Incredible efficiencies can be attributed to technology and processes, from Enterprise Resource Planning to Sales Force Automation, that is widely used to manage business operations. In this period of heightened scrutiny on healthcare accessibility and cost, it’s alarming that businesses are not taking or giving the reigns on their healthcare spend when it’s almost always among their largest expenses.
Yesterday, the New York Times published an interview with Carol Bartz, chief executive of Yahoo, on leadership. The interview turned to the employee review process. Here’s what Bartz had to say:
“If I had my way, I wouldn’t do annual reviews, if I felt that everybody would be more honest about positive and negative feedback along the way. I think the annual review process is so antiquated. I almost would rather ask each employee to tell us if they’ve had a meaningful conversation with their manager this quarter. Yes or no. And if they say no, they ought to have one. I don’t even need to know what it is. But if you viewed it as meaningful, then that’s all that counts.”
The same type of traditional approach can be associated with how companies view their total healthcare costs. Businesses wait for the “annual review” with their insurance brokers or consultants, get slapped with double digit increases and more often than not shift expenses to employees or reduce benefits altogether, rather than getting to the root of the problem, which is “what is driving my healthcare cost and what opportunities do I have to manage these expenses?”
The annual procurement process of shopping for healthcare and placing vendors on a spreadsheet is not working. If you had the opportunity to head off or mitigate cost, wouldn’t you? Businesses need to take control of their healthcare plan and start managing healthcare on a regular basis, in the same way they do other aspects of their business and stop waiting for the annual procurement season to assess their benefits.
- Keith Lemer
