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HR News brought to you by the Northeast Indiana Human Resource Association (NIHRA).
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¡Feliz Navidad!
NIHRA welcomes the following new members: Chelsea Cosgrove, Paychex; Victoria Plaise, Rea Magnet Wire; Kurt Briner, Indiana Air National Guard; Christine Johnson, Indiana Auto Auctions; Michael Williams & Greg Davis, Paycor; Taylor Fisher & Lisia Francisco, Brightpoint; Adam Surface, Steve Wineland, Nawmartha Htoo, Tesla Flores, Kyaw Soe, Master Spas.
Ed San Inocencio, outgoing NIHRA president, shares memories of serving over his 2022 & 2023 term.
Carly Buchanan, NIHRA president (2024 & 2025) and Julie Hess, President-Elect share a vision for the future and upcoming events.
12 Interesting Christmas Facts
Member Spotlight with Barry Bender, Centurion Industries, Inc. and Anne Whitney, Board Member-At-Large.
Board Member Spotlights with Denise Mills, outgoing Director, Community Engagement; LaTanya Ackerson, Director, DEI; Shiloh Schleppi, Treasurer; Rachel Howell, Director, Programs & Hospitality; Brittany Briscoe, Director, Technology; Olivia Kumfer, Director, Community Engagement.
Community Spotlight with John Metzinger, Citilink and Elizabeth Hoffman, Director of Workforce Readiness. Explore Fort Wayne Public Transportation - Citilink Bus (fwcitilink.com)
Jim Scoggin, Marsh & McLennan Agency, shares his 42 years' experience in the health and welfare industry. jim.scoggin@marshmma.com
Jody Fosnough, Fort Financial Credit Union, shares her passion for Organizational Development. linkedin.com/in/jodyfosnough
The Night Before Christmas, Clement Moore
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Naira is pleased to welcome the following 13 new members Chelsea Cosgrove from Paychex, victoria Plays from Ray Magnetwire, kurt Breiner from the Indiana Air National Guard, christine Johnson from Indiana Auto Auctions, michael Williams and Greg Davis from Paycore, taylor Fisher and Lysia Francisco from Bright Point, adam Surface, steve Weinland, namartha Hattu, tesla Flores and Kaya so from Master Spaws. Welcome new members. We're excited that you can join us.
Speaker 2:How do reindeer apply to fly Santa's sleigh? They submit a resume.
Speaker 4:Today we're speaking with Ed San Innocencio, our outgoing Naira president from 2022 and 2023. Ed, I wanted to ask you to share with our listeners any parting thoughts that you had regarding the changes in Naira over the past couple of years, as well as where you see us headed into the future.
Speaker 5:Absolutely. Thanks for having me on, mike. I think it's almost safe to say that, speaking of me and my presidency in past terms, because we're only now a couple of weeks until the end of the year. I look at these last two years and frankly, can't believe how fast time has gone. I want to say I can't believe of the changes that has happened within our chapter. But when you look at the makeup of who we are as a board and as an organization really comes as no surprise because of just the sheer passion that all of our board members have for this. I will tell you I'm just very thankful and blessed to be able to serve the last two years with such a great group of HR professionals on the board.
Speaker 5:We've done some great things in Northeast Indiana, specifically here in Fort Wayne. We've grown our membership. We've grown the impact that we've had locally in Northeast Indiana with programming. We've surveyed and we've tried to really identify why are our members? And it always comes back to the education. We've just heavily invested into the high quality of education that we're providing to our members.
Speaker 5:I hope it's evident and the changes that we've seen here in Fort Wayne over the last two years have been nothing short of remarkable. I want to thank our members for their continued support, their continued passion and engagement for HR in Fort Wayne. I want to thank our board members. This has been such a tremendous experience. Of course I'm not going to be going anywhere anytime soon. I'll be officially serving as the past president for another two years. I'll be the now moving on to the more the HR State Council as the membership director, serving alongside you, mike. You'll be the State Technology Director, so it'll be really nice time serving along you once again.
Speaker 5:When I look at the future of NIRA, I couldn't be more confident in the hands that it will be under, with Carly Buchanan and Julie Hess, two very passionate people. Carly has done such a great job in the last two years, really enveloping herself in all things NIRA and really learning the role as president. So it's kind of a new take to have a president elect in that role, learning and growing for two years. Carly had won. Julie will not have the full two years and it's going to do nothing but great things for our chapter. But when I look at the future of our chapter. It really starts with our members and what's important to them.
Speaker 5:There are so many changes happening right now in HR and there have been changes happening in HR.
Speaker 5:Nancy Stegmeier did a tremendous job leading us through the COVID era with all of the changing laws and regulations, different work from home policies that we knew nothing about and try to navigate those waters.
Speaker 5:And here we are and we're in a different point as an HR community and I think you can look to us, as you're hopefully the HR authority in Northeast Indiana, when it comes to education and really learning the what's what, and we really try to do a tremendous job of putting the most important topics that affects your day to day world, whether you're an HR or whether you have any stake in employee management or employee engagement or supervision, and if you have any stake in the human asset, we hope to be the avenue you turn to to just learn and connect with other people.
Speaker 5:We've grown our membership to a level that it's never been before. We have nearly 480 members in counting, so we're breaching that 500 mark, which has never happened in the history of Nira. We're averaging well over 200 members at every single monthly luncheon If you, if you're not a member and you're listening to this for the first time. We hold monthly luncheons we have nine of those year along with ancillary events outside of those monthly luncheons. Those ancillary events could be a conversation with the workforce attorney talking about employee handbooks or harassment in the workplace or topics that you need guidance on, and so when I look at the future of Nira, I see really an investment back into what matters most, and that's giving you the tools and the resources and the knowledge in the education to navigate this changing landscape.
Speaker 1:And oh by the way.
Speaker 5:There's almost 500 other members that are going through the exact same thing as you, and our hope is to connect one another, is to learn from one another because, boy, we just have so much knowledge and information within our chapter and if we can just we can just tap into that a little bit, I think we'll all be in a better situation, and so that's our hope is to continue learning together and growing. Our chapter will continue to grow and will continue to evolve. We have a hard time staying still. We have a hard time with status quo, so we always like to push the envelope and do new things. We're releasing a tremendous partnership program where we want to include those, those services that help us in our day to day world. We know that without the right vendors and partners and companies to help with the tools and the resources for HR, our jobs would be much more difficult tools like benefits and technology and recruiting, and, and all of these things that help you become the better version of the HR person you'd like to be. We, we realize that we need those people as true partners as a part of nirin, so we're completely changing the landscape of how that works, bringing in highly valued partners and and and teaming up with them. So it's it's going to. It's going to allow us to further the reach and further the impact that we're making in our community and specifically northeast indiana, as we continue to grow.
Speaker 5:So I couldn't be more more excited and more grateful for the opportunity. I'll I'll be here if if you need anything you can, you can call carly or email carly or anyone from our board. They'd be more than happy to help in any way possible. But, mike, I just want to thank you as well. You led the charge in developing this innovative approach to putting forth a message to our members in a different way, and that's this podcast, and you've done such a great job. You're still going to be here in four way and and, of course, we'll see at the monthly meetings from time to time. I'll see you on a regular basis, but you've done such a great job, really helping you transform what technology used to be to what it will be here, moving forward. So just couldn't be more grateful and just want to thank everyone for the opportunity.
Speaker 4:Thank you, ed. It's been a pleasure doing this with you. It's been. It's been a lot of fun and I hope our our listeners have benefited from just another way of communicating directly with them, and I look forward to the great things that Brittany and team are going to be doing with the podcast moving forward. So thank you for your service to our members and we have a passion for the HR world and the folks in it, and I think you've done a fantastic job of bringing everyone together and moving us towards the goal of 500 plus members. So thank you, ed. Thanks Mike. Welcome to the program. Today I have Carly Buchanan, future Naira president, starting in 2024, and Julie Hess, president elect on the program. Welcome.
Speaker 8:Thanks for having us.
Speaker 4:So, carly, can you tell us about your vision for the organization in 2024.
Speaker 8:Well, absolutely. We are so excited to be coming off of a strong 2023. But as we turn the corner into 2024, naira is excited. We are basically taking everything we've been doing over 50 years and we're, mike, we're taking it to the next level. And to speak to our chapter and our members about exactly what we're taking to the next level, and it's it's the conference, you know the Naira conference, which is coming up May 16. I mean, it's going to be next level, with attendance, speakers, breakouts.
