Ashleish Alexander

▶0:01HostWelcome to the Built by People podcast, where we share the stories and insights of the world's top HR leaders. Join us as we dive deep into the minds of HR executives, uncovering their strategies, challenges, and triumphs in shaping today's workforce. I'm excited to welcome Ashley to the Built by People podcast. Ashley, thank you so much for joining us. And as a starting question, I always love to ask if you could share a little bit more about your career journey.

▶0:56GuestYeah, so thank you for having me on today's podcast. And so I'm actually the director of benefits at LifePoint Health, and our corporate office is in Nashville, Tennessee. So I oversee our employee benefits program, ensuring that there's support and health and well-being of our workforce. So My experience leading benefits at major healthcare organizations has given me the opportunity to understand the unique needs of this particular sector of work. My passion is developing benefit strategies that attract and retain top talent while also enhancing the overall employee experience. And so for me, I believe providing exceptional benefits is so essential for fostering a healthy work environment and empowering our employees to thrive personally and professionally. I'm excited to share some of the things we're doing here at LifePoint and our commitment to supporting our dedicated team members through innovative benefit offerings we offer here.

▶2:11HostAshley, how do you approach supporting employees' physical, mental, and emotional well-being and What initiatives have you seen to be the most impactful?

▶2:22GuestYou know, that is a great question. So I would say as a benefits professional, I am proud to work for an organization that takes a comprehensive and holistic approach to employee wellbeing. For me, we recognize that our employees are multifaceted individuals. With diverse needs. And so we, we really do intentionally strive to support our employees in every aspect of their lives. I recently led the launch of LifePoints Wellbeing for You, which is a holistic 5-pillar approach to caring for employees' wellbeing. And so those 5 pillars include physical, emotional, social, financial, and caregiver wellbeing. A little context I would like to really share about each of those 5 pillars. I want to start with the physical wellbeing. For that, we provide a range of health benefits, including robust medical, dental, and vision plans that encourage preventive care and wellness. Our organization also promotes physical activity through initiatives like free gym membership, wellness challenges, and health screenings. We offer access to free telehealth services, making it easy for our employees to prioritize their health without disrupting their work schedule. I would say that the next pillar I do want to highlight is the emotional well-being piece of this particular initiative. And mental health is so critical. To the overall wellbeing for our employees. We have implemented a new employee assistance program that offers confidential counseling services that are also vital to mental health resources and workshops we also offer on stress management and resilience. We also conduct regular mental health awareness campaigns, and we actually did that recently, Dave, and doing these just open conversations about mental wellbeing, I think it gets our employees just more comfortable about those discussions. The next wellbeing I do want to highlight is the social wellbeing. And so for our employees, social and connection is so important. Even me as an extrovert, it's so important that we have those social connections in the workplace. And so understanding the importance of social connections, we foster a very supportive workplace culture through team building activities, employee resource groups, and then volunteer opportunities. One thing I would love to highlight is that our organization embraces flexible work arrangements and also allow employees to maintain a healthy work-life balance, enabling them to spend quality time with their families. And so I'm gonna just let my last two, I'm gonna sum them up really together, Dave. It's the financial wellbeing and the caregiver support. With the financial pillar, it's so important. The reason why we, we shaped it this way is that we partner with vendors to ensure that our employees have that financial wellness support. And for us, what that looks like is providing resources for our employees to help with budgeting. Savings for retirement and debt management, because those things are so important, you know, to the overall employee wellbeing. They feel whole to know that their finances are in a good place, and we provide those resources. And then caregiver support. Many of our employees, Dave, they are caregivers, whether it's for their children or their aging parents or even other family members. We really, we understand that. And so, We are intentional about providing caregiver support, but just giving them the resources that they can identify external caregiver support. And then we also offer paid family leave to our employees to just wrap it up all together.

▶6:35HostAnd Ashley, what strategies do you use to ensure employees understand and engage with wellbeing benefits, especially when rolling out new resources or programs?

▶6:47GuestSo for our organization, definitely an organization of my size, we have roughly 50,000+ employees. And so we have partnered with, for example, Inspire, our benefits mobile app provider. They have improved our ability to really increase awareness about benefits and the support of the whole employee. By enhancing the health literacy, providing personalized benefits information, and making benefits information available in real time via the benefits mobile app that employees can access 24/7. And, you know, something you just always remember, like, our employees, the hospitals never close. And so for our employees to have that access 24/7 about their benefits, It's just, it's unbeatable.

▶7:43HostAshley, how has the use of an app changed the way you communicate and engage employees with their benefits, and what results have you seen?

▶7:52GuestSo our employees are healthcare professionals. They work in a fast-paced environment. They're in-demand jobs. They're always on their feet serving others. And so now that benefits information can be access through the mobile device, they get alerts and notifications. They are more likely to meet the benefits enrollment deadlines. They know when changes are coming, and they can access benefits information at times that fit their schedules. We implemented the benefits mobile app less than a year ago. More than 14,000 of our employees have downloaded this app, And the numbers continue to increase weekly. So it's been very effective.

▶8:38HostAshley, what role do HR directors play in communicating benefit updates, and how do you empower them to drive consistent, effective messaging?

▶8:48GuestSo that's a really good question. Our PSDs are really our champions. And again, when I say PSDs, that's equivalent to the human resource directors. And so when I talk to my vendors, my benefit vendors or my consultants, I'm always saying, hey, our PSD leaders are our champions. They are constantly interacting with the doctors, the nurses, the technicians and food service staff that LifePoint employs, just ensuring that they have the most accurate and current benefit information. And so we train and equip them to communicate benefit information and changes just ensuring that they have the toolkits, the resources, most up-to-date information available to basically report what our employees need in the field. So, and again, we are so— we are throughout the country. So these different benefit tools really, really have been effective for our employees.

▶9:53HostAshley, can you share an example of how usage of digital tools improved benefit engagement and understanding among employees?

▶10:03GuestSo we had a big transition with our benefits program last year, and during the transition, we utilized digital screens, email marketing and communications, and the benefits mobile app to notify and inform employees of changes and deadlines. And so the app remains a really invaluable resource to our employees who use it to access or to learn more about the benefits.

▶10:33HostAshley, what advice would you like to share with our audience?

▶10:38GuestYou know, there's a lot of good, important advice that I can share, but I feel like I can sum it up in 3 points. And so one is partnering with teams in the field, whether that's your, you know, your distribution centers or your hospitals. For me, it's my hospitals. And then two, engaging my PSDs through lunch and learns, training sessions, and other creative outlets to ensure that they feel supported and have the information needed to share with employees at our various work sites. And then I feel like just taking a holistic approach to benefits that emphasize the whole employee. Those are my, my 3 approaches. I think they are really beneficial.

▶11:26HostAshley, thank you so much for joining us on the Built By People podcast. It was a pleasure having you involved.

▶11:31GuestThank you. I appreciate it.