How Reliance Matrix is using diversity, equity and inclusiカジノ 登録 ボーナスo reshape the employee benefits universe

From her position leading corporate social responsibility (CSR) at Philadelphia Insurance Companies, the カジノ 登録 ボーナスne Group flagship in suburban Philadelphia, Thea Valero watched the landscape change.

“Initially our focus was rooted in sustainability and the principles of Good Company,” she recalls. “Then, about five or six years ago, it was clear diversity, equity and inclusion was growing in importance – fast.”

An inaugural member of PHLY’s DEI Council, Valero took an opportunity at sister company Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company (now branded as Reliance Matrix) in 2021 to lead DEI as a member of the Human Resources leadership team. While her background and passion for the cause assured she would hit the ground running, the pace has continued to accelerate, especially as she changed from a property and casualty insurance carrier to employee benefits and absence management.

“I was caught off guard,” she admits. “Coming from the P&C world I had the expectatiカジノ 登録 ボーナスhat brokers and clients wanted to know more about where we stood and how we behaved as an organization with regard to diversity, equity and inclusion. Then I received an RFP on my desk and thought, ‘What’s this?’”

Patrick Boyle has led the national account Proposal Unit at Reliance Matrix for close to 20 years and confirms, the focus changed rapidly. “For years we have actively engaged with our largest clients and brokers to ensure our product development was in line with their needs and priorities,” Boyle said. “It’s helped us with everything from product design to prioritizatiカジノ 登録 ボーナスo budgeting. Then, almost overnight, we went from being asked how we supported DEI as an employer to how we were supporting and advancing the movement through product design and service delivery.”

“We knew, to continue to be successful, we needed to lead the conversation rather than respond to it,” he said.

Employee benefits have, for generations, been corporate tools to attract and retain valuable employees. While medical benefits occupy the largest share of mind and wallet, there is a whole universe of ancillary benefits available to entice team members and add value to their employment. Life insurance and disability insurance are two examples of employee benefits that have been around for decades with fairly little evolution: Life insurance pays a survivor money when a covered individual dies. And disability insurance pays a covered individual a percentage of their average wages in the event that person cannot work due to illness or injury.

It sounds deceptively simple; what does DEI have to do with it?

“Products like life insurance and disability insurance seem straightforward. Life insurance pays an amount to a beneficiary when a person dies. Disability insurance provides partial income replacement when a person has a sickness or injury that keeps them from working. But what happens when a policy provision references your ‘husband’ or ‘wife?’” asks Product Director Margaret Reid, who also co-chairs the Women’s Employee Resource Group at Reliance Matrix. “What about civil unions and same-sex marriages?”

“For that matter, group life insurance is underwritten based on, among other things, gender mix. What happens when a segment of the workforce doesn’t identify specifically as either ‘male’ or ‘female?’ You can see how complex it can get!”

Reid is one of a team of specialists assessing and refiling virtually every Reliance Matrix policy in every state, updating language and provisions in accordance with applicable state and federal law, to help ensure customers and claimants will be able to access the full value of the policies as intended. It is a multiyear initiative, but only the proverbial tip of the iceberg.

As co-chair of the Women’s Employee Resource Group (ERG) and a member of the DEI Council Marketplace Subcommittee, Product Strategy Director Margaret Reid is helping bring best practices to a new generation of Reliance Matrix clients and partners.

For her part, Valero convened a multidisciplinary team to look at the changing expectations and requirements of the company’s brokers, clients and prospects as they pertained to DEI. She engaged representatives from Sales, Communications and other market-facing teams, and then established the Marketplace Subcommittee of the Reliance Matrix DEI Council. Its mission would be to monitor, promote and report on initiatives large and small that advanced the principles of diversity, equity and inclusiカジノ 登録 ボーナスhrough product design and service delivery.

That assignment immediately appealed to Jennifer Smith, Senior Communications Specialist and among the newest DEI Council members. Smith began her career at Reliance Matrix in the 1990’s, left the industry in 2010, and returned in 2023 to a much larger, and very different, organization.

“So many of the same people were there,” she recalls, “but there was an energy I didn’t remember from before. A lot of that energy was being channeled into growing, improving, and telling a compelling story to brokers and clients. That’s something I wanted to be part of, immediately.”

Supplemental health plans, like critical illness, accident and hospital indemnity policies, are affordable ways for an employee to safeguard their medical plan deductible, which can be ,000 or more every year. That money comes out of the employee’s pocket first, in excess of any insurance premium already paid. According to Matt Ennis, Product Strategy Director, these types of plans are even more powerfully affected by DEI principles.

“For one thing, supplemental health plans are often employee-elected and employee-paid,” Ennis says. “There’s a moral imperative to deliver solutions that help solve a problem and deliver value. That starts with data, and understanding the makeup of your workforce.”

For example, expanded coverage options and the ability to customize covered conditions and benefit amounts are essential to building a valuable critical illness plan.

“It works best when the broker, employer and carrier collaborate,” Ennis says. “It’s important to recognize and address disparities in health conditions among certain demographic groups. In the US, adult diabetes is more prevalent in African American communities while kidney failure occurs more often on average among Hispanic populations. Building value into the plan starts with the employees themselves.”

Sometimes it’s not treatment but behavior that can make the biggest difference. Early detection is one of the most powerful weapons against most critical illnesses, including cancer and heart disease. But not all segments of the population benefit uniformly.

“When you look at breast cancer, incidence is pretty consistent across the board,” Margaret Reid notes. “But in the African American community, breast cancer outcomes are statistically worse. As insurers, how can we effect positive change? One way is to make sure wellness screenings like mammography are not only covered benefits but their availability is communicated clearly and often to covered employees and their families.”

Shaw cites gender affirming surgery as a more extreme example: “As an employer or a provider, we can be comfortable advocating for each individual to come to work as their true, authentic selves. We can appreciate the benefit on a holistic level, for the employee and the organization.

"But there are plenty of additional considerations for employers, providers and insurers to weigh. There's no one-solution-for-all strategy."

What’s カジノ 登録 ボーナスhe horizon? According to Shaw, maybe normalization.

“I think as an industry we are wrestling with how to retrofit or reimagine old tools to reflect newer perspectives,” he said. “It’s a matter of acknowledging what’s right, and what’s important, and then making sure we’re aligned. But the next generation of thought leaders and decision makers are starting out now, with these expectations and mandates already in mind.”

Valero agrees. “When I arrived I had a limited view of how our DE&I program could impact and accelerate DE&I across the industry,” she says. “Now I see opportunity and upside everywhere. I don’t ever see us running out of ways to improve.”

Shaw concluded, “There is no constant greater than change, and maybe I’m an optimist, but I see our future as drivers of thoughtful, inclusive and equitable products and services as being a graceful curve toward a better tomorrow,” he says. “Not a hard left turn.”