Speaker 8:Also, our programming, you know nine monthly luncheons, over 20 webinars. We're programming on a new and bigger level than we've ever seen partnerships and groups sponsoring and partnering and collaborating with the chapter. We're amping that up. Our marketing for those that follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook, our branding, our membership, mike, we I think we're in the upper 400s, we're pushing 500 chapter members. It's, it's just been unbelievable. So I think what we're saying here at Naira is jump on this bandwagon, because we're we're forging ahead into 2024 and beyond and just taking everything that we've done in Northeast Indiana to advance and serve the HR profession, but doing it on a next level and just putting our, our heart and soul into the chapter, the members and the whole HR profession in Northeast Indiana.
Speaker 4:Great. Thank you for that, carly. Julie, can you tell us what we have in store for programming in 2024.
Speaker 6:Carly mentioned a few of the things and highlights Definitely, absolutely, our conference is. Our conference is always really, really good. Our team does a great job, cassie and her team organizing it. They do a fantastic job with it and it's even going to be better. I mean, we've heard little bits and pieces about what's to come in 2024 and it's it's pretty, pretty cool. It's going to be pretty great.
Speaker 6:Our programming for our luncheons and our webinars, our goal is just like, like Carly said, just to step it up, to take it to the next level. We've got John Balgino coming back, we've got Lindsay Bacarta, we've got Kara Salletto you name it. We've got them coming. And then we we heard our members are. Members said we like more webinars. It adds that value to the membership and we want to bring that value to the members. So, in addition to our legal ease, which we are increasing the number of legal ease webinars we have we're also doing HR power talks this year and that'll be just general HR topics in a webinar format that can be interactive and engaging, and we we just hope to give back to our members that way as well.
Speaker 4:Great Thank you for that, julie. Anything either Carly or Julie would like to share in closing?
Speaker 8:Well, I do always like to promote a shirm we're an affiliate chapter of. This is a big year because the shirm National Conference Mike is actually in the windy city, chicago, so for any of our members that can make the drive to Chicago for the shirm National Conference I do want to mention that's June 24 through 26 and it only makes it to our Midwest neck of the woods every five or six years, so it's one of those things to maybe consider. I know we have our Naira Conference every May and there's the HR Indiana down in Indianapolis every August, but the June shirm National come register. It's on the shirms website. There's a group of Naira members going to be there. I'm going to be there, so definitely check that out and see what shirms doing there in Chicago in June.
Speaker 4:Great. Well, thank you for your time today, carly and Julie.
Speaker 6:Thank you, thanks Mike.
Speaker 1:To get us all in the spirit, we have 12 interesting Christmas facts from Good Housekeeping. Hanging stockings started by accident. Legend has it. We hang stockings by the chimney with care because one year a poor widowed man didn't have enough money for his three daughters dowries, making it difficult for them to marry. Generous old St Nick dropped a bag of gold down their chimney one night and into the freshly washed stockings the girl had hung by the fire to dry. After that, the tradition stuck.
Speaker 1:Christmas wreaths are religious symbols. The custom of bringing evergreens into the home began in the 16th century among northern and eastern Europeans, primarily Germans, as a means of cleaning up the Christmas tree and making it more uniform. Instead of throwing out, cut off greens, people wove the excess into wreaths. However, the religious significance is that the circular shape and evergreen material of the wreath represent eternal life. The circle, which has no beginning or end, symbolizes the eternity of God, the immortality of the soul and the everlasting life we find in Christ. Did you know Americans spend nearly $1000 a year on gifts? According to the National Retail Federation's most recent data, consumers spend an average of $967.13 on the holidays.
Speaker 1:Here's a few interesting facts about two popular Christmas songs. Jingle Bells was originally a Thanksgiving song, turns out, we first started dashing through the snow for an entirely different holiday. James Lord Pierpont wrote the song called One Horse Open Sleigh for his church's Thanksgiving concert in the mid 19th century. Then in 1857, the song was re-released under the title we All Know and Love, and it's still among the most popular Christmas songs today. Astronauts broadcast Jingle Bells from space. Nine days before Christmas in 1965, astronauts Wally Sheraw and Tom Stafford aboard the Gemini-6 told Mission Control that they saw an unidentified flying object about to enter Earth's atmosphere, traveling in the polar orbit from north to south. Just as things got tense, they interrupted the broadcast with Jingle Bells as Wally played a small harmonica, accompanied by Tom shaking a handful of small sleigh bells.
Speaker 1:Silent Night is the most recorded song. We all know the same few handfuls of Christmas songs play at stores and on the radio in a loop all season long, but one of them has been adapted more than others. Silent Night is actually the most recorded Christmas song in history. It's had more than 733 different versions copyrighted since 1978. This one should come as no surprise to many of us. We ship a ton of packages at the holidays. Last year, the US Postal Service processed more than 11.7 billion pieces of mail in packages during the holiday season. That includes gifts for loved ones, holiday cards, christmas letters to Santa and, of course, those dreaded credit card bills from all the gift shopping.
Speaker 1:The term X-MIS dates back to the 1500s. Contrary to popular belief, x-mis is not a trendy attempt to take Christ out of Christmas. Christianity was spelled Xianity as far back as 1100. X or Chi is the Greek first letter of Christ and back in the 4th century Constantine the Great often referenced the shorthand version. Candy Canes originated in Germany. The National Confectioners Association says a choir master originally gave the red and white striped candies to young children to keep them quiet during marathon church services back in 1670. It wasn't until a German Swedish immigrant decorated his tree with candy canes in 1847 that they became popular as a Christmas candy. Nowadays they're available in a wide variety of colors and flavors, like cherry, green, apple and watermelon.
Speaker 1:The enormous Rockefeller Christmas tree started small. The first Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center looked more like Charlie Brown's than the resplendent one today. The iconic tree dates back to the Depression era. Construction workers first placed a small undecorated tree while working there in 1931. Two years later another tree appeared in its place, this time draped in lights. It just kept getting bigger every year. Today, the majestic tree bears more than 25,000 twinkling lights and sees millions of selfie takers each season.
Speaker 1:This Christmas gift held a life-saving secret. During World War II, the United States playing card company joined forces with American and British intelligence agencies to create a very special deck of cards. They distributed them as Christmas gifts to soldiers, but they also helped allied prisoners of war escape from German POW camps when wet individual cards peeled apart to reveal maps of escape routes. And finally, tinsel has a storied history. Tinsel was invented in 1610 in Germany. It was spun from real silver and then hammered out, and was more of a luxury decoration than the cheap tree trimming it is today. The US government once banned tinsel because it used to contain poisonous lead, but no need to worry, now it's just plastic. Merry Christmas.
Speaker 9:Hi everyone. This is Anne with Naira, your board member at large. Today for the member spotlight, I have with me Barry Bender, who is the HR director at Centurion Industries in Garret, Indiana. Welcome, Barry.
Speaker 10:Yes, hi, glad to be with you.
Speaker 9:I'm glad that you were willing to join and share with our members a little bit about yourself. So, barry, tell us, how long have you been a Naira member?
Speaker 10:Yeah, so everyone's heard of Nozark, I'm sure, but no, I'm just kidding. I've been in HR for oh gosh, going on 28 years. So, yeah, been around the HR block a little while. So, yeah, early in my career I had an HR mentor that I looked up to that suggested that I get involved with Sherm and Naira, I think was part of that. So those were great investments. Got involved early on and that was a good thing to get plugged into.
Speaker 9:Okay, and you, if you're willing to share with everyone you, your journey did take you on kind of a wave of being a member and then stepping away from that, and is there anything that you'd like to share about you rejoining the Niagara community?
Speaker 10:Yeah, you bet. So I did step away from it for a while. It seemed like back then it sort of went through a season where the topics, for me at least, got a little stale. I'm a real practical type person, so I'm always looking for things to, you know, to really apply right away, and so it seemed like some of the topics got a little stale, a little esoteric, and you know, and there's also a lot of things nowadays you can get without leaving your desk, you know, obviously on the web, and so I stepped away from it for a while.
Speaker 10:And then, more recently, you know you've got, I know the board has gone through a lot of changes, a lot of new, fresh ideas, fresh board members and creativity, and I noticed that, so thought the topics have been more on point and more practical. And just, you know, you guys are doing a great job of you know just really marketing yourselves to the members better and you know different touch points besides just the monthly lunches, you know the webinars I think are great. So, yeah, I've really enjoyed. You know, plugging back in Been good.
Speaker 9:Great, great. I'm glad. Thank you for sharing that. I'm in your transparency, I mean. I'm glad that you observed that and you reconsidered, and I, of course, am biased. I couldn't agree with you more. I'm very even humbled to be surrounded by some really great leaders on the board and be able to learn and grow from them as well. So that's great. We're really glad to have you part and hopefully you look forward to some of the things we have coming up as well. So, barry, are you also a sure member currently and if you are, how long have you been a sure member?
