Jim O'Gorman
Chief People Officer
Included Health
Episode 212
Unlock Talent: Your Healthcare Benefits Are a Strategic Advantage, Not a Cost
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleApril 30, 2025 · 12:35
Thesis
“HR leaders must move beyond outdated cost-centric approaches to employer-sponsored healthcare benefits, instead viewing them as a critical strategic lever for talent attraction, retention, and employee well-being, driven by clear values and innovative technology like AI to improve health outcomes and productivity.”
Show notes
Unveiling HR Leadership and Healthcare Transformation with Jim O'Gorman
In this Built by People Podcast episode, host Dave interviews Jim, an HR executive with a diverse career spanning geographic mapping, entertainment, and healthcare. Jim shares his journey and the impact of a negative leadership experience on his leadership style.
The discussion highlights the evolving complexities and costs of employee-sponsored healthcare, emphasizing the need for corporate America to rethink healthcare benefits to improve employee outcomes.
Jim elaborates on the critical, yet often overlooked, role of benefits leaders in managing healthcare costs and employee care. He also shares insights on how Included Health leverages AI to enhance virtual care and maintain a strong organizational culture.
The episode concludes with advice for HR leaders to rethink traditional healthcare practices and put employees' health at the forefront.
The podcast is sponsored by Previ, helping employees save on essential services.
00:00 Introduction to the Built by People Podcast
00:39 Meet Jim: A Journey Through Technology and HR
01:25 Lessons from Leadership: Overcoming Challenges
02:16 HR Trends and Healthcare Innovations
04:12 The Unsung Heroes: Benefits Leaders
07:41 AI in Healthcare: Enhancing Employee Benefits
09:55 Preserving Culture While Driving Transformation
11:44 Parting Advice: Rethinking Healthcare
12:26 Conclusion and Farewell
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What you'll take away
- 1Fundamentally rethink employer-sponsored healthcare benefits as a strategic differentiator for talent, moving beyond just managing costs to actively influencing better health outcomes.
- 2Recognize and empathetically support benefits leaders as 'unsung heroes' who navigate complex healthcare issues, providing them with strong partnership beyond just cost analysis.
- 3Establish and clearly articulate organizational values, especially during integrations, to guide critical decisions (e.g., remote work) and differentiate the company's approach.
- 4Proactively embrace and integrate AI tools into HR and clinical practices to enhance efficiency, deliver smarter care, and maximize employee insurance benefits.
- 5Challenge the status quo in benefits strategy by not relying on historical tactics; instead, collaborate with other leaders to drive transformative change in the American healthcare system.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Pushes back on the conventional wisdom that the only way to drive down healthcare costs is through disruptive carrier changes, advocating instead for solutions that prioritize employee health outcomes and experience over pure cost reduction.
- •Argues against a 'Frankensteined' approach to values during mergers and acquisitions, asserting that companies should instead take time to define new, unifying values for their future identity rather than attempting to combine old ones.
- •Challenges HR leaders to abandon the 'last 70 years of employer-sponsored benefits tactics and administrative actions as your future playbook,' urging a complete re-evaluation of how benefits are delivered and impact employees.
In Jim's words
“I've really been led by where technology is going to best change consumer behavior, and that's always motivated me throughout my career.”
This quote highlights Jim's forward-thinking career motivation driven by technological disruption and its impact on consumer behavior.
“It's disappointing that a lot of people have a shared experience of bad leadership, and I certainly can relate to that, but I turned that around for me and made sure that I don't create that space for people who work around me and with me.”
This reveals a personal, formative experience that shaped his empathetic and supportive leadership philosophy.
“Over $700 billion is spent by employees— employers via their health care program across America, making sure their employees have access to care. And over 50% of America is represented by employer health care sponsored programs.”
This statistic powerfully illustrates the immense financial impact and opportunity employers have to influence the U.S. healthcare system.
“Our benefits leaders, I often think that we— they go unnoticed in HR organizations. They are caught in the middle of the complexity of healthcare...”
This quote draws attention to the often-overlooked and challenging role of benefits leaders within HR departments.
“We believe that the clinician that partnered with strong AI tools is going to be the more efficient clinician, the smarter clinician, and is going to be the clinician of the future...”
This articulates Jim's vision for the future of healthcare, emphasizing the synergistic power of AI and human expertise.
“Know your values. Be really clear about your values... when you know who you are and you know your values, then you are able to figure out where you want to lead the way and where you want to differentiate versus where you want to follow.”
This provides actionable advice on how strong, clear values serve as a compass for leadership and organizational differentiation, particularly during periods of change.
The problems this episode addresses
- •**High & Ineffective Healthcare Costs:** Employers spend over $700 billion on healthcare, but current programs often fail to deliver optimal health outcomes or employee satisfaction, posing a significant financial and talent retention challenge.
- •**Benefits Leaders Overwhelmed & Undervalued:** Benefits leaders are caught between managing rising costs and navigating complex, confusing healthcare systems for employees (from frontline to CEO spouses), often without sufficient appreciation or empathetic leadership.
- •**Disruptive & Inefficient Carrier Changes:** The traditional practice of frequently rebidding insurance carriers to cut costs leads to disruptive network changes for employees, negatively impacting health outcomes and causing dissatisfaction.
- •**Outdated Healthcare Benefits Playbooks:** Many organizations are still operating with benefits strategies rooted in 1950s tactics, failing to adapt to modern employee needs, technological advancements, or the potential for benefits to be a key talent differentiator.
- •**Challenges in M&A Cultural Integration:** Post-merger, organizations struggle to unify disparate cultures and values, often resulting in a 'Frankensteined' approach rather than a cohesive new identity, hindering strategic decision-making.
- •**Hesitation in AI Adoption:** Some clinicians and organizations are resistant to fully integrating AI tools into daily practice, potentially missing out on significant gains in efficiency, smarter care delivery, and improved patient outcomes.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
Dave has always been driven by where technology is going to best change consumer behavior
WSJD Live: How Technology Will Change Your Career
Jim: Corporate America can really influence how healthcare is delivered today
In the Elevator With Jim and Dave
Jim: The benefits leader is often overlooked in HR organizations
Unsung Hero of the Benefits Leader
Chief people officers need to support benefit leaders to drive down healthcare costs
Benefit Coordination: Chief People Officer's Support
At Included Health, we use AI to help clinicians provide virtual care
Including Health's Work with AI
Jim: Know your values. Be really clear about your values
Including Health's Culture Under Fire
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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