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Turn Health Benefits Into a Business Advantage
For HR leaders, health benefits are increasingly a strategic lever, not just a cost to manage. Jack McKenna, Chief Human Resources Officer at Moffitt Cancer Center, explains how HR leaders can address the top questions CEOs are asking about benefits: Where are the biggest cost drivers? Where can an investment improve outcomes? And how can the organization stay ahead of the market?
With data, credibility, and a proactive approach, benefits leaders can turn health benefits into a strategic investment that improves outcomes, supports team members, and strengthens organizational success.
3 things HR leaders need to know about making benefits a strategic investment
Start with the questions your CEO is asking. Align benefits leaders and stakeholders around the challenges your organization is facing, then use data to identify where opportunities exist to improve outcomes and manage cost drivers.
Make the case for a strategic investment beyond cost. Connect health benefit investments to the issues leaders care about most, including cancer, mental health, turnover, absenteeism, disability, productivity, and organizational success. When benefits leaders bring credibility and evidence to the conversation, they earn a stronger seat at the table.
Invest early and choose the right partner. Use claims data to identify where prevention and early intervention can make the greatest difference. The right partner should bring broader market expertise, trusted guidance across providers, and a proactive approach that helps your organization stay ahead instead of lagging behind.
As health benefit costs continue to rise, employers need more than solutions that react to problems after they occur. They need a strategy that uses data to identify opportunities early, gives team members the information they need when they need it, and connects benefits to the broader goals of the organization.
Help your CEO understand that health benefits are a strategic investment that can lead to better outcomes, stronger engagement, and greater organizational success.
Jack McKenna: Hi, I'm Jack McKenna. I know the questions that your CEO is asking about health benefits. Now you know, too.
Jack McKenna: I would advise HR leaders to begin by understanding your stakeholders' position. If you're in benefits, talk to the CHRO and make sure you're on the same page. Use data to get the understanding of where opportunities exist.
Jack McKenna: If you come to the table with your CEO and explain the cost drivers of items like cancer, mental health costs in today's workforce, which can be reflected in turnover, absenteeism, disabilities. CEOs recognize today, particularly in the post-COVID world, how much an investment in team members' benefits will make a difference in work productivity, organizational success.
Jack McKenna: As a cancer center, it's important that we get the data in terms of where claims are, where costs are, recognizing that's where we need to invest. And some of it is what can we do early on in terms of prevention, not just after the fact.
Jack McKenna: Since our team members are caregivers for patients, over 600,000 a year visits at Moffitt, it's important for us to make sure that we're getting information they need for their own health and care by getting the message out there, and we do it on a daily basis to make sure it's right at hand when they need it, because we have to recognize that the first focus for them is the patients, not even themselves.
Jack McKenna: In order to make sure that the conversation around health benefits isn't only about cost, it's important to get credibility at the table. Transcarent has achieved a 97% satisfaction rate with us. Working with Transcarent allows us to bring industry leader to the table who has expertise across the board working with multiple providers, so we stay ahead of the market versus lagging and trailing the market.
