Payers often work with employers, but they have to keep their own staff happy, too.
Amid a climate of payers across the country cutting jobs, Centene recently confirmed it is offering buyouts to most employees as its ACA business contracts. Against that backdrop, employee morale and retention have become pressing priorities for health plan leaders.
Becker’s spoke with Sidecar Health’s chief people officer, Alex Coonce, and Elevance Health’s chief human resources officer and executive vice president, Ryan Craig, to learn about the biggest concerns for today’s health plan employees — and how each company is tackling them.
An “internal-first” approach in today’s AI-centric environment
Like many other industries, AI has been playing a larger part in health plan operations, from call centers to claims review. Employee anxiety surrounding their job security follows suit, ultimately affecting mental health.
“There’s just this general fear of, ‘Oh my gosh, is AI going to take my job?'” Ms. Coonce said. She added that staff are hearing about AI-related layoffs at other companies, and Sidecar has communicated that it does not plan any team reductions.
To address these concerns, Sidecar — a startup that focuses on plans without provider networks — strives for a disciplined hiring approach.
“We have actually pretty aggressive growth targets, and we’re pacing ahead of plan. I think two years ago we would have started gearing up to recruit to make sure we could support that kind of growth, and it’s so different today,” she said, adding that the company looks to automation for rote tasks.
When Sidecar does recruit new employees, it focuses on values alignment.
Mr. Craig said Elevance has “an internal-first culture.” He said all of Elevance’s jobs are first posted internally, and there are designated recruiters for seeking talent from within the company. As roles shift, Elevance also tries redeployment, moving people between internal opportunities.
“When we do go external, I think it’s just done with a lot of intentionality,” Mr. Craig said.
As AI and macroeconomic stressors take hold, Sidecar said it fully covers mental health benefits without prior authorization. The company is currently reviewing its time-off policies, as well.
Training opportunities and career growth
At Elevance, AI has taken a prominent role in skill-building initiatives. The company has collaborated with OpenAI on certifications, building upon its skills academy and fully funded associate’s and bachelor’s degrees. At the same time, Mr. Craig emphasized emotional intelligence as a skill while roles shift.
“In our industry, emotional intelligence is equally as important, because what we’re finding is roles are starting to shift. We’re able to have a deeper relationship with our members and our patients, and that emotional intelligence is so, so, so critical,” he said.
Mr. Craig named career growth as the top priority for Elevance’s staff. At Sidecar, Ms. Coonce said the slowed hiring has introduced a “really interesting complexity from an HR perspective” when it comes to career development.
“How do you continue to develop your people — and how do you think about what challenges them and how they feel career growth — even as a team size hasn’t been growing? If people don’t have opportunities to manage bigger and bigger teams, where do they get that growth and learning from, and how do we make sure they still feel engaged and excited about what their career looks like?” Ms. Coonce said.
The next era of health plan employees
Elevance recently welcomed its summer intern class, and the company is trying out a different recruitment approach this year: hiring rising juniors versus just rising seniors.
“There are not a lot of internships for juniors,” Mr. Craig said, emphasizing how offering opportunities earlier could help build relationships with prospective talent and their universities.
“We’re going to take that to rising sophomores most likely next year, and start building that relationship early on, and almost making them like a super healthcare athlete by the time that they graduate,” he said.
Editor’s note: This story was updated June 26 to reflect a clarification with Sidecar’s mental health coverage.
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