1. The six "C’s" of global benefits management
Speaker:
Philippe de Dreuzy
Senior Vice President
Global Consulting Practice Leader
Alliant Insurance Services
0:00
I like to think about, you know, a number of challenges starting with C, actually like challenges. I have usually about 6 different seeds. The first one is, of course, complexity. I think the world is made of about 200 countries. Each country has its own rules and different rules that apply to benefits, to employment, contract and all those. So, compliance is extremely important, and others see you need to make sure that
0:31
when you are hiring an employee and in the specific country, you are actually compliant with laws. But also, sometimes in different states like in India, for example, or in Canada in provinces. So, we want to make sure that you are following all these rules properly. Leaves can be a challenge for all these employees that are working in different places. They have different roles depending on where they are located.
0:59
Another C of course is cost control. You can end up having wonderful benefits, but they could be costly. So, a consultant will be here to help you navigating through all these different insurance carrier, different benefits that you can offer, monitoring what the local broker is doing, making sure he's not getting too much money out of the placement locally. Another C is of course, the cultural aspect of the business.
1:30
Jackie mentioned a little bit about my own, you know, journey so far. And I worked in Spain, I worked in Brazil, I worked also in Canada. And I can tell you that the approach of, you know, the work environment is, is very different. When I, when I was moving from France to Spain, I came, I remember coming in the afternoon and I didn't know about the summertime. So, I came, I wanted to make an impression,
2:00
you know, entry with my boss in Spain and nobody was here in the afternoon because of course, you know, summertime, even with the AC, they, they don't, they don't work in the afternoon.
2:12
And the last C, I think I'm really trying to talk about communication extremely important, making sure the employees know what kind of benefit they can get, making sure that also translated in the local language and looking at also the utilization. Do they know about those benefits? Are they using it? Is this a good investment for the, you know all the different employees that you have in in different countries?
2. Understanding culture and compliance is key
Jacquie Fritsch
0:00
Maggie, can you maybe tell us about some of the challenges that you face from the employer's perspective? I know you've got employees all over the world.
Speaker:
Margaret Fairbairn
Director of Global Benefits
Instacart
0:07
Sure. I would say the two that come top of mind, you've already nailed one of them and that's compliance. I think that's a real struggle, especially, you know, as a US employer
0:19
and where I'm from, California, so we operate like our own country. We're used to a lot of red tape. So certainly, expected of that. That's one. I think that is we really face challenges there. And then the other one is just sort of cultural norms and expectations as well. I think some of the programs and we'll touch on this more later as well, but some of the programs that we have in place don't necessarily translate across. And so, when we think about cultural and compliance, an example
0:50
I will use is we offer a family forming benefit for family forming and planning benefit through a vendor called Carrot. And with that comes fertility, a lot of fertility treatments. And we, we commit to hard dollars for a variety of things. And you know, family forming means something different for everyone. But we, we launched in Shanghai in China. And what we were applying didn't what was offered in some countries does not apply and is not
1:21
even legal in, in Shanghai. So, I think when we think about compliance and then just what those cultural norms are, those are the two that we really struggle with. All of the things matter. I love how you lined it up with a bunch of things that start with C, but those are the two that tend to be top of mind and the two that I really, I think if you can nail those two, you're, you're on a good on a good track.
Jacquie Fritsch
1:45
I would agree. We have a lot of clients from a multinational perspective with programs like your carrot that we're talking about where and we heard from Leanne today and from and from Tari that those ancillary family benefits, family planning, Women's Health, very important, but they don't always translate to all countries. So very North American specific, some other countries in, in Europe. And there's always the question from a from a global employer, when you're looking at trying to provide that benefit around the world, how does that translate to each region?
2:15
Family planning benefits that make you may be talking about are very important in the US, they're just as important in Canada. But the look and feel and how they're delivered is different. So, the general theme and idea translates, but not, not always the service providers that are available.
2:35
Oh, you guys are great.
Margaret Fairbairn
Wait, can I have one more thing with that? Of course we're talking about the reproductive benefits, but another layer is even just like gender norms as well, right? So, for my company, again, we're, we're based in the US, we're really big and pro as a company and very open about that, about being, you know, coverages and benefits and services being available to all families, all, you know, same sex couples, all, you know, all of those.
3:05
And again, that's another one that can be quite taboo depending upon where you're at. So, trying to balance sort of your company culture with, again, cultural and compliance and legal norms. So that's like another piece just beyond the reproductive rights, so or you know, offerings and that goes along with that whole DI and B and belonging, but it might not give a sense of belonging depending on where you are in the world.
