'What Millennials Want' Interview with Patricia Campbell, Executive Director of Benefits, HRS Wellness and Recognition at Cedars-Sinai
Patricia Campbell
I am currently the Executive Director of Benefits, HRS Wellness and Recognition at Cedars-Sinai. I've been here now for approximately three years. In my role I also manage the team that handles our retirement plans and we have great retirement benefits. We have a 403(b) plan which is employee contributory as well as employer matched. We also have a 457(b) plan, which is for the director/ executive levels and above. We also offer a choice in pension plans, between either a defined benefit plan, 100% employer funded or a defined contribution plan, which is also 100% employer funded.
“We are in the midst of launching an employee app which essentially becomes a one stop shop for our employees”
DC Institute
At Cedars-Sinai, how do you engage with your millennial employee base?
Pat
Our millennial population is growing as we have seen an uptick in retirement with our long-tenured employees. As they start to retire we're hiring more and more millennials and the challenges that we have seen in that time is that we are not always up to speed with their needs, especially in terms of technology. They want to do things on their phones that are quick and easy, they're not sitting looking at emails, and they just want something that's quick and instantaneous and very, very easy. So our challenge has been to see how quickly we can put that type of technology in place to meet their needs, but then also continue to communicate using our current traditional methods of paper and emails for the rest of the employee base.
We are actually in the midst of launching - in the next two weeks, an employee app. Which is something that is very, very exciting to us. Cedars-Sinai has never had an employee app before and it will be available for both Apple and Android devices. The app will have a number of functionalities that we can use to communicate with our participants and employees. We will be able to send push notifications out to our entire employee base for instant communication. On the app itself you will be able to access your benefits and all of your information surrounding your retirement account. It essentially becomes a one stop shop for our employees. We’re incredibly excited about it, and this is probably one of the things that we have been lacking for a long time and we think it will be especially impactful for our millennial employees.
We feel that it is really going to help enable us to streamline our services, and it's not just the benefits either. Right now we have various modes of communication, but it is still a bit of a clunky process. For example we would have various communications posted around the campuses. The issue with that is, if you are not walking around the campus or not around a specific part of the campus you can easily miss these different communications. People may otherwise not even be aware of (these services) just because of the way that we communicate across the organization now.
DC Institute
You mentioned that this is new territory for Cedars-Sinai, where did the idea for the app come from? Did you speak to employees before to gauge if there was both an interest and need for this?
Pat
We have two surveys that we conduct throughout the year, a quarterly pulse survey and also an annual employee engagement survey. The response and feedback we received from these was very insightful and incredibly useful when creating this app. Originally it was solely going to be a benefits only app. Then stemming from the results of the annual employee engagement survey, we spoke with our internal marketing and communications teams to say how might we use that application and its technology to broaden its uses. We then decided to leverage all of the different functionality aspects and turn it into a complete employee app. So it morphed into what it is today and that is from direct feedback that we received from our employee surveys.
“We revamped our wellness programs to include things that we know millennials would want”
DC Institute
Have you changed any of your benefits offerings specifically for millennials and have these impacted the way in which you recruit millennial talent?
Pat
We've changed some of our offerings. We revamped our wellness programs to include things that we know millennials would want, for example you can earn extra dollars and points for gift cards etc. Some things were slightly outdated, so we updated those. We also included programs that would enable employees to earn financial wellness rewards, such as the introduction of ride sharing programs, employees cycling into work which allows them to gain rewards, volunteering and charity work etc. So those are just some of the things that we have introduced to update our financial wellness and participation within our programs.
We felt that this was a way to differentiate from the traditional wellness program of filling out your health risk assessment form. So we have tried to broaden this to appeal to millennials because of the things that they do and the ways they do them.
“These additional benefits don't just serve millennials, it helps us to better serve all of our employees”
DC Institute
Has this lead you to rethinking how you recruit millennial talent?
