team members who may need it.

As the meeting finishes and team members head out to tackle the challenges of the day, a real sense of accomplishment has already been established. These meetings further our culture and our common language. Team members have their goals aligned, they are motivated by successes that are occurring across the organization, they have built a camaraderie and trust with one another, and they have new knowledge that will allow them to better assist their clients.

A lot of powerful and useful information is shared during these 30 minute meetings, and they happen every day at Businessolver. Contact your Businessolver representative to talk about putting our culture to work for you.

Businessolver Payroll Functions: An HR Exec’s Best Friend

April 23, 2012 7:48 am Businessolver Banter, Businessolver Buzz

You know you’re paying premiums to your carriers on behalf of some employees that haven’t paid, for various reasons. But your system doesn’t have the ability to calculate retro adjustments. What’s an HR exec to do?

Businessolver’s online enrollment platform, Benefitsolver, can automatically calculate retros and apply the necessary adjustments to your payroll file. Or, if you’d rather, we can track the differences without adjusting them and let you determine whether or not to alter the deduction amounts. “Many of our clients would be surprised at how much they can recoup,” says Businessolver payroll expert Lisa Curtis.

Another system feature that has helped clients recoup costs is the Payroll Comparison tool. “Whaaaat?!!!” you may be thinking. “But how does it work?!” Businessolver can import your payroll file containing actual deductions taken, and run a quick comparison against the deduction file generated in our system. Any discrepancies identified are reviewed and brought to your attention for correction.

The Payroll Comparison feature is really crucial during implementation, Curtis said. Data discrepancies are identified right away and corrected before the system goes live. Having a clean file at go live helps keep discrepancies to a minimum down the road. Like our retro calculation feature, Payroll Compare can help you save money due to errors that might not be caught elsewhere.

Retro Adjustments and Payroll Compare: just two of the features that help Businessolver stand out from the crowd.

Find Your Strength with Businessolver

April 20, 2012 1:46 pm Businessolver Buzz, Industry News

Imagine. Your company is in the final stages of selecting a strategic business partner for benefits processing. Your team is invited to visit the provider’s corporate office for a finalist presentation. Several weeks before the scheduled meeting, your account executive sends a copy of a book to each member of your team, invites you to read the book and participate in an accompanying activity online. The book and exercise are part of Gallup’s acclaimed Strengthsfinder program; many companies today are utilizing its tenets as part of their strategy, but few take the concept as far as Businessolver.

After your team completes the Strengthsfinder exercise, the results are sent to Businessolver. When you sit down to meet your potential business partners for the first time, Businessolver has selected an internal service team, based on, among other factors, the various strengths of your team, and introduces their internal team to you along with a strategy for best integrating the strengths of both teams.

“We walk the talk,” says Josh Wolk, quality and development coach at Businessolver. Wolk says that in some companies, employees will take the Strengthsfinder test, hang up the strengths poster in their cubicle and leave it at that. But Businessolver lives it. “Strengthsfinder is embedded into the organization. We have really made this part of the culture.”

The graphic below is a slide from a recent finalist presentation at the Businessolver headquarters in West Des Moines, Iowa. As Wolk and the team presented this portion of the presentation, the strengths were discussed and dissected.

“We take the Strengthsfinder concept farther into some of the practices found in the book, Strengths Based Leadership and map the talent of the teams,” Wolk said. “We examine, within each team, ‘how many executers do we have, how many influencers, relationship builders, strategic thinkers’,” he explained. “This is a really important step in building a cohesive relationship between Businessolver and our clients.”

The graphic below is an overview of how the two teams mesh.

“If there are a lot of strategic thinkers in a group but not a lot of relationship builders like in this example, we just need to be mindful of that,” Wolk said. “If there’s a lot of strategic/intellection, we might have to say, sometimes, ‘it’s time to not overthink and just execute’ It sometimes challenges us to leave our comfort zone in order to make a stronger team.”

Businessolver utilizes the strategies internally as well. Each employee takes the Strengthsfinder assessment and then completes a one-on-one training session with Wolk to help see how their strengths can help them in their position. “We can start to recognize what the talents look like when you use them,” he said. “I help the employee to see ‘how this is reflective of my talents’ and ‘this is what talent I’m using when I’m engaged in my work.’ ”

The Strengthsfinder culture is very visible within Businessolver offices, with employees displaying their strengths poster; some have attached their strengths to their email signatures as well.