Speaker 10:I am yes. So yeah, like I said, I kind of plugged into that early on in my career, based, you know, based on my mentor's suggestion there. So that's been a good value and, you know, great resource, obviously for lots, of, lots of things. So, yeah, got my certification there some years ago and that, you know, that also was something that kind of instilled some confidence and something I recommend for my staff too and to do, you know, to pursue that.
Speaker 9:Okay, that's so. You had that direction early on to become a sure member. It sounds like yeah, yeah, I'm gonna ask the mentor.
Speaker 10:You know what are some things I can do to kind of ramp up, because I really didn't come from a traditional, you know, I had zero HR background. So Sherm was one of the you know first things he said to get plugged into.
Speaker 9:So great, great. What do you enjoy the most about being in human resources? And also, if you can share, why did you choose the human resources? Would you you kind of answered that for us a little bit, but if you'd like to enlighten on that as well, Sure, yeah, well, I was always kind of in the public sector.
Speaker 10:I was a pretty extension educator for a number of years and some other public service roles, and you know. So I was always kind of working with people and developing people programs. But I was kind of ready to, you know, spread my wings, if you will, into the private sector, and so it was kind of a natural transition when I had the opportunity to dive into HR. You know, obviously it's a I always think of it as a unique blend between people and task and I felt like I kind of had at least the aptitude for that and thankfully someone was willing to take a chance on me and and you know, between Sherm and other resources, was able to, you know, follow that path.
Speaker 9:Okay, and you?
Speaker 10:you mentioned things that I enjoyed doing. If you want that, I think it's really gratifying to invest in people. It's hard to carve out time for that sometimes with you know and busy HR folks, but if you get a chance to you know, invest in people and help them develop and be be their best, you know that's really gratifying and you know to have the opportunity to help shape a company's culture is is a pretty fun thing.
Speaker 9:Yeah, Do you feel, Barry, that, because many of us and many, many members that have shared also, they didn't really start in HR. They kind of had, like you said, you shared the wheelhouse of it and they kind of evolved into a role? Do you do you feel that many people do kind of start their career that way, or what is your thought on that?
Speaker 10:Well, I don't know the statistics behind it, I think historically that was certainly true. It. Is it better to have some formal training? You know a degree probably, but you know certainly not a an obstacle. You know probably depends on what company you try to get into.
Speaker 10:Some would be more demanding in that way than others, but I think for a lot of folks, you know, it's definitely a knowledge base that you can learn if you're willing to put the work in, and you know certainly a lot of resources out there that can help you along that way.
Speaker 9:So Absolutely Guide you. Guide you toward that direction. What do you consider to be the most beneficial experience about being a NIRA member?
Speaker 10:Yeah, I mean the topics are always great and helpful, but I, you know, always, like just again, like I said, I'm a practical guy, so I like the opportunity to network and talk to other folks around the table If it's a luncheon. You know things that they're doing, solutions to different things. So anytime there's, you know, kind of that opportunity to the network, I think is super helpful.
Speaker 9:Okay, kind of the takeaways that are taken to action, yep.
Speaker 10:Yep.
Speaker 9:Yeah, okay. Do you have a favorite or most memorable speaker at one of our monthly luncheons? It could be past or present. Who and why?
Speaker 10:I can't think of a specific topic. I would say it would probably, again be a topic that would be, you know, practical and something that you can take some things away and apply pretty readily, and you know somebody that puts the cookies on the lower shelf, if you will, so that you can, you know, put them in practice.
Speaker 9:Okay, yeah, yeah, kind of kind of what you said as far as, like that, take that action and take away and apply and how? Yeah, that makes sense. I'm with you. I do agree. It's the good things that you can have the opportunity to apply it or put it into action, I agree. So, barry, I have a few questions that are a little more fun based and just kind of share a little personality with us. If you could choose one yeah, if you could choose one song to play every time you walked into a room for the rest of your life, what song would you choose and why?
Speaker 10:Yeah, I wrestled with that one. I'll tell you what my wife plays on her ringtone. I'm an outdoorsy, adventure type guy, so you know she has the Indiana Jones theme song. But that's not what I would pick probably oh, I don't know I'd probably pick something inspiring, like the Rocky theme song or something like that. I don't know. I could think of lots of things. I think that's a classic one.
Speaker 9:Yeah, I mean you get kind of pumped when you hear the Rocky theme song, so yeah, something from my workout playlist or something so Rocky came to mind. Okay, okay. If you could choose any superpower, what power would you choose and why?
Speaker 10:Well, I like a lot of the comic Marvel superheroes. I mean, it's hard to beat Iron man, right? So I don't know, I'll go with Iron man.
Speaker 9:Okay, yeah, that one's a hard one to argue with, you know, with those powers. So have you seen all of Iron man movies then?
Speaker 10:I think so. Yeah, I usually try to keep up with all that stuff.
Speaker 9:Okay, so we know who to come to if we need someone. Iron man for Naira no.
Speaker 10:I'm just kidding, that might be a question.
Speaker 9:Also, Barry, you know, if you'd like to share with our members in our community. What do you like to do in your free time or any hobbies, when you are certainly, of course, taking a break from all the work of HR? What do you like to?
Speaker 10:do, yeah. So my wife says I have too many interests, and that's probably true, so I need to focus a little better. But you know we are grandparents and so that part you know we spend a lot of time with, with grandkids, which is a huge blessing. And but beyond that you know fishing, hunting, anything outdoors, really camping, hiking. I'm a big Purdue fan and alum so you know boiler up to the Purdue fans out there, I guess.
Speaker 7:Okay.
Speaker 10:So yeah, kind of kind of some of my interests.
Speaker 9:Yeah, that's great. You sound like you have, quite like you said, quite a few interests and versatile, and you stay quite busy, I sounds like, so that that's great that you shared that. Do you have any last encouraging words for someone out there listening or is considering to?
Speaker 10:join Naira. Yeah, sure, I mean kind of like we discussed earlier. I mean like it was in my career, I think you know, an investment in Naira and Sherm are. You know, those are definitely great investments of your time, especially when you're new to HR. But you know, even for the veteran there's always things to be learned and to stay in touch with. So I think those would be the top two things that would suggest any new HR person get plugged into.
Speaker 9:Excellent, Yep. Thank you for sharing that again. Well, Barry, our time is up. I want to again thank you for participating in the member spotlight. It's been really neat to talk with you and learn more about your journey and I just thank you again.
Speaker 10:Yeah, likewise Thanks a lot.
Speaker 4:Welcome to the program. Today I have Denise Mills. Denise, introduce yourself to our listeners.
Speaker 11:Hi there, I'm Denise Mills. I am the Senior Managing Branch Director at Creative Financial Staffing in Portway.
Speaker 4:Great Denise, you have been with the Naira board for quite some time. Can you tell us about your experiences?
Speaker 11:Yeah, I've actually been a member of Naira for about 20 years through a couple different positions and as I got into Naira and got you know a little more involved by attending the meetings and such, I wanted to get more involved. I wanted to help grow and promote the organization. So I decided to join the membership committee and worked on that committee, just contacting people, reaching out, trying to make people aware more than anything and two directors later I was elected to the board and asked if I would be the director of the membership committee and so I did that for about five years. Biggest compliment, or I guess our biggest contribution there, was that the team was able to grow the membership to over 400 members, which was kind of big at that time that was in 2019, before everything happened, but really in a growth mode. At that point I decided to move into community engagement and so I've done that for the last two years.
Speaker 11:I really feel that the Fort Wayne area is all about connection and my primary role, or what I've tried to do for Naira, is just get the word out. It's not hard to interest people in membership when they find out about the organization. We really offer education, networking opportunities and I'm learning really not only for people in HR, but also for business owners. Many businesses in the Fort Wayne area don't have an HR person and I feel like we can really help them with education and resources. So trying to do that in my role as community engagement.
Speaker 4:Great. Do you have any, I guess, parting words for the group as you exit your service as a board member and continue on as a member of Naira?
Speaker 11:Thanks, mike. I think the biggest parting words would be you get what you give, and so if you want to get more out of Naira, make sure you go to all the meetings, get involved on a committee, learn what it's about, because there are so many great opportunities, so many different programs. I mean just the programming alone has grown, even over the last couple of years with the various webinars and legal e-seminars. So, whether it's someone considering board tenure or board membership or even just considering membership, get involved. That's the way you get more out of it. You learn and you meet people and, in my opinion, that's what it's all about. It's been a great experience and I look forward to being a member of Naira for a long time to come.
