Making employees part of the healthcare dialog.
Lately, health care has become a polarizing topic, fraught with a lot of frustration and anxiety. But imagine what it would be like if you could approach the situation in a more unifying way.
Like many companies today, we at Mavidea try hard to provide the best possible health care coverage for our employees, while keeping our balance sheet fit.
Opening doors on a closed-door topic.
It’s always tempting to take this difficult decision behind closed doors. But with our group, we felt it was important to stay true to the inclusive culture we’ve tried so hard to create.
So imagine what it would be like as a manager to be sitting around in a circles with employees and sharing thoughts on the sometimes-thorny subject of healthcare.
All of our hopes. All of our fears. Nothing off the table.
Everyone is permitted to speak freely. In this and all of our employee team discussions, we want to get rid of those boundaries of them and us. We can only do this when we work together as a team and try to understand each other.
So here’s what our leadership team asked ourselves:
Do our employees feel like they’re being heard?
Do they feel like they have a voice?
Only if we feel like we can answer each of those questions with a “yes,” can we feel like we’ve truly been successful in reaching out.
Making health care discussions meaningful.
To be totally honest, some of my friends in the business community were actually pretty amazed to hear we let the whole company in on the health care discussion.
We actually all sat around in a circle and talked about what our approach to health care should be in the coming year.
- First, we discussed what Mavidea currently provided in our company benefits.
- Second, we asked about people’s experiences with their health care coverage.
- Third, we explored what people value most and want most from a healthcare plan.
Results: A better health care program at a lower cost and a stronger team.
Through this town hall meeting approach, we were able to get just super valuable responses and opinions on the route we should take on our health care benefits package. It absolutely shaped the decisions that we made for the company.
In fact, I think taking this collaborative approach was one of the most healthy and productive discussions we’ve had inside of Mavidea since the start of the company.
Everybody felt they had a voice. If they had question, our leadership team was there to listen and help sort out suggestions.
Everyone’s position was established and respected.
Together, we determined a direction. And it strengthened our company as a result.
No employees walked out frustrated. And our leadership team didn’t leave feeling like we hadn’t accomplished something. The whole experience was positive and healthy.
What was awesome is that we were able to provide an even stronger healthcare package this year than we had the year before.
And, believe it or not, we got it at a lower cost.
The true test of an organization’s culture is how it holds up under challenging situations. At Mavidea, we found that working together to look for a healthier solution resulted in a better health care program for all.
How is your company exploring the new health care environment? We’d love to hear your experiences.
Make the link to Mavidea. Let’s build something great together.
