Our 5,100 employees were tested and challenged throughout 2020, and we’re proud of how they kicked their work into high gear as the pandemic changed the world.
At the same time, the country’s endemic problem with racism erupted in the streets of many U.S. cities after the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, and too many other lives lost due to the excessive use of force by those who are supposed to protect our communities from violence.
While facing these challenges, Blue Cross NC welcomed a new leader in June. One of Dr. Sotunde’s first actions as CEO was to challenge the enterprise to think boldly about its pursuit of health equity. During this critical time in American history, the entire company came together to fight for racial justice through the lens of health.
Blue Cross NC utilized the company’s nearly 15-year effort in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) as a springboard. We created an internal task force, the DEI Council, to reimagine what Blue Cross NC should and can do to address DEI and DEI issues for our customers, our communities and our people. The DEI Council developed new commitments in different areas of our work. Working together, everyone at Blue Cross NC is elevating the health care system by looking at diversity across all dimensions: Age, ability, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status.
Read the “Blue Cross NC Statement on Racism and Traumatic Events” from June 3, 2020.
“People of color have historically been at a health and well-being disadvantage. This is directly correlated to the systemic racism that underpins American society. As designed and executed, this system fails to provide, even inhibits, people of color from living a long and healthy life. We at Blue Cross NC are committed to finding solutions.”
John Lumpkin, MD, MPH
Vice President, Drivers of Health Strategy
The following are some of the tangible efforts we made in 2020:
- 2021 Holiday Schedule Change: Employees recognize and celebrate many different religious and cultural holidays beyond the ten holidays we officially observe through a day off from work. To better accommodate our diverse workforce, we adjusted our 2021 holiday schedule to include a floating holiday – a day selected at the employee’s discretion that is meaningful and significant to them.
- Recruitment and Hiring: Developed a hiring strategy for historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) through the Diversity Recruitment Action Teams. At the same time, our internal recruiters obtained a Diversity and Inclusion Recruiter Certification. An unconscious bias primer is
- now part of our interview process as well.
- Raised the company’s minimum wage to $16 per hour.
- Invested in early IT talent by collaborating with local colleges like Durham Tech to recruit diverse tech talent for apprenticeships and internships.
- IT Leadership and Diversity Development Experience Rotation (LADDER): Mentorship program connecting minority IT leaders with IT professionals who are early in their careers to help nurture and develop a culturally fluent workplace.
- Employee Networks: Leadership actively working with Blue Cross NC employee networks (affinity groups) to serve as internal focus groups to ensure our marketing and communications materials are relevant and authentic for all audiences.
- Expanded Corporate Panel Policy: We committed to participating in panel discussions that better represent gender and racial or ethnic diversity.
- Tell Our Stories: We created an internal newsletter article series to provide a platform for our racially and ethnically diverse colleagues who may not have had a way to share their unique perspectives and experiences in the past.
- Supplier Diversity: We’re thinking through our diverse and inclusive supplier strategy to fully understand where we are today and opportunities to grow.
- User-Centered Design Thinking: We’re developing the first Blue Cross NC Health Care Equity Index (HCEI) framework to see how we can incorporate DEI efforts into value transformation in health care delivery.
- Women in Insurance (WomenIN): We launched an initiative to strengthen the representation of women in our agent and agency population by encouraging and supporting their professional development. The virtual portal offers a place for women in the industry to connect and engage.
- Communication: We released an inaugural diversity report and created a new microsite showcasing our ongoing diversity efforts. We also launched the 21-Day Equity Challenge, in which we shared our DEI resources externally. The concept is to encourage people to engage with racial equity educational materials for 21 days to help them form lasting anti-racist behaviors and habits.
To learn more, visit bluecrossnc.com/diversity-equity-inclusion.
2020 ACCOLADES
- America’s Best Midsize Employers
Forbes, 2020 - Great Place to Work Certified
Great Place to Work Institute, 2020 - Best Employers for Diversity
Forbes, 2020 - 100 Best Companies for Working
Mothers, Working Mother Media, 2020
- Best Companies for Multicultural
Women, Working Mother Media, 2020 - Diversity Best Practices Inclusion Index
Company, Working Mother Media, 2020 - Healthiest Employers of the Triangle
Triangle Business Journal, 2020 - Champion for Military Hiring
Bradley-Morris, 2020
Showing Up for Our People and the People We Serve
Why do we put our people first? Because it builds trust and it’s the right thing to do – even when it’s hard. This allows us to do big things, face uncertainty and navigate change. In 2020, we continued to deliver the things that make our workplace great by leaning into tough situations and into our values. We take pride in our long-standing commitment to our customers and communities. Our desire to do what’s best for our people, and the people we serve, is part of who we are.
With that said, it was more important than ever in 2020 to make sure our workforce felt supported at work – as “at work” turned into “working from home” (WFH).
When surveyed about WFH after a few months, nearly 96% of our workforce felt they…
- Were informed about important issues and changes within the company
- Had access to the technical resources they needed
- Were supported by their supervisors
- Trusted senior leadership to make good decisions throughout the crisis
“Fearless doesn’t mean that you don’t have fear, it means moving forward in spite of the fear.”