Pat
Yes, it actually has impacted the way in which we recruit. We have seen a lot of excitement from millennials once they become aware of the programs that we have and how adaptable they are and how they can fall into their lifestyle. Again, we didn't take anything away from how things currently are, so nothing is being removed from the programs; it’s all additional benefits.
These additional benefits don't just serve millennials it helps us to better serve all of our employees, which is something that we found throughout this process is that the benefits are not just been used by millennials, they have also been very well received by other demographics in the organization. But certainly we have included these new, different and exciting things that will hopefully be attractive to millennials. And of course, we want to take advantage of the things that we have to offer.
DC Institute
With financial burdens such as student loans increasing, millennials often defer investing in their retirement and focus on paying down student loan debt. Are you factoring this in to your financial wellness program?
Pat
At Cedar-Sinai, we have a number of tuition loans and we have seen some programs that other companies have added to help their participants pay down student debt since the legislation was passed. But we're not quite there yet. What we've done is we forged a partnership with some financial institutions that we have relationships with. First Republic Bank is one of them and they help out in terms of having a student loan refinancing benefit at the lowest possible rates.
I'm really working with our millennial's on a number of things to reduce their debt and get the lowest possible interest rate and make sure that it's affordable and will help them do more planning across all of their finances. First Republic Bank is one of our premier partners that helps with that and we also have the Cedars-Sinai Credit Union, which was acquired by the Southern California Credit Union. They have a program that does something similar in terms of debt refinancing and student loan refinancing. So those are our two premier financial institutions that we work with to help millennials, whether it’s student loan debt or they want to purchase a home.
“If you're paying for Netflix and you say I can't afford to save for retirement, then you really need to look at where your money is going, and the interest rates you're paying.”
DC Institute
Do you think that there needs to be more education on the importance of saving and financial wellness at a younger age, as opposed to when someone enters the workforce?
Pat
Oh, absolutely. I don't think there's ever enough that can be done around that and I think we need to be very creative how we approach millennials in terms of making sure that they understand the importance of it. But also, I think they need to realize, what’s the trade off? If you're paying for Netflix – I'm just using this as an example – and you say you can't afford to save for retirement, then you really need to look at where your money is going and the interest rates you're paying. Do you have enough savings to cover six months if an emergency where to happen? And how are you planning to save for your retirement? Are you taking full advantage of what your employer has to offer? – These are the kind of conversations we need to be having with our younger employees.
DC Institute
Is the decline and lack of participation entirely a generational issue or are there other factors such as different industries which have an impact on employee participation?
Pat
“It is very hard for someone to take care of our patients if they're worried about money and finances and other things with themselves.”
I think it's across the board and I really think in general that most employees regardless of the industry need more education around handling their finances in general and then their retirement, of course we will play a huge part in that. But I really think they need more education around how to handle their money and how to make sure that they are maximizing and taking advantage of everything that's available to them from their employer and being responsible with their money and starting to save as early as possible and making sure they have that emergency fund. One of the things that we've seen, unfortunately, in the last year is an uptick in people requesting hardship loans and not necessarily hardship loans or withdrawals from their retirement plan. But we have hardship pay outs available where you can cash out your vacation time and we've seen an increase in that. So then that also gives us some insight, maybe they're not taking it from their retirement, but for whatever reason, they don't have the proper financial savings both in and out of the retirement plan.
We have a lot of residents here, and one of the reasons why we partnered with First Republic Bank and the Credit Union of Southern California is because many of those employees are saddled with debt. And we're not there yet where we can put something in our retirement plan. I think we're on the right path to get there, but it takes time.
A lot of our employees worry about money, and we see that, and so we're trying to create as many touch points and opportunities in education to make them aware of certain things that the organization can do and will do for them. Because at the end of the day, in our business we want everybody to be focused on patient care. That’s the business that we're in and it is very hard for someone to take care of our patients if they're worried about money and finances and other things with themselves.