From Siloed Reports to Shared Insight: How Unified Data Drives Alignment at Kwik Trip

In this episode of The Pulse in 15, Mary sits down with Bryan Trainor to discuss the value Kwik Trip has found in moving from separate, vendor-specific reports to having all their information in one place. Bryan shares how bringing data together into a single, transparent view has helped create clarity, reduce fragmentation, and better align goals and priorities across internal teams and vendor partners. The conversation highlights why data integration matters, how transparency changes the way partners work together, and how a unified view of information supports smarter, more coordinated strategy.

Key Takeaways

• Understand the value of moving from siloed, vendor-specific reports to a unified view of information, and how a single source of truth supports clearer, more consistent decision-making.
• Explain how greater data transparency helps align goals and priorities across vendor partners, shifting conversations from isolated metrics to shared outcomes.
• Recognize how integrated data enables organizations to identify patterns, gaps, and opportunities that are difficult to see when information is fragmented.
• Describe how a transparent, comprehensive data approach can strengthen collaboration and support more coordinated strategy execution.

Transcript

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Welcome to The Pulse in 15, a series for busy professionals who want to stay on top of what's shaping employee benefits. This 15-minute version of our podcast series delivers what The Pulse is

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insight from leading experts across the health, pharmacy and research institutions, with the clarity and straight answers you need in a fast-moving space. I'm Mary Delaney, Managing Partner of Vital Incite an Alera Group Company. I’m joined today by Bryan Trainor, who is the Senior Manager of Talent Wellbeing and Compensation at Kwik Trip. Bryan drives strategy, management, analysis, and optimization of all benefits, compensation, and leave of absence for Kwik Trip's over 38,000 coworkers. His focus is to develop innovative solutions that support Kwik Trip's growth and competitive differentiation, and to deliver value to Kwik Trip's coworkers. Prior to Kwik Trip, Bryan was Benefits Manager at another company with nearly 10,000 employees. So Bryan brings a wealth of experience in employee benefits. And I'm really looking forward to this conversation. Welcome, Bryan. Mary, thanks so much for having me. Super excited to chat today. Yeah, me too. So before we get into the data side of things, can you briefly share your role at Kwik Trip and how talent wellbeing connects to the broader business? Sure. So my role here at Kwik Trip is really to oversee all of our benefits and strategy, and also our compensation and leave and time off. Our team here actually is called the Talent Wellbeing Team, but really that is the benefits team. But as hopefully you'll hear today, we are so dedicated to our coworkers and taking care of them and looking out for their overall outcomes - not just health and wellness, but financial and beyond. So we've changed our name to the Talent Wellbeing Team, and we're just absolutely laser focused on taking care of those people. So refreshing to hear, and so wonderful. So you also have a very diverse population. You've got everything from retail to transportation to corporate. What are the biggest nuances in your population that you have to account for when you design benefits strategies, or any of your strategies? Yeah, so we're a very diverse organization. You mentioned it. We've got production operations that include kitchen and sweets and bread & bun. We have our warehouse, we have our trucking division. Of course, we have our retail. We're 38,000 plus coworkers strong. We're spread out across seven states here in the Midwest. We have over 900 retail stores, convenience stores, that serve guests every single day. So we've got a big reach and it's really, really hard to have a conversation with every single one of those 38,000 coworkers. So when we're designing our programs, we really have to look at things from a strategic lens and figure out how do we develop programs and incentives and overall structures that can impact people's lives at a larger scale. The other interesting thing that we have here at Kwik Trip is we have, because we're so big, we have a diverse age range of coworkers. So when we think about our health plan, we've got coworkers who are nearing retirement who have different needs than our coworkers who are 18 years old just coming into the workforce. So when we start to look at our health outcomes and how do we engage our people and how do we put meaningful programs in place for them, it provides a bit of a challenge to find something that meets the needs for all. So one of the things that we've done is really try to take a multifaceted approach and implement multiple solutions to meet the needs of the people. And why is that so critical to your business outcomes? There's some employers who don't talk so much about how critical it is to support your people. And I know that's really important to you guys. Why is that? Where do you think you've realized? Yeah, well, you know, the one easy answer