Speaker 4:Thank you for your time today, Denise.
Speaker 11:Thank you.
Speaker 4:Welcome to the program. I have Latanya Ackerson from our board of, recently elected from our board of directors and she will be serving in 2024. Latanya, introduce yourself to our listeners Good morning listeners.
Speaker 15:I'm Latanya Ackerson. I will be stepping into the role of your diversity, equity and inclusion position for Naira board 2024.
Speaker 4:Great. Tell us why you decided to serve on the Naira board.
Speaker 15:Yes, so from my decision to serve on the Naira board, I have been a Naira member since 2015. I have been a Sherman member since 2016. I love everything HR. The diversity, equity and inclusion, and even belonging is a very big, strong passion of mine and I am what you would call a community volunteer, professional volunteer. So now that I've kind of like delegated some of those roles in my personal life from other boards and things of that nature that I've sat on, I decided that it was my time to throw in my name for the Naira board and you all decided that it was my time to shine as well and have selected me for this role and I'm really excited to take this on.
Speaker 4:But Tanya what do you have in store for 2024?
Speaker 15:Yeah, so for 2024, I hope to bring more diversity and inclusion, webinars and trainings, support things to all of our members of the Naira committee so that they can take those to their teams and diversify their communities and their organizations and help grow those avenues with their leadership skills and the leaders that they all serve in their capacities as well.
Speaker 4:Well, thank you for your time today, latanya.
Speaker 15:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4:Welcome to the program, shiloh Leppie. She has recently been elected to the board of directors. Shiloh, tell us about yourself.
Speaker 3:Well, thanks for having me on, mike. Yes, my name is Shiloh Shiloh. I am an HRIS coordinator at Lutheran Life Villages currently. I have been involved with Naira since last year. I kind of love everything HR and they're passionate about all the different facets of HR and the future of HR, and so that's why I wanted to kind of get involved with, get more involved with Naira, and I got elected to the treasurer position for the 2024-2025 term.
Speaker 4:Do you have anything special in mind for 2024?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I know, with the treasurer position kind of being more behind the scenes, I'm just looking to get my feet wet in the role and learn as much as I can from the exiting treasurer, sherry Giddo, and learn from all of the other board members as to how we can best serve the Naira members and improve for 2024-2025.
Speaker 4:Well, thank you for your time today, shiloh. Thank you. Today I have Rachel Howell with me. Rachel, introduce yourself to our listeners.
Speaker 16:Yeah hi. My name is Rachel Howell. I am a Fort Wayne native branch director for our Fort Wayne Robert Hap office and will be serving in the programming portion of our board 2024-2025.
Speaker 4:Tell us why you decided to serve on the Naira board.
Speaker 16:Sure, I became a member of Naira recently. I found every meeting to be incredibly important and I loved the topics. It's something that I hear from different clients or job seekers in the area. I thought I could probably be a really great resource for the folks in the community. I want us to be a great place to work, or northeast Indiana in total. That is where I am going to be focusing.
Speaker 4:So what do you have in store for 2024?
Speaker 16:I'm very lucky 2024 will be a lot of shadowing. It's a big role, it's super important and Julie has taken the lead on quite a few things already, so I will be learning from her. But tons of ideas for 2025. I've got a few folks in mind that I wanted to reach out to, making sure that we're attacking the issues that HR managers are facing the managers at the facility. I want to make sure everybody's kind of on board and ready to get us where we need to be.
Speaker 4:Well, thank you for your time today, Rachel.
Speaker 16:Thanks, Mike.
Speaker 4:Today I have Brittany Briscoe. Brittany, introduce yourself to our listeners.
Speaker 7:Hi. Yes, my name is Brittany. I am the HR manager here at Master's Spaws. I've been here about three and a half years and I have been a part of NIRIS since 2021 and I'm about to be on the board as of 2024.
Speaker 4:Tell us why you decided to serve on the NERVA board.
Speaker 7:I decided to be on the NIRRA board basically because before I joined NIRRA, I didn't know what NIRRA was, and coming to a group of like-minded HR professionals was very refreshing. So I wanted to serve on the board to give the members what they need. I've been a part of the retention committee previously part of the marketing committee as well, helping out Morgan, and we've implemented quite a few things on these committees, and so I just wanted to continue to serve the members.
Speaker 4:What do you have in store for 2024?
Speaker 7:On 2024, I will be in charge of technology, so taking over this lovely podcast and overseeing the website. With that, I have some new ideas to bring, not only to the website but for the podcast as well. I'm really looking to stepping in and just hitting things head on.
Speaker 4:Thank you for your time today, Brittany.
Speaker 7:Thank you.
Speaker 4:Welcome to the program. Today I have Olivia Comfort. Olivia, introduce yourself to our listeners.
Speaker 17:Hi, mike. Well, thank you for having me on today. I appreciate it. So I'm Olivia Comfort and I am the regional sales manager for leader staffing, and I'm very blessed to be a part of NIRRA. I've been a member. Actually, denise Nilsa was on the membership board committee at the time that I had joined, which it was such a privilege, and that was back in 2018. So I'm just thrilled to be here with you guys.
Speaker 4:Olivia, tell us why you decided to serve on the board.
Speaker 17:With the NIRRA board. I do a lot of engagement in the community through my daughter's girl scouts, through junior achievement, and I've always been very passionate about NIRRA since I joined as a member and before I felt that maybe you know, oh, I'm not quite qualified. I'm learning, you know, as I'm getting into more things recruitment and HR and at this stage in my life I was just excited to, you know, be a part of something that's bigger than myself and really do something for me that I'm passionate about with NIRRA and with our community. So I was really excited, instead of serving for a direction that was more geared toward my kids, to serve in a way that positively impacted myself and something that I personally am passionate about.
Speaker 4:Olivia, tell us what you might have in store for 2024.
Speaker 17:So for 2024, really, I just kind of want to see where Denise has really grown our significance with Greater Fort Wayne, with other professional organizations, and really kind of go from there as far as taking the lead to engaging in with more community partners to build that awareness of what NIRRA has to offer and also see how we as a NIRRA Association can partner back and give back to the community in that way also and really tie it all together because Fort Wayne really is it's a wonderful place to work, live and play, and that's something where I think that we really do all look out for each other as a community and as an organization, and this is something that can really help our team.
Speaker 4:Well, thank you for your time today, Olivia.
Speaker 17:Yeah, thanks for having me, Mike, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:What kind of HR portal do they have at Santa's Workshop?
Speaker 1:Elf Service.
Speaker 14:Hi, this is Elizabeth Hoffman. I'm the Director of Workforce Readiness with NIRRA. Today, I am joined with John Messinger. John is the CEO of Fort Wayne CityLink and we wanted to chat with you today about public transportation and what that could mean for employers. Well, welcome John.
Speaker 12:Hi, elizabeth, nice to be with you.
Speaker 14:Nice to be with you too. So how does public transportation benefit our community?
Speaker 12:Yeah, you know it's important to think about public transit, maybe with a shift in mindset, considering that not everybody drives in cars and I know here in Northeast Indiana we don't always think in those terms certainly the way that cities are developed and sometimes how employers develop their locations. So we're there to connect employers with workforce and to help people get access to jobs, and so people move in different ways, including those who don't drive, riding on public transit. One thing to consider here in Fort Wayne there are some 8,000 households that don't have access to a car, and when you consider the annual cost of car ownership is somewhere around $12,000, not everybody can afford to drive. And then there are those who can't drive because of disabilities or because of age, and so public transit can be there to help folks in those categories be active members of a community.
Speaker 14:Great. So can you tell me a little bit about CityLink's travel training program?
Speaker 12:Yeah, this is a new program that we developed about a year ago, and it really came from recognizing that there's a need.
Speaker 12:People in our community may see the buses driving around but not realize that it could be for them, or may have difficulty understanding how bus systems operate. Where are the bus stops? Where does the routes go? How do you read a bus timetable? Those are sometimes barriers for people in terms of accessing public transportation, so we created a program that will help overcome those barriers. We have a travel trainer on staff who is very familiar with our system and she's there to help new people plan transit trips, and she'll even go out and ride the bus with them as many times as it takes for folks to feel comfortable with accessing public transit. Another part of the program that's important for your audience is she's more than willing to go out and meet with employers to help HR staff learn the system, to be able to communicate with their employees so that they can access public transit. So her name is Pakola Trice and her job is really to show folks how easy and convenient it can be to use public transportation.
Speaker 14:And I know from previous conversations that we're going to send our travel trainer out to train the trainer. Yeah, there's some major employers in town to teach their HR department how to train to use the bus system, so we're really looking forward to that in 2024.
