Episode 372: Helping Employees Understand Their Benefits to Make the Right Choices With Chad Wilkins, HSA Bank

A study of almost 24,000 employees at a major Fortune 100 company found that 61% of them chose the wrong health plan for their needs because they didn’t do the homework or do the math on those benefits offerings. And about one in three people are able to correctly identify the three common health insurance terms like premiums, co-pays and deductibles, which is really surprising. So what, we’re evangelists about helping people understand their benefits, make the right choices, and get the most out of those, those benefits. Episode 372: Helping Employees Understand Their Benefits to Make the Right Choices With Chad Wilkins, HSA Bank   Welcome to the Workology Podcast. A podcast for the disruptive workplace leader. Join host Jessica Miller-Merrell, founder of Workology.com as she sits down and gets to the bottom of trends, tools, and case studies for the business leader, HR, and recruiting professional who is tired of the status quo. Now here’s Jessica with this episode of Workology. Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:00:59.13] It’s benefit selection season or it’s coming. I hate to break it to you and you might be thinking about how you’re going to educate and communicate about employee benefits selections and more importantly, talking to their dependents and spouses about health and benefit programs focused on driving engagement, education and ultimately adoption. You know, that selection that should be happening with your existing benefits programs. I have found that employees just don’t know about things like HSAs, 41K programs, and other benefit plans and programs. My guest today is going to shed some light on these things and how to best educate and engage and talk to employees about your benefit program offerings. Welcome to the Workology Podcast. It’s sponsored by HR Benchmark Survey. Share your insights at HRBenchmarkSurvey.com. Now, before I introduce our guests, I want to hear from you. You can shoot me a text to the number 512-548-3005. Text the word “PODCAST” to 512-548-3005. You can ask me questions, leave comments and make suggestions for future guests. So back to our guest today, I am joined by Chad Wilkins, Executive Vice President of Webster Bank and President of HSA Bank, where he is responsible for leading the organization and its people towards sustainable growth well into the future. Chad joined HSA Bank in 2014, bringing with him more than 25 years of experience in the banking and health insurance industries. Chad has a consistent history of achievement in sales, leadership, relationship management, product management, PNL leadership and employee engagement throughout his role as President of the Wilkins Group, which is his own consulting company specializing in health care and financial services. Also as Chief Executive Officer of Optum Health Financial Services and Senior Vice President of Commercial Large Markets at US Bank. Chad’s background of managing multimillion-dollar PNLs and aggressive growth targets to deliver revenue and profit improvement, his proven ability to create, retain and lead teams in a high-paced, high-stress environment, and his knowledge of financial services and healthcare financial systems and technology position him as a well-rounded business leader equipped to lead HSA bank, its members, and its employees into the next generation of financial health care. Chad, welcome back to the Workology Podcast. Chad Wilkins: [00:03:47.64] All right. Thank you. It’s nice to be here this morning. I appreciate you inviting me today. Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:03:51.96] Absolutely. And welcome back, really. I feel like we’ve been doing this, we’re old friends for sure. So, it’s good to have you back. Chad Wilkins: [00:03:58.05] Exactly. Yeah,