to that is, well, we want our coworkers to be healthier because we want to save money on the health plan, right? Yeah, that's a significant piece of it. But again, we are committed to our people. Our mission is to serve our customers and community more effectively than anyone else by treating our customers, coworkers and suppliers as we personally would like to be treated, and to make a difference in someone's life. So that last piece, to make a difference in someone's life. So we do these things because it's the right thing to do for our people, period, and stop. The good news is by doing these things, it does also improve health. It improves outcomes so people can run in the backyard with their kids and spend time with their grandkids and have a longer health span. And if we do that, then the last thing we should get a return on investment when it comes to the overall spend. So less ER visits, less catastrophic claims, less cancers that are diagnosed late stage. So it's all a symbiotic relationship between those things. We know if we start with our people, the rest will sort itself out. That's great. And do you think that also has improved your ability to… with client, or-- with employee retention? It does. We have some of the best statistics around turnover for our industry. We're in the retail industry, so very high turnover, and lucky for us because of the things that we've been doing for years and decades, we've been able to keep that turnover low. We really take care of those co-workers. We do a large year-end bonus for our people. So it's really about putting our arms around those folks and taking care of them every single day. That's great. That's great to hear that you've seen the impact of that, too. And it sounds like it's kind of ingrained in who you guys are in your culture. Even your words speak to it so clearly. So now that you have data that is integrated in one warehouse, kind of what new insights have surprised you or shifted your perspective on kind of plan needs. What has that influenced in your mind? Yeah, you know, we thought we had a pretty good feel on what was happening within our plans and programs and within our health plan specifically. But the one blind spot that you have when you don't have a third party independently looking at your claims and data, you are relying on what the vendor partners are going to tell you. And of course, that their data that they're sharing with you are inherently biased, right? They have all the interest in the world to maintain their relationship with you. So they're going to tell you what you need to hear, and they're going to maybe twist the data, or at least omit things that they may not want you to hear. So now that we have all of our information in one place, we can start seeing the full picture. So one, we can really hold our vendor partners accountable. That's a very important piece. But two, we can see how all these different things are connected. Two of the things that most recently have stood out for us was one, most importantly, our cancer-specific spend. Cancer spend number one for our organization, probably number one for most organizations. What was different for Kwik Trip was, our cancer prevalence was actually lower than the benchmark, so you'd think, well, that's really good. You're below the benchmark. But what we were seeing is our outcomes and the severity of those cancers were actually much later in stage, and worse. So that means people are not getting in for their preventive screenings, we're not catching these cancers soon enough, and they're leading to late diagnosis, worse outcomes, and likely loss of life because we're not catching these things sooner. So that has been the most important thing that we've identified by working with Vital Incite. Now, for us, it helps set the strategy to say we need to lean into preventive care more. We need to find ways to get more folks engaged with their primary care provider. So that's our number one priority moving forward. The other interesting thing that we saw within the data was the plan spend for our folks that are Medicare age eligible. So very small membership, 3%, but actually it was driving 8% of the total cost. We probably had hints that, well, that makes sense. Later in life, you're gonna have more healthcare expenses, but we didn't see the numbers clearly. And so now we've been having a lot of strategy conversations around, well how do we support those members, one, but is there anything else we can do to help mitigate and manage the spend in that space? So we don't have a solution yet, but another thing that we're going to be looking into. You are a quick study. Let me tell you. I didn't-- like you actually know the stats, understand the root cause. It's exciting to work with you‘cause I know you guys are going to make big changes quickly. And I am glad you said that about, you know, at 65 and older, because every generation has different needs, just like your different populations within your industry. And understanding those needs and being able to meet them is what really creates huge success. So I'm just thrilled to hear that you're focused in on that. Let's pause to thank our sponsor. This podcast is brought to you by Alera Group. Vital Incite is part of Alera Group, an independent financial services firm offering