As executives across industries assess how to remain competitive in their markets, ensuring their people are healthy and their organizations are productive and performing are paramount to ongoing success. The landscape for CHROs, total rewards executives, and benefits leaders continues to evolve, and knowing their employees requires an increased focus on data to inform their strategies and improve the overall employee experience. With health care as the increasing cost and area of focus for all C-suite team members, finding the best solutions to drive high-quality, accessible, and cost-effective care for all is often a Rubik’s Cube of decisions.
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Claims data alone will not satisfy the needs of this decision-making process. The complexity begins with understanding the direction of the company, the type of work that is expected to drive results, the structure of the work, and the employee demographic within the organization. The knowledge of the whole person will help with creating differentiated, high-value solutions, and these are the four ways that data can help in the decision-making process:
Design Strategically
When companies take the time to leverage data to design programs for their employees, the result is a healthier workforce. By identifying trends, benefit leaders may find that fewer people are using preventive services1, and it’s now all about convenience and speed. That’s why companies should enact programs that focus on ways to seamlessly connect their employees with the right services.
Communicate Value
Communication is the key to driving change within any organization. The companies that take the time to understand what their employees need and want are the companies that are better able to communicate the inherent value of programs, thus driving adoption. Benefit leaders face the delicate obstacle of not only engaging new employees ready to enroll but also communicating with current employees who are discouraged by the often overwhelming task of navigating health care. By bolstering data-driven methods that utilize marketing and behavioral science, benefit leaders can communicate the value that will resonate with all their employees, which leads to longer-term adoption and use.
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Personalize Care
After identifying who needs help and in which areas, data can guide benefit teams in personalizing their members’ healthcare experiences. Many Americans don’t trust current traditional avenues used to find care2, which is why offering a personalized gateway to health care is a game changer. By offering employees a beacon to find a new doctor or facility, personalized advice on their benefits, and the chance to understand costs associated with receiving care, the result will be improved employee health. For example, if an employee has a way to find a new primary care physician (PCP) with a good track record and one who can treat chronic illness—without sifting through mounds of research and reviews—the result is more powerful and effective health care.
Measure Results
By consistently using data to implement new practices and to understand employees’ needs, benefit leaders will get it right the first time, driving significant cost savings for the company. This is just the beginning of leveraging data for every step in the employee healthcare journey. By focusing on generating actionable insights for both employers and employees, the power of data will change the healthcare landscape.
Navigating an employee health plan can be overwhelming. For company benefit leaders, a lot rests on their shoulders: Which plan offers the best services, is most cost-effective, has the highest access to PCPs, and utilizes preventive services effectively? By leveraging strategic data to improve employee health, the process becomes empowering, and the impact is measurable.
Peter Navin is the CHRO at Grand Rounds and is the author of the book The CMO of People. Grand Rounds was added to the Glassdoor “Best Places to Work” list in 2019.
2Harris Poll