Speaker 12:Yeah, it's important to know that this is not only is it available, it's free, it's a service that we provide, and so, if anyone's interested, they can hop on our website and there's a page dedicated to travel training, which can get you connected.
Speaker 14:Yeah, and our website at CityLink is SWCityLink, with an I so C-I-P-I-L-I-N-K dot com. So how can employers, or what can employers do to support public transit riders?
Speaker 12:Yeah, you know, I think it starts with listening to the needs of employees. As you're onboarding new employees or working with existing staff, you may hear sometimes about mobility challenges with access to transportation to get to work, and so hearing from folks on your own teams is a good place to start, but there are lots of other ways, as employers are citing new employment centers. Consider the accessibility for public transit. The challenge with a growing market like the Fort Wayne area is many jobs are being located beyond the reach of public transportation today, and that's a challenge for sure. When developing work centers, it's important to consider bus infrastructure, so can a pedestrian get from a bus stop nearby into the workplace, and is it accessible for people with disabilities? So those are all things to consider.
Speaker 12:One thing we hear from employers is that they are adapting shift start and end times to be adjacent to the public transit schedule, and so that's something we can help with. If you have an employee who depends upon public transportation, how can you adapt to create a start time that will be more convenient for the employee? There are other ideas as well. Last year, citylink began operating a new program, a new van pool program, and this is a service that could be of interest to HR directors who would like to set up van pools. Van pools are very similar to car pools in that groups of employees come together to share a ride to and from work with one of the employees driving. The difference with our program is that we will provide the van and we'll make sure it's insured and maintained, and that's paid for through a subsidy provided from CityLink in partnership with the employer. So if there's interest, give us a call and we can help employers and employees get started in launching van pool programs.
Speaker 14:Great. And how do employers find information on bus services?
Speaker 12:Our website, which we mentioned earlier, is a good place to start, or feel free to give us a call and we'll help. We're always more than willing to go out and make presentations to employers to help them get access to public transportation. We have a really great customer service operation. So there are folks here at CityLink that you can call and they're more than happy to get into the details of helping plan a trip Where's the bus stop? What time do you need to be there to schedule the trip? And then for folks with disabilities, we operate the access para transit service, which is a curve to curve service scheduled in advance that can get people to and from jobs.
Speaker 14:Great, and our phone number here at CityLink is 260-432-4546. If you're interested in getting in contact with any of our customer service representatives, what other information do you want to get out to the HR community? Jeff?
Speaker 12:Yeah, it's a good question. We are I think again it comes back to a shift in mindset Rethinking about mobility needs beyond driving and cars. What would happen if HR leaders could begin to think about mobility needs as an element of inclusion and equity strategies? I know we're all challenged to attract and retain workforce One of the biggest issues today in HR.
Speaker 12:So thinking about mobility as a part of equity and inclusion can create opportunities for employers to attract people with disabilities, black and brown employees, people who have lower incomes, and maybe these are folks that HR has not gone after before to bring into the workplace. So considering the implications for the potential workforce that could be attracted, retained by partnering with public transit is a really exciting opportunity. And another factor for employers to think about is it's expensive to build and maintain parking lots. I know, even here at CityLink, as we have a growing workforce, we have a parking constraint, and so, rather than thinking about just building more parking, one solution is to mitigate the demand for parking by providing alternative mobility options. And then another thought is to think about public transit and human mobility through the lens of environmental sustainability strategies that companies have. How can we consider reducing carbon through the transport of workforce and public transportation can be a solution for all of these areas.
Speaker 17:Wonderful.
Speaker 14:So, being born and raised in Fort Wayne and now working for CityLink with you, john, I have noticed that the perception of public transit in Fort Wayne is a little bit different than other large cities. So can you tell me what are the current challenges facing CityLink and how are we addressing them? I know that's a major concern for employers, as they're looking to embrace CityLink as their public transit provider.
Speaker 12:Yeah, absolutely, and let me first say how happy we are that you're on our team to help guide and lead our HR strategy. We're glad you're here. Yeah, it is true I am relatively new to Fort Wayne, moved here two and a half years ago for this position. But I've worked in other markets where public transit is more broadly embraced by the community and what I've noticed here is part of our history is how the community has developed. But there are sometimes there's a stigma potentially attached to public transit and that comes from car-centric community development that identifies freedom of mobility with car ownership. But that's a value that's not held in other vital communities. So here's Fort Wayne.
Speaker 12:One of our challenges that impacts CityLink is the rapid economic growth of this area. Locating employment centers beyond the reach of public transportation or even outside of our transit district is a challenge. I'm very happy and excited by the community development plans Allen County they're all in Allen plan greater, fort Wayne's economic development strategy and many others have all identified expansion of public transportation as a key priority for the community, as a key economic development tool. So as people are talking about the need and recognizing it, you know that's really a good start for us to address the challenges, but there are. The challenges are great.
Speaker 12:Funding for public transit has been flat in Indiana for more than a decade and while the demand is growing, with our costs also increasing, we're finding it difficult. Our budget forecast shows a deficit position. So while there's a lot of discussion about expansion of public transportation, the challenges that we're facing is that we may be in the position where we have to reduce service. Certainly, we're looking for ways to operate more cost effectively and efficiently. So at the same time that we're envisioning a future when expansion can be possible, we're having to both scale down and plan for future growth. What really needs to happen is for the community to put legs to their interest in expansion of public transit by beginning to advocate for additional funding. Transit funding in Indiana haven't grown in more than a decade and lags surrounding states, and that puts our state at a competitive disadvantage.
Speaker 12:So we're working now to build a coalition of supporters who will be willing to share their stories about their needs with elected leaders, so that transit funding can grow.
Speaker 14:And how does CityLink contribute to the community's overall well-being and development? How are we finding and getting people engaged?
Speaker 12:Yeah, you know, really what we're in the business of doing is providing and improving human mobility. Is that essential ease of getting around? You know, you think about how we move about a community and the impact that it has on quality of life and opportunity. That's what CityLink does. We help improve access to opportunity and improve quality of life for our customers. But public transit, you know, is part of that mobility picture. It can be a measure of community's judgments about its priorities. Here in Fort Wayne, development has prioritized driving in cars and there's been less emphasis on bicycle, pedestrian and transit infrastructure. So again, that shift in mindset is going to be important. But the good news is is that this is changing and CityLink is leading the way. So we're a vital partner in building, developing economic development, enhancing workforce mobility and making our community a great place to live and work.
Speaker 14:Great. Is there anything else that you would want Any resource professionals in Northeast Indiana to know about? Citylink or?
Speaker 12:public transit. Sure, yeah, you know, we are envisioning a future with more services available to help people move about the community. That's going to include expansion of public transit in terms of our footprint beyond our existing district. We envision expanded late night and weekend services, in addition to services that are more on demand and flexible compared to just the fixed route bus. Another part of our future might be expansion into regional transportation, recognizing that we're working in a regional economy. Today's limitations upon public transit are statutory, so the state who established us sometimes sets up artificial boundaries which create barriers in human mobility. So those are some things we need to overcome. But, yeah, we're just hoping that the community will come around us and help us realize this vision. Hr leaders need to know that human needs in your organization, including mobility needs, can be addressed through public transportation. So, if there's interest, hop onto our website and learn more about how you can partner with us in telling your stories so that we can impact elected leaders to help improve public transit in this area.
Speaker 14:Great Well, thank you so much for talking to me today, john, and, as I stated, if you'd like to get in contact with CityLink, you can call our main number at 260-432-4546 or check out our website at wwwfwcitylinkcom. Or, if you'd like a direct link, you can always send me an email at mehoffman at fwcitylinkcom. Thank you for your time, john.
Speaker 12:Glad to be with you, thanks.
Speaker 4:Today we're speaking with Jim Skoggin, Senior Vice President with Marsh McClellan Agency. He has 42 years experience in the health and welfare industry with a wide variety of clients ranging in size from 100 to several thousand employees. Jim has expertise in virtually all aspects of the health and welfare plan management and operates totally independent, not aligned with any service provider. Welcome to the program, Jim.
Speaker 18:Thank you, Mike. I appreciate you inviting me.
Speaker 4:You have any hobbies that you do outside of the business?
Speaker 18:Yes, I've got three kids, two grandkids, and my wife and I my bride of 41 years spent a lot of time with family. I play a little bit of golf and we're also involved with horses. My wife is an equine debaute and shows American saddle breads and hackney ponies. Although we live in Michigan, we're in Kentucky a lot showing horses and hanging out at the barn. That would be our primary hobby outside of work.