comprehensive property and casualty insurance, employee benefits, wealth services and retirement plan solutions to clients nationwide. Working collaboratively across specialties and across the country, Alera Group's team of more than 4,600 colleagues offer unique solutions, personalized services and proactive insights to help ensure each client's business and personal success. For more information, visit aleragroup.com and follow us on LinkedIn. You mention your vendor partners, and you have been just as eloquent and wonderful with us as you are with your employees, is that you really do try to create a real collaborative relationship, which I think is great. And the best outcomes come from that. How do you see those conversations evolving? And why I ask that question is - and you probably have experienced it - so many vendors are scared that we're like pulling back the covers and going to make this hard. But the best thing we can do is just put the facts in front of us and figure out how to all walk forward together. So kind of, what are your thoughts? Where are you hoping that this is going to go to? Well, again, we are so fortunate to now be able to have that third-party independent look, because it really just shines the light on the black and white of what's happening. So, you know, for us, we’re fiduciaries of the plan. So we need to do what's in the best interests of our people. And we need to spend the dollars as a fiduciary. So if we have a blind spot, if we don't see what's happening within our partners, then that responsibility is on us. We will own that. And we're responsible for anything that comes out of that. The one most important thing though is it, having that independent review of the outcomes and performance really just shines the light on the successes and the opportunities. And we want to shout from the rooftop and cheer the successes with our vendor partners, and we want to know the opportunities - not because we want to point fingers at our vendor partners and say, you're wrong, you did this, it's all your fault. We need to know the opportunities so we can address them. So if we don't have that independent look, then we really can't see those. Now that we have an understanding of what those opportunities are, we can just be relentless in holding those vendor partners accountable. And it's not because we are mean and we, again, want to point fingers. We want to make sure that we solve for these things. So that has been so refreshing for us, and, you know, really having this, this partnership with Vital Incite, you know, it gives us this security. You know, we were in a QBR today, this morning, with one of our larger vendor partners. And knowing that we have the data from Vital Incite, we can walk into that meeting and say, okay, there's, you know, 3 to 5 things that I want to address here. If we see data that doesn't match, then we can address it. We can have a conversation around it. We can hold them accountable and understand why those things don't match. And it many times brings forward, well, we need to address this or have further conversation because something's not right, or there's a different story being told. You know, Vital Incite, I'm a football fan, so I think about Vital Incite being the coach and they give us that play card on the wrist, right? So we're just the…we're just the quarterback who can look at that play card and we have that in the back of our pocket when we have…walk into these meetings. So it's really refreshing. You know, this conversation is just so…makes me so happy. Thank you. I had no idea how you were, how you were feeling about things or how things were going. So I'm really glad to hear that. And I love the approach of, you know, just objectively, let's just all sit in the room and figure out if we're missing the mark, you know, maybe the marching orders have to change slightly. But then let's just hold each other accountable to move forward. No one is doing a great job at improving the health of our society. So how do we move forward? And I'm really, appreciate that. Bryan, I wish we had a lot longer to talk together, but first of all, I really wanna thank you for how much you care about your people. It is just such a privilege to work with you and Kwik Trip, and what an incredible environment that you're using this to actually help support your people. That is what we all need to do. So thank you for that. Your perspective on this was very thought-provoking. You've highlighted what's possible when strategy, processes, transparency, and employee value all come together. So thanks for spending the time with me today and sharing your insight. I appreciate the time. We certainly got a lot of work to do, but the best is yet to come. So we look forward to it. Oh, can't wait to see where it goes. And to our audience, I hope today's conversation has given you clear, real-world perspective on how benefits strategy can drive better outcomes both for people and for organizations. The Pulse is brought to you by Alera Group. Alera is an independent financial services firm offering comprehensive property and casualty insurance, employee benefits, wealth services and retirement plan solutions to clients nationwide. For more information, visit aleragroup.com and follow us on LinkedIn. I'm Mary Delaney. Thanks for listening.