WakeMed Health Screenings

Established several years ago, the Town’s Healthy Rewards Program is part of a commitment to control employee health care costs and motivate employees to work toward being their healthiest.

Our annual spring health screenings provide a voluntary opportunity for employees to participate in a two-week, on-site event facilitated by WakeMed and complete a follow-up online health assessment provided by Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.

Employees continue to respond to these initiatives in a tremendous way. Of 1,237 total eligible employees, 1,190 — 96 percent participated in the 2018 voluntary event. Held from April 9–27 at Town Hall and Public Works, the event provided convenient appointment scheduling for all employees across multiple shifts. Of those 1,190 who attended a screening appointment, another 1,140 — 92 percent — also completed the online health assessment.

New this year, Human Resources staff worked with WakeMed to maximize efficiencies for employees’ screening process experience, cutting their appointment to only 10 to 15 minutes. Whereas previously employees visited multiple stations through the screening process, this year’s “one-stop shop” streamlined their appointment and allowed them to receive immediate screening results and feedback from WakeMed staff. Based on post-appointment WakeMed surveys, employee feedback about their encounter was outstanding.

Through this OneCary synergy between employees and our health care partners at WakeMed and BCBSNC, we are making strides in being our healthiest and positively impacting future health insurance costs.

Health Insurance Renewal and FY 2019 Open Enrollment

The Town works diligently to manage our employees’ health and  well-being, resulting in maintaining the same benefit rates and benefit plans for the upcoming fiscal year.

Further enhancing employees’ benefits is the rollout of our new online self-service platform, Employee Navigator, which made the annual open enrollment experience easier than ever. Highlights of this new technology include:

• Access to the site from any device, including smartphones, for reviewing current plan year elections and making changes for new plan year
• Ease of reviewing/updating personal information, such as address and phone number
• Straightforward ability for making benefit changes and confirming/modifying beneficiaries
• Receipt of a benefit elections summary at the end of enrollment

Utilizing Employee Navigator for the first time led to a successful open enrollment, with over 92 percent of employees completing the process online. This allowed HR staff to focus on assisting those employees with limited computer access/proficiency and to answer questions about the benefit plans. The new platform also allowed staff to proactively dedicate time generating reports that monitored enrollment, confirming submitted elections with individual employees and reconciling data between our platform and the benefit vendors.

Given the success of the system and the efficiencies realized, Human Resources will be exploring the opportunity in the next few months of expanding the platform to create a self-service experience for new hires and  employees.

Town Launches New Employee Training Academy

The Town kicked off a new Employee Training Academy in April, maintaining our commitment to employee development by utilizing trainers and skills from across the organization.

Bigger and better than ever, classes created and taught by employees that are offered on the spring/summer 2018 Academy calendar include public speaking, GIS, emotional and social intelligence, dangerous animals and plants of North Carolina, introverts and extroverts in the workplace, women’s safety, personal budgeting, several supervisory training  programs and more.

Also included in the Academy are new OneCary classes. Citizens have been enjoying the innovative, hands-on, behind-the-scenes School of Government program since 2003. OneCary classes make this available to all employees by offering a high-level look at the people, equipment and facilities providing services to our citizens, which is combined with an introduction to the key concepts of our organizational renaissance. OneCary sessions have been offered during the spring and summer and will continue to be offered into the fall and on an ongoing basis. Employees completing all classes will earn a OneCary Certificate.

The Academy also includes Academy Shorts, a new sharing and learning concept featuring one-hour segments where all interested Town employees come together to share tips and skills on a specific topic. Examples include time management, organizational skills and managing multiple priorities, among other topics.

The Academy has been very well-received by employees with over 350 registrations so far. As we grow into the future following our successful launch, recruitment continues to include employee trainers who can share their skills in many different topic areas.