3. Parity, equity, and social norms in global solutions
Jacquie Fritsch
0:00
And I know when we look at trends, a lot of things come up in the global landscape. And you talked a little bit about EAP, EAP mental health. A lot of times we look at these solutions from a global perspective. And is there a way that we can be cohesive around the world? Can we put in a global EAP provider? Can we put in a global Wellness provider? Or most recently with a lot of my clients, we've been looking at perks, perk companies where we have discounts just to have well, today's economy, let's be honest about a loaf of bread is expensive. So, if you're going to give me
0:30
discount to take my kids to the movies, hey or a discount to the gym. But some of those programs are great and truly are global. But then we run into the issue that some of them are global, but not really locally appropriate. So, I know in one, I can give an example in one situation where the
0:48
perks provider that we were working with lovely great sign-up process
0:54
employees in the US and Europe, absolutely love them. But in Canada, we didn't really care about the fact that I was going getting discounts at New York Broadway, right. So, it wasn't when you looked into the providers and the network and the availability, it wasn't locally appropriate. The idea however was a global idea. So, it was how does that translate across borders, and do we need to look at different providers to make that locally appropriate? Do you ever run into any situations like that? Maybe Philippe, you can talk a bit about that.
Philippe de Dreuzy
1:24
Yeah. I think what we were trying to do with alliance is like other consultants to define what we call the global minimum standards. So, we rather than getting into it immediately to a specific situation, a specific country, we look at it from a parity and equitable standpoint parity. And Maggie, you mentioned about the fact that
1:48
like the employer would like to treat everybody equally, you know, family, different, you know, situation, genders it all this is very important. So, you start discussing this at the headquarters level to see how they really treat people properly across their population and employees. And then equity is, is really important because
2:13
you know, employees talk obviously they chat a lot about their benefits and in situation in different countries you may have different set of benefits that won't be equitable. I'll give you a few examples.
2:29
One of them is in Mexico, you have Social Security, you know, healthcare sponsored by the government, but it's pretty poor. So, it's usually common to offer supplemental benefits. On the other hand, in other country, you may really offer something that will be adequate for the family. Like in India, for example, it's common to offer the grandparents, the healthcare system, you know, healthcare access through the employees,
2:59
which is kind of unusual because you know, usually when you're aging, it's you know, you have a little bit of challenge on the claim side. Another situation will be the UK with four times life insurance versus in Poland where you have only one time life. This is common and standard with benchmarking. It's OK, it's just normal. You're not going to increase because you know that you're offering four times in the UK, four times in in Poland. So it will be just won't make any sense. And then of course, the
3:30
branches in different countries, culturally, it's a lot of complexity. And this is you, you have to understand a lot of those parameters are affecting the decision you're going to make in different country,
Jacquie Fritsch
3:43
So Phillipe, can I take from what you said that kind of going back to Terry before, is that that culture and that philosophy with the head office is where you really want to start? So, at Instacart's head office, we're talking about culture, philosophy. What is our intention? Why are we offering this around the world? And then kind of coming back to your percentile, when you're looking at benchmarking, I want to be in the 80th percentile. We want to offer benefits in this percentile and then kind of cascading that down. What does 80th percentile mean?
4:14
And in the UK that would mean 4 times life insurance and then in Mexico it just it would mean a supplemental plan to the to the benefits. So, it's not necessarily offering four times life insurance around the world. It's what
4:28
in that country fits into that 80th percentile. And what is your culture and philosophy? Do we want? Where do we want to be in the world.
4:36
And I think from a global perspective, all of us have sat on panels around the world and attended conferences in different locations with many different types of employers. And one of the things that I consistently have been hearing over the past five to 10 years, but really like a lot in the past year or so is ancillary benefits. So, we've got our core benefit programs and our traditional benefit programs and those are very important to employees. And it's table stakes. I heard you mention that just a second ago, Maggie, table stakes and definitely,
5:07
definitely table stakes and needs to be in place, but they're looking to that creative what, what's that extra? What's that need? And it's also part of that inclusivity. We're talking GEI and B, you know, in Canada, we've got now in within our IP programs, Indigenous programming, so Indigenous counselors, spiritual counselors being and again, locally appropriate looking at it from that aspect, we're seeing gender affirmation coming into plans for seeing the flexibility of healthcare spending versus PSA. We saw that
5:37
or earlier personal spending account or lifestyle spending account. If I go back about 15 years ago in my, in my career, the first thing went from an employee. Well, lots of taxable benefit. Now they're like, well, I want gym shoes, and I want to go to the gym, and I don't want to go to the gym that has that. We have a corporate membership to I want to go to the one down the street where I want virtual, virtual planning.