Speaker 4:That sounds really exciting. It's got to be a lot of fun.
Speaker 18:It's a lot of fun. We do a lot of traveling. My daughter, elizabeth, also shows and it's been a family for many years. We very much enjoy it. Horse people are wonderful people to hang out with, lots of fun.
Speaker 4:Well, thanks for sharing that, Jim. Let's get on to it. What are some of the most significant issues your clients are facing in today's marketplace?
Speaker 18:We always deal with the day in, day out, blocking and tackling running a welfare plan, a large medical plan especially, is always challenging. It's tough to find service providers that are providing adequate service more or less good service. There's all sorts of regulatory challenges. It's a difficult business and has been for many, many years. As you alluded to, I've been doing it for quite some time. Currently, though, I'm seeing trends that we've not seen before that do stand out as a major concern. If I had to reduce it to just a simple statement, it's a dramatic increase in catastrophic claim activity, both the volume of catastrophic claims and the dollar amount associated with those claims. Back in the day, it was rare to see a claim exceed a half million dollars a year, more or less a million dollars. Now it's become commonplace. In fact, there was just a survey I read a few weeks back, conducted by the SunLife Insurance Company. Sunlife is a major player in the stop-loss business, stop-loss for self-funded medical plans. In the SunLife survey, they saw roughly a 50% increase in catastrophic claims of over a million dollars per year from 2018 to 2021. These are the types of claims that can really undo a medical plan. For a small, fully insured plan sponsor, million dollar claims can completely disrupt the relationship with the carrier. In some cases it might lead to a no renewal or renewal increases that were not sustainable For a self-funded plan sponsor. It leads to costs that are not sustainable even with stop-loss insurance. Stop-loss carriers are not going to stay on and fund a million dollar plus claims without massive increases in premiums.
Speaker 18:What's driving a lot of this it's fortunate and unfortunate are advances in technology, especially in the pharmacy area with specialty drugs. Now we've got genetic therapies that are emerging. These are miracle drugs. If you take the case of hepatitis Hep C, the Hep C drugs, while very, very expensive, are drugs that cure Hep C. They're miracle drugs. The drugs that are evolving to treat hemophilia are literally saving lives, but these therapies come at a significant cost.
Speaker 18:Many of us in the industry, including myself, are seeing a fork in the road. I'm a little surprised we haven't gotten there yet where we are going to have to make tough decisions on who's going to receive these drugs and who's not. No one likes to use the term rationing, but when you don't have the financial resources to pay for a good or service, then something's got to give. That concerns me more than anything, mike the spike in these catastrophic claims and how we're going to manage them in the next. This is not a long-term concern. I'm talking in the next one to five years. I think we're all going to be dealing with this issue.
Speaker 4:Jim, what can employers do to brace for this changing market landscape?
Speaker 18:That's a really good question. I represent a number of companies around the country. I'm very fortunate that many of my clients for many, many years and they're great employers and very proactive plan managers. I think that the most and simplest advice is aggressive plan management having the right people both internally and externally to manage your welfare plan. Historically, employers, especially in the middle market, have not placed as much value in the people they hire to run their health and welfare programs. By health and welfare I'm referring to anything that's a traditional employee benefit outside of pension plans. We're talking medical, dental, vision, life, worksite benefits, et cetera. But having the right people internally and then the right partners externally is critical.
Speaker 18:I've also found that those employers that really care I mean really care about their workforce, not just talking to talk, but really care about a culture of well-being, are in a much better position to deal with these challenges. All too often I see in the marketplace employers that want to win the most recent award for a best place to work in their marketplace. It's got to a point. It seems like everybody. It's like a kid sports these days everybody wins a ribbon for participating. I'm not referring to that. I'm getting employers that are really working hard, looking at their data, working with their plan manager, their advisor, their broker, et cetera, in terms of using that data and then trying to plan accordingly with respect to plan design, employee communication. Something as simple as looking at your data annually to have a better handle on your chronic disease issues. Diabetes is a real, easy example. Type 2 diabetes percentages in terms of those impacted in our country are exploding, and the delta between the cost claim cost of a compliant diabetic, one who is taking care of themselves, seeing their doctors, staying on their meds, working on the condition the claim cost for that diabetic versus a non-compliant diabetic can be tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of dollars. Those plan sponsors that are investing the time and money in those types of initiatives, I think, are going to be in far better shape.
Speaker 18:Related to that, though, I also think that those plan sponsors that are aggressively managing their service provider to get maximum leverage I don't mean just low rates, but regardless of who it is, whether it's Blue Cross or Cigna or Atena or United but are you getting your maximum value out of those service providers in all way, shapes and environment?
Speaker 18:I think the insurance industry as a whole I've been watching it for decades now is underserved. At the moment, I think the carriers have not done as good a job as I would like to see them do in terms of aggressive plan management, accountability, having a great service team, great clinical resources, et cetera. But the squeaky wheel gets the grease. So if you're not aggressively managing those service providers, you're probably not getting max value. And to wrap it up on this topic, mike, even that being the case, you are still vulnerable to these market conditions. But you are in far better shape if you're informed, you're prepared, you have a business plan to deal with the problems once they happen. The employers that don't have a plan and are simply reacting to these market conditions, I think, are going to be in a much more vulnerable position than those that are proactive and staying ahead of the game.
Speaker 4:So, jim, is there a particular area where you would focus to be more aggressive on your health and welfare plan management?
Speaker 18:Yeah, if I had to pick one, I would focus on pharmacy right now. As I've already alluded to a lot of these cost drivers that we're saying are evolving out of the pharmacy world, which has been a problem for us for decades, there has historically been a serious lack of transparency. People that are listening to the podcast might know this they're reading about it every day but there is still a tremendous lack of transparency between the pharmaceutical manufacturers and, really, more importantly, if I had to criticize the PBMs, the pharmacy benefit managers it is. For years it's been a money grab and it's like hiding the P under the thimble. You go at the PBMs to try and attack brand drug costs and all of a sudden they're making more profit on the generic and you focus on the generic and all of a sudden they're making more money on the rebates. The rebate dollars that are being shelled out by the manufacturers now, especially for pharmacy that are specially drugs, are huge and they have changed tremendously, even in the last two to three years, and we find there is still significant abuse. Hopefully I'm not offending any of our PBM friends, but this is just my personal opinion. I think there is still significant abuse in the industry, unless you're holding the PBM accountable.
Speaker 18:I'll give you a couple of examples, historically and by PBMs, for anybody that might not be familiar. I'm referring to the CVSs, the Express, grips, the Optums. These are the people, the industry, the part of the industry that is really managing the distribution of our pharmacy to our health and welfare plans across the country. There's a lot of overlap as well. A lot of these companies provide services to multiple companies, but for years, these companies have tried to lock employers into multi-year agreements with the sales pitch that it's great for you, we're going to give you a three-year guarantee. I've told people, though, is it over those three to five years, costs are going down and, potentially, rebates going up significantly. That's one specific example. I'm not a fan at all of a multi-year agreement. Now, for many of your listeners, though, they're in insured arrangements where they don't have the flexibility per se, but these are still questions that should be asked. I'm not at all a fan of a multi-year deal. We'll take a one-year deal. We have focused over the years and my company Martial and Clinit Agency, as we have a whole pharmacy team that does this work for us nationally we have focused as much on the language in the agreements, as we have the financial components of the plan. Oftentimes we will find a prospective client that's talking to us where there's tremendous opportunity If your listeners are not tuned in to that pharmacy component of their plan. I'd say that's step one.
Speaker 18:In fact, I just wrap up on this point to give you a specific example. We had a client a few years back, a large national account, a publicly traded company, several thousand employees, and going back now five years, but the industry is still very similar to what we experienced then. They had a planned participant adolescent child out in Arizona, and the claimant was diagnosed with hemophilia and was in bad shape. The hemophilia treatments, as I alluded to earlier, though, have just grown leaps and bounds, but the treatments are therapies that involve extremely expensive medications. They're essentially genetically engineered plasmas that are used as therapies. The cost for these hemophilia drugs can range from several hundred thousand dollars a year to millions of dollars a year. This adolescent child was using a very high volume of clotting factors, and the claim went to $500,000 a month, $6 million a year. The client in this case was self-funded, so it was all their money.