“Businessolver is an industry leader in its internal training program,” Wolk said. “We support conceptual knowledge. We educate our employees not only the step by step information to get them up and running in their specific job but we also educate them with general knowledge about the industry and the field we work in.”

Focus on Client Delight: Jersey Drives Quest to Be Like Mike

10:50 am Businessolver Banter, Businessolver Buzz

The jersey sat in a heap in Ryan Eagle’s basement for months before the idea hit him. Businessolver’s Team 4 Lead had rescued Number 23 from a colleague’s ebay pile several months earlier and wasn’t quite sure what he was going to do with it. Instead of framing and hanging it on a wall, as he originally envisioned, Eagle presented the shirt, along with a leadership concept, at a daily standup meeting with his team.

“Michael Jordan was an example of determination and dedication,” Eagle told Team 4 one day during March Madness. “He lived those values every day. On the court there was nobody better, nobody who made their team better, than MJ,” Eagle said. “He pushed himself to the limit and always made his team better.”

Eagle’s strategy was this: each day a different team member wears the jersey. It’s presented in the morning standup. “When you have this jersey,” Eagle told the team, “you are to be the best you can be. Push yourself to learn more, and do everything you can to make your team better that day.”

Has it worked?

“It’s been brilliant,” Eagle said.

For example, one team member, Larry Kalvig, got the jersey on his first day back from vacation–a cruise, no less. “I could see the look on his face that morning when he got it. He knew what it meant,” Eagle said. “But it gave him an extra boost that day.”

“I was hoping it wouldn’t be me that day,” Larry admitted. “I was tired, I was missing being on the cruise, I knew I had thousands of emails and lots of work waiting for me. But when it was me, I graciously accepted and it gave me a better perspective of the day,” he explained. “It gave me an energy. Rather than dreading the rest of the day, I ended up performing better than I probably would have.” Larry says the jersey idea really helps solidify the team concept at Businessolver.

The jersey is presented toward the end of each morning’s standup, after each team member has given a rundown on the upcoming day.

“Today it was me,” said Mark Schultz of a recent experience. “I kind of thought I had a shot at it because I have a lot going on today and I have an all-day training tomorrow so I’ve had to work extra hard all week to be prepared to be away from it for the day.”

Mark said he arrived at work with a “minor panic situation,” and rather than waste time worrying about it, he attacked the problem head on immediately after the standup meeting where he was presented with the jersey.

Megan Riedel got the shirt on a day that she was working on three implementations. “I got a lot done,” she said. “It definitely helped.”

When you partner with Businessolver, whether or not Team 4 is your team, you get motivated and creative leaders like Ryan Eagle. Every day. You get top performance. Every day. You get individuals contributing to strong teams. Every day.

A New Take on Voluntary

April 13, 2012 3:11 pm Businessolver Banter, Industry News

According to MetLife’s 10^th annual Employee Benefits Trends report, 41 percent of surveyed employers say voluntary benefits are a significant benefits strategy – up from 32 percent last year. And young talent is asking for voluntary options. The MetLife study found that 56 percent of Gen Y and 58 percent of Gen X, compared to 44 percent of Younger Boomers and 41 percent of Older Boomers, were interested in a wider array of voluntary benefits they can choose to purchase on their own..

Offering voluntary can also be directly tied to employee loyalty. According to the 2012 Aflac WorkForces Report, “workers who are extremely or very satisfied with their benefits program are nine times more likely to stay with their employer, compared to those workers who are dissatisfied with their benefits program.”

So how are you addressing voluntary options? Businessolver is focused on a comprehensive voluntary strategy that can deliver results for brokers, employers and employees.

A Different Perspective on Voluntary

Unlike the old standard of high-pressure, face-to-face enrollers, Businessolver’s voluntary approach is to consider a holistic and educational approach to benefits.

“We focus on the Total Benefits Dollar,” said Businessolver Director of Benefit Advisory Services Jen Daniel. “It is important that employees understand all of their options and make selections that meet their individual needs.” Employees are supported by our guided enrollment through Benefitsolver – our single source benefits technology – or by our one-on-one phone enrollment.” Daniel points out that service representatives are licensed, carrier appointed and salaried, not commissioned.