Margaret Fairbairn
A lot of entitlement.
Jacquie Fritsch
Yes, yes. So, it's, it's changing, it's definitely changing the landscape and what we look to implement around the world.
6:07
Then translate.
4. “Death by point solutions”
Jacquie Fritsch
0:00
Anything to add to the ancillary benefits there?
Philippe de Dreuzy
Yeah, I think one of the wonderful things going to happening in this sector is the technology. You know, you have a lot of new tools that exist and new software company that are popping left and right every day. We got actually almost on a weekly basis, especially in the United States, companies saying we're going to fix this, we're going to find this solution, blah, blah, blah. And they are actually offering some very cool things. And you know, life lifestyle spending account is really something
0:31
help retaining, attracting the youth, the young guys because they can select whatever they want with their own portfolio. The amount of money that is allowed for these guys in different countries, different currencies,
0:47
this kind of stuff couldn't exist 10-15 years ago. I have seen actually another company that was developing a, a marketplace platform like an Amazon for the benefits of Flex benefits, where this company will vet for you all these different vendors and offer different kind of services for the same kind of field. Like Jim, you know, shoes or milk voucher or whatever. And it's just
1:18
provides so much a better dialogue for the employee that feel that it's kind of part of a company that is really in the cut hedge and it's really offering something that is different from the other competitors. I don't know.
Margaret Fairbair
Minnesota lifestyle account benefits.
1:34
We definitely, we, we just rolled those out a couple of years ago and we have probably found the greatest satisfaction. People love it because they have that freedom of choice. People love hard dollars. We know exactly like we have so much great data on what people are spending it on. There's a marketplace within the vendor that we use, so they get an extra discount. And again, we get great data on what are people spending their money on, right? And do we want to corral them into more of a Wellness piece? What do we want to highlight this month? You know, financial Wellness, this and that. So, we, we love it and it's, you know, it's hard to get a yes
2:06
from finance when you're asking for hard dollar type accounts, but LSA’s are definitely popular in our employees across the globe. Love it.
Jacquie Fritsch
2:16
Now earlier we heard Terry was talking about culture philosophy and she was talking about some of the different plan designs, and we talked about cafeteria flex traditional plan designs. So maybe I know you have a very traditional plan design, but you have all of these ancillary services. Is that is there a reason for that, that you've gone traditional and then added on all these products?
Margaret Fairbairn
I think, you know, you started again, we started baseline that was what was going on. And then we've continued to add again, sometimes pressure due to being able to attract
2:47
and retain talent. But I will say as a buyer and as a benefits leader that sometimes over the last few years especially, it's almost like death by 1000 or too many point solutions. So, I think you know, point solutions that term can be, can be tough, But I think that again, it's, it's balancing the needs. And I personally am in favor of picking providers and vendors that do something really well, not trying to do everything or not
3:18
trying to operate in every country so that they can win the business. So, I think sometimes it is necessary to have separate carve outs or separate vendors because that's the vendor that's doing it the best in that country or that's the vendor that's doing this one benefit and cool story that you do pretax and lifestyle, but you're doing lifestyle well. Let's not tarnish that by trying to add other things to your lineup when you're not going to necessarily do that. Be the best you'll do, be the best in the space. You lose trust from employees
3:49
and again, you want to have things that people like that they know are easy and digestible. And so we have a lot, but that's again, because we want to have things. So, it's, it's a balance. It's a tough balance. So,
Jacquie Fritsch
And I think I've talked to Alliance a number of times on you said point solution Sheamus who's not here today called it provider fatigue
4:14
and he said that that's it. That's an ongoing issue with it with employers, especially global multinational employers that are trying to put on all of these solutions around the world is that provider fatigue can get, it's overwhelming for you and the audience. It's administration of your plans. It's 17 different policies, 17 different invoices.
Margaret Fairbairn
I have 43 vendors,
4:37
43 and we only operate in four countries
Philippe de Dreuzy
4:42
But that's where it comes down that not including all this agreement that you have to sign, you know the questionnaire, 200 questions.
Margaret Fairbairn
Yes, I'm a contract specialist now.
Philippe de Dreuzy
4:54
The data processing agreement, security, confidentiality, GDPR, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all that stuff.
Margaret Fairbairn
Death by point solutions,
Jacquie Fritsch
That's what everyone's going to take away from today. Death by point solutions.