The woman in the commercial says it best: “That’s not what I expected from an insurance company.”
Progressive Insurance bills itself as a company different from its competitors. And at least in terms of its approach to its employees, it may just be right.
Progressive offers its 17,000 employees nationwide all the traditional benefits — health, dental, vision and life insurance — but it also gives them several things most other organizations don’t.
“We believe that it’s really important to invest in the health and well being of the employees and their family members,” says Elaine Belair, director of human resources. “Their health and happiness help make them more productive. The recruitment and retention aspects of having these programs are extremely important.”
Among those programs is a primary care center staffed by nurse practitioners, physicians, a massotherapist, a chiropractor, physical therapists and a registered dietician. The facility is on the company’s Mayfield Heights campus, making it readily available to the 3,000 or so employees who work there. Through the care center, employees are given annual health assessments.
Last year, there were more than 15,000 visits to the facility. Most are covered in employees’ health plans or require a small co-pay, says Laura Adams, manager of the health and fitness programs. And what if you don’t have a medical reason for a massage and are simply looking for a way to soothe away the tension of a rough week? Seat massages are available for a small fee.
According to Adams, having these facilities on site not only helps make employees healthier, it reduces the time they need to take away from work. If the problems aren’t of a physical nature, the Employee Assistance Program provides up to eight visits a year for the employee or any family member.
Also included are lactation rooms, quiet rooms, tai chi, yoga, aerobics classes and a fitness center. The cost of the fitness center, which rivals any private club in terms of equipment, is about $150 per year.
“Those kinds of things really set us apart and contribute to the positive work environment,” Belair says.
The cost
The company spends a great deal of money creating programs and a great deal of time deciding how much money should be spent to maintain them.
“In some ways, we try to cost justify all kinds of things before we put out new programs,” Belair says. “Sometimes there isn’t a hard, bottom line number. You’re just taking your best guess at how does it impact morale and absenteeism.
“We’ve seen all those numbers improve … by having these programs. Can we directly attribute 100 percent of the productivity gains to that? No, but we think it’s worth the investment for our people.”
A variety of services for different needs
With 14,000 employees scattered around the country, it doesn’t make sense to give every employee every perk. But most benefits are not location specific. Progressive offers employees flexible work schedules. This helps parents who struggle with getting their kids off to school, Belair says, or someone who just doesn’t like fighting traffic.
Progressive also offers a profit sharing program (called gain sharing) based on market growth, profitability and how closely the company and various business units meet their targets. Depending on an employee’s position, the bonus could amount to as much as 24 percent of current earnings.
With employees in remote locations, travel is a huge issue, so the company created its own in-house travel agency. Originally, agents only booked business-related trips; now there are three full-time people planning employees’ vacations.
The company periodically distributes a survey to gauge employee satisfaction.
“One of the best questions that we ask on the survey that really gets at the whole work satisfaction/employee morale (issue) is, ‘Do you plan to be working at Progressive in 12 months?’ We’ve always had over a 90 percent positive response to that on a companywide basis.” How to reach: Progressive Insurance, (440) 461-5000
Daniel G. Jacobs ([email protected]) is senior editor at SBN.
What about Fido’s teeth?
So you think it’s enough just to offer your employees the basic benefits: health, dental, vision and life. It may not be for long. A survey by Workforce magazine found the top five most requested optional benefits are:
1. Auto insurance;
2. Mortgage/home equity loans;
3. Pet insurance;
4. Personal loans;
5. Personal computers.
According to HR Focus magazine, pet insurance costs about $89 annually, with a $40 deductible and a $2,000 cap per incident. The policy, provided by Veterinary Pet Insurance of California, has a maximum benefit of $7,000 for policy term. You’ll just have to brush your dog’s teeth yourself.