Brokers and employers also have the advantage of working with Daniel, a Businessolver resource who consults on voluntary strategies including enrollment, carrier and group product selection, and more.

Carrier Neutral

Benefitsolver’s advanced connectivity via single sign on and web services with (20 and counting) carriers streamlines underwriting and evidence of insurability (EOI) processes by opening live communication between systems. “We’ve seen participation rates climb with groups because it is a seamless online process,” Daniel said. And it happens with a wide variety of carriers. The current list includes the ABCs of carriers from Aetna and Allstate to The Standard and Unum. “We pride ourselves on being carrier agnostic,” Daniel said. “This allows us to provide a variety of options because we’re not tied to one or a few carriers.”

Why Does it Matter?

Businessolver’s comprehensive voluntary enrollment structure benefits everyone involved: employees, employers, brokers, consultants and carriers. Employees are able to enroll with a variety of tools and spend a Total Benefit Dollar on the solutions that fit their needs – including core and voluntary benefit choices. Employers are able to offer a voluntary lineup that creates stickiness for top talent with a technology partner that makes enrollment and billing easier all year round. Brokers and consultants are able to choose from a large selection of voluntary options from nearly any carrier, and can enjoy higher participation due to seamless web service integration. Finally, carriers can realize increased participation that can be otherwise affected by manual underwriting and EOI processes.

And growing, and growing…

April 10, 2012 10:16 am Businessolver Banter, Businessolver Buzz

Rachel Wegmann

Rachel Wegmann joined Businessolver as a Training Specialist on April 9th. Rachel holds a BA in marketing from UNI. She comes to Businessolver from Liberty Bank where she was Operations Training Manager; she has also been in corporate training at Nationwide. Rachel is thrilled to be at Businessolver where she can “fully embrace the creative chaos going on all around.”

Cheryl Wiese

Cheryl Wiese joined Businessolver as a National Accounts Executive March 26. Cheryl most recently worked as a Senior Account Manager at Principal Financial Group managing large client relationships as well as relationships with carriers and brokers. Cheryl has also been employed by Marsh, CIGNA and Coventry Health Care. “I have so much respect for an organization that really lives their values – and I’ve been around long enough to know it’s very rare,” Cheryl said.

Is Your Wellness Program Putting You at Risk For a Lawsuit?

April 3, 2012 3:37 pm Businessolver Banter, Industry News

Research is showing that wellness programs are becoming a standard method for reducing health care costs. According to the 2011 Willis Health and Productivity Survey from Willis North America, 60 percent of employers report having some sort of wellness program in place. Probably no surprises there. But what some employers are doing to try to change behavior can also increase their risk for lawsuits. According to a recent article from Business Insurance, lawsuits filed by workers, regulators and unions are becoming more common.

A majority of programs are likely in the clear. Programs that are educational in nature and have voluntary participation are the safest, legally speaking. Yet those programs don’t always yield the ultimate outcomes employers want. So some employers are pushing the limits of their wellness programs to achieve planned results. Before an employer takes steps toward stiffening a wellness program, they should consider the laws that govern them (from Business Insurance):

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) restricts incentives or penalties to 20% of an employee’s total health care premium. In addition, it requires options to outcome-based incentive requirements for disabled employees or those unable to meet the requirement.
ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) requires plan documentation for all wellness programs and could require benefits and incentives to be extended under COBRA continuing coverage provisions.
ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) limits employer-required medical exams for employees. It also blocks discrimination and/or retaliation against disabled employees.
GINA (Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act) prohibits employer discrimination against employees based on genetic information, including family or medical history.

Employers should also be aware of state laws that may have an impact wellness plans. Want to play it safe and effect change? Limit access to employee medical information to what only is necessary to apply incentives or penalties so you avoid the appearance of making an employment decision based on health information.

Have you developed a comprehensive wellness program? Is it integrated with your health enrollment? How are you communicating program details? If you don’t have solid answers for those questions, contact your Businessolver representative to discuss how you can deliver an integrated communication and enrollment platform that drives accountability for employees.

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