Speaker 18:We went on the offensive with our service providers, who I won't name in this case, but it was a combination of a medical plan along with their PBM. We got nowhere. That's not their interest Bringing the cost of that drug down, looking for alternative strategies. That ultimately led into both losing the business. But we went on a two-year mission to find alternatives. There are, without getting into specific detail, there are alternate strategies for the hemophilia drugs, but it's not in the best interest of a PBM or a drug manufacturer to simply walk away from profit. It's something that requires ongoing management. Sadly, I think that the PBMs I alluded to earlier are going to continue to look for ways to make money. They're for-profit companies. I'm sure they care about their clients, but they care about making money as well. I think focusing on pharmacy with the right data and the right resources is a great way to start, especially for your listeners that have larger self-funded medical plans, that would be number one for sure.
Speaker 4:Jim, if our listeners wanted to find out more information about what we've talked about today or potentially work with you in the future, how would they contact you?
Speaker 18:Yeah, I'd be delighted to take any inquiries. My email address email is the best place to reach me. My email is JimScoggin S-C-O-G-G-I-N at M-A-R-S-H-M-M-A no period, just marsh-m-m-acom. I work out of our regional office in Troy, michigan, which is a suburb of Detroit, but I'd be more than happy to take any questions from any of your listeners If you'd be happy to jump on the phone and take a phone call as well, but if they can reach me through that email address.
Speaker 4:Thanks for your time today, Jim.
Speaker 18:Thanks for having me, mike, I appreciate it. Why did HR bring a snowman to an all-staff meeting?
Speaker 2:Announcing a salary freeze.
Speaker 4:Today we're speaking with Jody Fosno, former Nira president. Jody, please introduce yourself to our listeners.
Speaker 13:Thanks, mike. Hi everyone, my name is Jody Fosno and I am currently the training and development manager at Port Financial.
Speaker 4:Jody, what would you like to speak to our listeners about today?
Speaker 13:Well, one thing that, mike, you and I talked about, that is very near and dear to my heart, is this whole huge area of organizational development and what that means for HR professionals right now and as we go into the future. And that's kind of where I want to start today, because we know we've emerged from the great resignation. We still have about half of the workforce quietly quitting, we still have disengaged employees at about 18% based on the Gallup poll and we're in this kind of turning marketplace where we're seeing a lot of shifts in different industries, a lot of changes occurring. We also have a workforce that's coming out of working from home all the time, so working part of the time doing hybrid. What's that work looking like? How is work getting done? And we all, as the people, leaders in our organization, are saying what are we going to do with all of this?
Speaker 13:And this is where my passion is is how do we develop a workforce that's going to be prepared for what needs to get done in the future? And so, taking that huge area, I kind of took a look at two different things and then it really kind of plays a role in a lot of different areas within the HR function, and that is the areas of reskilling and upskilling. So I mean, these tend to be buzzwords, but they've been around a long time. Reskilling is absolutely relevant in today's marketplace and to me, what that means and I'm sure you've seen that also, mike, in the manufacturing industry is that things are changing quickly because of technology, because of regulations, because of policy, but we still need people to get the job done. That has to be completed right now. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 4:I would yeah.
Speaker 13:And so we want our current workforce to still be productive and exceeding expectations in this rapidly changing environment, and it's requiring them to reskill, change the way they do their work. There's different technology that is allowing them to do their job differently and maybe more efficiently and effectively. However, it's different. So what they did a year ago it's not necessarily the same thing. And in the finance industry, we have regulatory changes and we have market impacts that are occurring that are changing the way that we are offering our products and are able to kind of service them. And so, on one hand, you have an entire workforce that, in order for them to just keep meeting expectations, they are going to have to up their skills in different areas technology, knowledge of regulations, knowledge of market impact and then you have this entire area of upskilling. What we do know is over half I think like 65% of Gen Z jobs don't even exist yet. So literally we have an entire workforce that is going to school and we have always looked like. I bet you could look at any job description out there on Indeed, on LinkedIn, and it says this kind of degree and this amount of experience, right, and you would say, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Absolutely. We need to have those job descriptions. That helps in our organization. Well, right now we have people that are graduating with those four years and four year degrees but because technology and everything is moving so quickly, the knowledge that's learned is obsolete by the time they graduate, and so we have to kind of relook at what that is going to look like for our organizations, because 90% of organizations anticipate a meaningful skill gap. So I know, and so we have to take a look at what exactly are the skills that we need to develop our organization. We know the top reason people leave their job is lack of career development. Mckinsey's Global Report this year said that. We also know Smart Brief did an article that 71% of workers felt job training and development increase their satisfaction. So if we as people leaders want to have an engaged workforce that stays with us, we have to be ahead of the curve on how we're developing our workforce. So we have this one area where we have to kind of keep up by reskilling, and then we have to be proactively looking at our industry and how it's shifting and how it's changing to be able to upscale for the future. And here comes us as talent development and HR leaders saying how are we going to continue productivity for today and what are we going to do to prepare our workforce for tomorrow, and that, I think, is just a super exciting place to be. And so I mean I'd love to get your ideas, mike, but I'll just throw a couple of things out there and kind of get your input into some of these thoughts.
Speaker 13:I think that the way in which so it used to be to reskill somebody, to retrain somebody, we looked at the three E's of training. We looked at education, experience and exposure. But now what I just said you know, somebody's got a four year degree that's not necessarily the education that we need our workforce to have to be effective now. So now what we're looking at at least what we're looking at is what does spot training look like? Micro learning, you know, simulations and things that we can do right now to be able to reskill what's going on so that our employees can get up to date quickly and then go service our members, go create their loans, et cetera.
Speaker 13:And experience is looking a lot differently too. We value the experience of somebody who has great longevity within our industry, within our organization. That gives us a good, you know, kind of a base for knowledge transfer. However, we need to look at different experiences, like what is your experience servicing members and customers in different environments and what does it look like when you're using a mobile app instead of coming into one of our branches? So that requires different experiences than what we've ever looked at before today. And then getting exposure to a wide variety of you know different kinds of experience, like it used to be, being an expert in one area is where your clout was, and that is still. Those skills are still important, but now you have to be able to collaborate with other departments to be able to see the big picture and you have to be kind of one step ahead of where your customers are. So you need different kinds of exposure just to stay where you're at and reskilling. Now let me ask you, mike, where I mean. Have you seen that in your industry?
Speaker 4:Yeah, I would agree with that. I think you know the standards certainly have changed quite a bit in terms of what we're looking for. Just in manufacturing, the requirement of a GED or high school diploma has been standard for years and years. I think employers are a lot more flexible regarding that.
Speaker 4:You know, I think, just because we're all fighting for talent, we've certainly been willing to accept people without experience in manufacturing prior, where we had kind of the option to, or, you know, we were a lot more selective in regards to that in terms of excluding people that didn't bring experience to the table already, and so, you know, it certainly caused employers to be a lot more flexible and adaptable to the workers that are present. And so, you know, we started something out, at least at my company, just in regards to people who are having attendance problems.
Speaker 4:If they were to the point where they were going to be pointing out or, you know, not basically exceeding our attendance points levels, instead of terminating them, we allowed them the option to continue part-time, and that allowed them the flexibility to continue working as much as they could and contributing to our organization and still having a check or an opportunity to contribute until either that maybe that works for them on a long-term basis and or maybe they get back to a point in time where they could return to full-time employment. So we again, we've had to adapt and become flexible in a lot of different areas, including something like, you know, part-time status.
Speaker 17:Yeah.
Speaker 13:Well, and see, I love what you're saying, because when you start taking a look at reskilling your workforce, that absolutely impacts the infrastructure of what HR is and kind of blows it up, doesn't it? Because now, now we're looking at, okay, from the talent acquisition perspective, what, okay, what are the skills that are really important to us? Maybe it's not a GAD, maybe is and I heard you say it a couple of times maybe it's agility, flexibility, maybe it's teachability. Those are different skills and different people that we're going to be looking for. And then you get into performance.
Speaker 13:You brought up performance that brings up a whole new structure that we kind of are looking at blowing up right, is it, you know, always looking at how you performed in the past, or is it how are you addressing the challenges and changes for now to prepare us for the future?
Speaker 13:And that really blows up the way we've always looked at performance management. I love what you say is that you've taken a look at your organization just a little bit differently to say, okay, all right, this isn't working out here, but what can we do and what can we change in our policies to really recognize still that we've got a talent here and we need to maybe change the way we're looking at how they're performing. So I love that. And then the other one the other you know structure that is scary to blow up is then what are we compensating for? What are those? Are we compensating for a position, or are we compensating for a collection of skill sets? And which one, which one of those paradigms are going to get us to where our organizations are going to be successful? I mean, that's kind of that. Those are like the core pillars of HR, right?
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, they are.
Speaker 16:And I want to go ahead.
Speaker 9:No, go ahead.
