Q&A with Brian Reuter, Senior Vice President, Total Rewards

Q: We’ve been hearing a lot about the Total Rewards program. Tell us about your team.

The Total Rewards team does two things: We serve as the administrator for the different parts of our Total Rewards program, and we continually develop and refine the Total Rewards package that VNS Health offers to team members. As administrators, we help manage the program’s benefits and assist with any problems that might arise for an employee, such as if a medical claim is being questioned by insurance or if there’s a scheduled merit increase to be implemented. At the same time, we also work with experts in the HR field to continually enhance the Total Rewards package.

The employee experience is near and dear to me and to the Total Rewards team. Our VNS Health team members are our customers. I joined VNS Health because of our mission and I believe our colleagues deserve the best. So we are constantly looking at what is currently being offered in the marketplace by leading organizations, and making sure our Total Rewards package reflects that.

Q: What are some of the ways the Total Rewards program is meeting VNS Health team members’ needs?

Our team’s approach to Total Awards follows the three pillars laid out by CEO Dan Savitt and the VNS Health leadership: Our goal is to ensure that people’s benefit packages are simple to understand, easy to access, and meaningful in their outcomes—and we feel there’s a lot of opportunity to accomplish this. We want to make sure the benefits we’re offering have a meaningful, positive impact on their well-being. And we also know that offerings alone are not enough. We aim to provide excellent customer service that puts the employee experience first. We want it to be an easy experience for team members to explore their options and make their selections. To achieve this, we have closely examined how we provide our Total Rewards services, including evaluating new vendors, partners, and team member roles and responsibilities. 

Q: What are a couple of examples of how a Total Rewards initiative is having (or will have) an impact on our people and/or culture?

One important initiative is the Career Framework program that we’re just now implementing. This program is designed to enable team members to easily navigate their career journey at VNS Health. In other words, a team member no longer needs to become a people manager to have growth opportunities—whether lateral or vertical. We’re also overhauling our absence management program, which is how we support people who have to leave work due to either short- or long-term disability. We’ve been getting feedback from employees and are also working with outside consultants to completely rebuild the program. I think people will find the new version we are working on to be a big improvement.

Q: Looking ahead, what other programs or initiatives is the Total Rewards team planning?

Right now, we’re in the midst of planning for the next benefits enrollment period, so we’re looking at all our offerings. We’re also looking at different ways of educating team members on what’s being offered. We’ve had a number of people asking if we could implement a webinar series to enhance our offerings around financial planning and other benefits, for example. So were looking at a number of different vehicles, including a mix of live sessions and pre-recorded modules that people can review at their convenience. As I said, we want to do whatever we can to make our Total Rewards package simple to understand, while also having a meaningful impact on people’s physical, emotional and financial well-being.