Carmella Melton
Director, Internal Communications and Employment Brand
Our Values
People First
Bring positive energy, be the solution, make a difference
Every Customer Matters
Understand and meet our customers’ needs
Show Grit
Take chances, be courageous, speak the truth
Think Data
Balance intuition with data and insights to make decisions
Innovate to Elevate
Push boundaries, be curious, inspire breakthroughs
The company activated its pandemic plan with a cross-functional committee of experts across the company. They teamed up to create programs, benefits and policies to help employees and their families stay safe and cope with working through the pandemic.
Dr. Von Nguyen, Blue Cross NC’s chief medical officer, utilized what he learned as an epidemic intelligence service officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help the company react quickly.
Human Resources provided a host of new benefits like childcare support, a $200 stipend to outfit home offices, new sick leave policies and a special bank for employees to donate hours to those who needed extra days off.
We also encouraged our Healthcare division employees, many of whom are medical doctors, registered nurses and pharmacists, to volunteer as the pandemic precipitated a staffing shortage at medical facilities across the country. With the Temporary Volunteer Leave Program for Medical Professionals, Blue Cross NC provided eligible employees with two weeks of paid time off for an approved volunteer activity.
In addition, we developed a COVID-19 Contact Tracing Volunteer Leave Program for employees to help local and state health officials increase capacity for tracking and monitoring people exposed to the virus. Our employees were able to remotely perform contact tracing duties for two weeks without an interruption to their regular pay. Despite the pivot to WFH, we continued our internship program remotely for 38 college students and moved to a fully digital model for onboarding and training new employees.
“I began working at Blue Cross remotely in March, and I was instantly struck by how welcomed I felt in spite of these extraordinary and challenging circumstances. My colleagues went out of their way to make me feel like part of the team, while our leadership showed me what our company’s values mean in practice: Supporting employees as whole people and putting our health and wellbeing first.”
Emilie Poplett,
Communications Specialist
We also shifted the onboarding process for our new CEO by scheduling all-hands meetings, listening sessions, coffee chats and relying on its change network to make Dr. Sotunde’s arrival in a remote setting seamless.
As the weeks of the pandemic turned into months, it became even more important to connect and engage with our employees.
(Virtual) Spirit Week
Despite the myriad changes to the company’s daily operations, we hosted our third annual Spirit Week in October – in a safe and socially distant format. Forgoing the celebration of our company, our culture and our employees was simply not an option!
There were themed dress-up days, a benefits expo and a talent show. The planning team also compiled a list of meaningful community service opportunities for our employees to engage in outside of the company.
“What we do at Blue Cross NC is all about care. Caring for our members and caring for our communities. Spirit Week, to me, is my company showing me that same love and care. Letting me know that the work I do is valued and that I’m appreciated.”
Amy Greene, Senior
Business Operations Advisor
AT A GLANCE: Sustainability
At Blue Cross NC, sustainability means focusing on the needs of the present and the future with a positive impact on our environment, community and economy. Real Estate and Facility Services promotes environmental stewardship by managing how we optimize our real estate footprint, increase our energy and water efficiency, reduce the amount of waste sent to landfills and increase positive health and well-being outcomes for our people.
We used 2020 as an opportunity to expand sustainable efforts beyond our campus and into our communities with the following results:
- Donated more than 3,500 pieces of furniture to the Boys and Girls Club of America, Habitat for Humanity, Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abuse (TROSA) and Wake County Public Schools.
- Maximized recycling efforts with 104 tons of recyclables that avoided landfills.
- Gathered materials such as metals, building components and more than seven tons of copper for recycling purposes.
- Introduced composting in our cafeteria kitchen, where more than 8,000 pounds of food waste was diverted from landfills. We donated nutrient-rich soil through CompostNow to 25 community garden partners in the Research Triangle area.
Spotlight on IT
The Information Technology (IT) team at Blue Cross NC played a crucial role in the enterprise’s ability to adapt to change due to the pandemic.
- IT helped move our workforce to WFH status within two weeks, allowing the company to continue to serve customers without disruption.
- IT partnered with our Healthcare division to expand telehealth capabilities for both providers and patients and assisted with coding our systems to reflect policy changes as a result of COVID-19.
- IT worked hard to continue modernizing our technology ecosystem, leveraging cloud technologies and tools, new methods of advanced automation and numerous system consolidations, resulting in more than $30 million in cost reductions.
Accolades
- The Blue Connect MobileSM application achieved a 4-star rating, up from 1.7 stars, from Android device users on the Google Play Store as a result of improved software quality and customer experience.
- Chief Information Officer Jo Abernathy was named CIO of the Year at the NC Tech Awards.
- Blue Cross NC was named one of Computerworld’s Top 100 Places to Work in IT for the fourth time in five years.
Inclusivity
The Technology Network of Women (TechNOW) appointed the first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) chair within the employee network system and launched the “Women Do Lead” podcast featuring strong Blue Cross NC women in all levels of leadership.
Partnering with HR and external partners like Power to Fly, the NC Tech Association, TriWiSTEM and local colleges and universities, IT saw a significant increase in hiring data for people of color and gender diverse demographics from any previous year.
Blue Connect