Speaker 4:I just I wanted to share something I came across today on LinkedIn. It was from HackingHR and it says don't hire for cultural fit, hire for cultural growth. Why would you hire someone talented if you're not willing to evolve your team or your organization thanks to their talents? Cultural fit assumes that your culture is perfect, or at least optimal. Cultural growth acknowledges that, while your current way of working may work fine, you are also open to improving it.
Speaker 13:Oh my gosh, I love that. You will have to send that to me, and I totally agree with that. And so the question is so, as you take a look then, from re-skilling which you still have to do to upskilling, the question is, what are the skills needed for that? Cultural fit, cultural growth experience, and how are we mentoring and coaching our executive team to say yes and right, yes, this is a great culture and it provided us great success, and how are we going to continue to keep growing and expanding? You know, I listened to a podcast by John Maxwell talked about I don't know what the name of it was, but it was talking about things that don't need talent, so things leaders can have that don't need talent, and the five areas that they talked about.
Speaker 13:One was we've already talked about, which was teachability I need to be able to be an expert or do my job really well, but I also have to be open to be coached, to be mentored and to also say, okay, there's maybe a better way.
Speaker 13:Or to listen to, you know, to actively listen to other people. And then there's taking initiative to try something new and something different and some environments are open to that and some environments are not, and looking for individuals who have shown that they can take initiative is. You don't need any talent to do that. And then the other three were passion and courage and encouragement, and they talked about how encouragement is actually a deficit right now, which we see, because then we've even have speakers in Nira talking to us about employee well-being, psychological safety, and part of that is because there's a lack of encouragement right now and people are looking for that in their workforce and having the courage to be able to again try new things, to be able to encourage others, to think outside of the box and then figure out what your passion is and then find out how you can use it in your workforce. Does that make sense?
Speaker 4:It does. I think I ran across a similar list that you're talking about. I saw a posting from Tim Williams and he said 10 things that take zero talent but will get you 100% respect being on time, work, ethic, effort, body language, energy, attitude, passion, being coachable, doing extra and being prepared.
Speaker 13:I love that, and wouldn't we all like to have those individuals in the workforce?
Speaker 13:Yes we would, yeah, and when we like to have those as our leaders and our teammates. The hard thing is creating that vision within talent development to show the executive team that we need to reskill for here and now, and that's changing at breakneck pace, right, and we need to upskill for the future, and the future isn't three to five years from now. The future is like next month. Yes, because it's changing and looking for individuals that have those portable skill sets again. It's going to change the way we write our job descriptions. It's going to change who we value in our leaders and how we're going to redefine the way organizations grow. And then the last thing for us in the talent sphere is how are we going to train these people for that, and that has really blown up as an industry in and of itself. There are different methods to bring out some of those transferable skills or portable skills in individuals and then combine them with some of those hard skills that we need. I mean, we still need somebody to know what a debt to income ratio is and how to decision loans and how to do some of these things. However, the way in which we need to engage them in the learning process, that's really a challenge because we as HR professionals always have to be a step ahead. So you and I were talking about PACS. Some people are auditory learners, so hearing this is very helpful to them if they're at the gym or on their way into work.
Speaker 13:Micro learnings getting knowledge to individuals quickly we have really focused on that here in our organization is to really break down learning into its essence. Skill training can be done in some in micro learning. Some are in gamification and simulations, and we've just started doing different games to be able to get people engaged, because their attention is drawn in so many areas and that's part of social media. They are scrolling through and they are getting stimulated through their phone every couple of seconds, so how are we capturing their attention in enough time to be able to teach them a skill that needs to be perfected here.
Speaker 13:But I think the hardest part I don't know if you've experienced this, but the hardest part that I've observed is the whole area of collaboration and relationship skills and coming out of COVID, we've just kind of been very slow at saying you know, a lot of people are working a hybrid work environment or working from home or working at work, but even not what I found, even if we're working at work, sometimes we feel more comfortable going in quotes to training in my office I'll just close my door, I'll catch it online and getting back that collaborative environment where a lot of those ideas are generated and where you get to that cultural aspect that you were talking about of growth and well, really, that growth mindset we learn from each other and we've got to learn how each other work, and I think that's a big challenge for organizations to develop that as well. I don't know if you've seen that, but I've seen that also.
Speaker 4:And again, anyone is resistant to change, and how it's always been, and certainly COVID, the younger workforce, the demand for new employees in lieu of other ones leaving the workforce for retirement or whatever other reason, have created the demand for employers to change and we struggle with that.
Speaker 13:Yeah, Well, and it totally changes the way we view work right.
Speaker 4:Yes, again, the concept, at least in manufacturing, jody, is if someone is not within the four walls, they're not actually working, and so that COVID, for a big part, has challenged that mindset because we figured out we had the technology to do work from anywhere. But you've still got a number of old school individuals that believe that unless you're within the four wall structure of the particular manufacturing environment or building, people are not performing the work as the ones that are here are.
Speaker 13:Well, and we have that in our industry as well and the bottom line is there are some jobs you must go to work for right. You can't put together a widget I was in manufacturing. You can't put it together if you aren't there, and we can't help a member who comes in our doors if we're not here. However, we do need to have a workforce that is really challenging our paradigms and the way we think to what are ways we could do this differently that might generate the same or different results, and we don't have to have all the answers, but I think we need to create an environment where those dialogues and discussions are happening, and I believe that that's what's going to engage people and retain people is if they're being sought out to problem solve some of these very big, big changes and what that looks like, and kind of reimagine what the workforce is and how these jobs get done, and I think that one size fits one right.
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 13:I can't go, I can't do what another organization does because they have different structures, different people, different processes and I can't necessarily hop over into an industry and do something differently.
Speaker 13:But I can take a look at best practices and challenge. And then I love what you brought up. And we have somebody at Nira come and talk about our unconscious bias and I love that because I've had people tell me well, you know Gen Z, they want to all work from home and yet I am raising Gen Z who are doing internships and they would only look for internships where they were on site and the reason is they are hungry for somebody to tell them what are those cultural norms that really need to be done. So you know valuing our internal mentors, you know investing heavily in those first line leaders, leadership development. We're we're tasking our leaders to do a lot of things that they've never had to do before and getting them prepared for this workforce of the future. I think I think we've talked about plenty of ways that an org development can really explode and really impact our workforce and also impact the way HR is looking at our current structures and processes and maybe give pause to reimagine some of those.
Speaker 4:So, as we come to a close, do you have any parting words for our listeners, jodi?
Speaker 13:Well, I think what I would say is lifelong learning and having a growth mindset is intentional and it requires it requires that courage to maybe come up with solutions that are not necessarily common, aren't popular, but are different. And I think, the more that we as people leaders and HR and talent leaders can really shift the dialogue that's going on with our executive teams as to how we're doing things and breaking down some of those current structures and questioning them, I think we're going to be doing all of our workforce a great service. I think that's where I would leave it.
Speaker 4:Thank you so much for your time today, Jodi.
Speaker 13:Thank you, Mike.
Speaker 2:The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clark Moore. Twas. The night before Christmas went all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care and hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there. The children were nestled all snug in their beds while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads. And Mama and her kerchief and I and my cap had just settled down for a long winter's nap when out of the lawn there arose such a clatter. I sprang from the bed to see what's the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
Speaker 2:The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow gave the lustry of midday to objects below, when what, to my wondering eyes, should appear but a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer With a little old driver. So lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St Nick. More rapid than eagles, his coarsers. They came and he whistled and shouted and called them by name Now Dasher, now dancer, now prancer. And vixen on Comet, on Cupid, on Donder and Blitzen, to the top of the porch, to the top of the wall. Now, dash away, dash away, dash away all as dry leaves that before the wild hurricane, fly when they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky. So up to the house, the top coarsers. They flew with the sleigh full of toys and St Nicholas too. And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof the prancing and pawning of each little hoof.
Speaker 2:As I drew in my hand and was turning around down the chimney, st Nicholas came with a bound. He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, and his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot. A bundle of toys he had flowing on his back and he looked like a peddler just opening his pack. His eyes, how they twinkled. His dimples, how merry. His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry. His drool little mouth was drawn up like a bow and his beard of his chin was as white as the snow. The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth and the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
Speaker 2:He had a broad face and a little round belly that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a night jolly old elf, and I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself. A wink of his eye and a twist of his head soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread. He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work and filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk and laying his finger aside of his nose and giving a nod up the chimney, he rose, he sprang to his sleigh to his team, gave a whistle and away. They all flew like the dawn down of a thistle, but I heard him exclaim and he drove out the site. Happy Christmas to all and to all. A good night.
Speaker 4:I'd like to thank all of our guests that we had today. That's all the time we have. See you next time on Mic'd.