Reassessing Benefits, Reimagining Value for Today’s Workforce

Ask a benefits leader what employees want most right now, and the answer may surprise you: it’s not just health coverage or retirement matching, but help simply making sense of the healthcare system itself. That was the message from Lenka Sloman, executive director and head of total rewards at WPP Media. Sloman spoke during a fireside chat at From Day One’s June virtual conference. The conversation about “Reassessing Benefits, Reimagining Value for Today’s Workforce,” was moderated by Megan Ulu-Lani Boyanton, a business reporter for The Seattle Times. A Navigation Problem, Not Just a Cost ProblemOne of the most persistent challenges Sloman hears from brokers is how to control costs, but she traced much of that cost pressure back to a navigation gap. Employees increasingly self-diagnose online before ever consulting a doctor, she says, then choose specialists based on guesswork rather than guidance. That pattern drives up claims because people end up seeing the wrong providers and undergoing tests that were never necessary in the first place.Lenka Sloman of WPP Media spoke with moderator Megan Ulu-Lani Boytanton of the Seattle Times (photo by From Day One)“If there was some sort of assistance for employees to seek and actually be guided in what doctors they should see, I think it would prevent a lot of the unnecessary costs that are happening to employers,” Sloman said. Boyanton could relate. “I am so guilty of the quick, “Let me check with WebMD and see where my symptoms align with,’” she said. Communication and Innovation as a Retention ToolBoyanton asked how Sloman keeps employees informed during periods of organizational change. “I just try and be as transparent as possible,” Sloman said. “I’ll send out proactive messaging, share links in real time, make sure that I’m always available. I’ll coach my team. I’ll tell them just to be good listeners.”When WPP Media recently sunset a physical-exam benefit that had become redundant with standard health coverage, her team treated the change as a teaching moment rather than a simple announcement, walking employees through how to get the same care through their existing medical plans.“Both utilization and disruption should always be considered when reviewing any type of changes to benefits,” Sloman said. A change that trims costs but unsettles a large group of employees, she argued, often ends up costing more once a company accounts for the exceptions it has to make to soften the blow.Sloman also described how her team is experimenting with AI agents to help answer employee benefits questions. “It’s a logic-based data source that we’ll use to answer the questions that’s positioned directly from the employee that is asking the question,” Sloman said. Rather than offering generic responses, the system is designed to pull from each employee’s specific plan elections, so a worker enrolled in a PPO with dental and vision coverage receives answers tailored to those exact benefits. Staying within HIPAA guidelines, she says, is central to how her team evaluates any new AI tool.Rethinking What Counts as a Family BenefitAsked about innovative offerings, Sloman pointed to something less conventional than the usual stipends and perks list: pet care.“It’s really something that goes a long way, because we do support so many family building benefits,” Sloman said. “This now also supports employees that may not have families, but have pets, and that’s their family, so it now encompasses the entire population.” “I had never heard of that before, so that’s a little bit mind blowing for me, but would be great for my cats,” Boyanton said.Sloman also detailed WPP Media’s approach to parental leave, which pairs standard bonding time with a part-time, full-pay phase-back option for parents returning to work after an extended absence, giving them a gradual reentry to their client work rather than an abrupt return to a full schedule.Closing out the conversation, Sloman offered a simple piece of guidance for other leaders balancing employee needs against business priorities: “Don’t go at this alone. Lean on your vendors, on your carriers, your brokers, whoever it is that you work with, and make sure that you work hand in hand with your leaders,” Sloman said.“The more that they understand what you’re trying to provide the company, the more that can be done for your employees,” Sloman said.Grace Turney is a St. Louis-based writer, artist, and former librarian. See more of her work at graceturney17.wixsite.com/mysite.(Photo by dusanpetkovic/iStock)