Hartford Business Journal

9 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JANUARY 17, 2022 Virtual reality, other digital tools help Cigna reinvent workplace amid pandemic CINDY RYAN Executive Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer Cigna Corp. Education: Bachelor's degree in management, State University of New York at Geneseo; master's degree in industrial labor relations, Cornell University Age: 48 A Cigna employee uses an Oculus virtual reality headset during a staff meeting. By Greg Bordonaro gbordonaro@hartfordbusiness.com I f you visit a Cigna conference room in the health insurer's Bloomfield headquarters you might see employees wearing virtual reality headsets. They aren't playing the latest VR games; they're in a virtual staff meeting that brings together employees working both remotely and in the office. The use of Oculus headsets to conduct meetings in the metaverse is still only in the experimental stage, but it was brought on by pandemic- induced changes to the way most companies operate, according to Cindy Ryan, Cigna's executive vice president and chief human resources officer. Although Cigna has reopened its offices to fully vaccinated employees, about 90% of its workforce continues to work remotely part- or full-time. That's required innovative ways to keep employees connected, Ryan said. Ryan recently spoke with the Hartford Business Journal about the future of work and how the pandemic has changed the way the health insurer conducts business, including how it recruits employees and the technology it's adopted to keep workers engaged, no matter where they are located. She is a longtime HR professional who was named Cigna's top human resources leader in August. Prior to that she spent 23 years at Cigna in roles of increasing responsibility, most recently as senior vice president and human resources officer for the company's U.S. businesses, responsible for talent management strategies, employee engagement and leadership effectiveness. Ryan talked to HBJ in December before the omicron variant spread rapidly during and after the holiday season, and once again heightened the state's and nation's attention to the pandemic. She said Cigna — one of Greater Hartford's largest employers with thousands of local workers and 70,000-plus employees globally — has a standing advisory group of business and HR leaders who constantly discuss return-to-work strategies. The main priority of any decision, Ryan said, is maintaining the safety and well-being of the workforce. That's particularly important for a health services company, whose revenues and profits are directly linked to its customers' health. "It's a really fluid and agile environment and I think flexibility is super important for every employer at this time, and I know we are keeping it front and center," Ryan said. Here's what else she had to say: What is Cigna's current back-to-office strategy? We've been super responsive to our employees' needs throughout the pandemic and since it began we have had more than 90% of our employees working from home. The remaining 10% have been considered worksite dependent — they are either providing patient care or dispensing medications. By allowing the majority of our people to work from home it allowed us to keep everybody safe but also gave people the flexibility to handle the myriad challenges brought about by COVID-19. Since then, we have physically reopened our offices so any of our employees who are vaccinated and wish to do so, have the ability to come on-site. Amidst all that we are piloting a few projects at our headquarters to create more collaboration spaces and even test out some virtual reality technology. The Oculus headsets are particularly important when you have a mixed group, or a group of people who are in a physical place together and then you have other participants who are joining remotely. The Oculus allows you to see each person and interact with them on a one-on-one level, so it's a level playing field. It takes away the difference in terms of being physically present and virtually present. We also have some collaboration tools that allow people to do virtual whiteboard sessions and other things that would have taken place in a physical workspace. In general, we know expectations of the workforce are rapidly shifting, so we are continually assessing how we provide flexibility in terms of where, when and how our employees work. Looking beyond the pandemic, how do you think Cigna's workforce will operate? In a post-pandemic environment we project that 60% of our workforce will work at home full time, and 30% will have a flexible role, meaning they split their time between the office and their home. The remaining 10% of our workers are those worksite- dependent employees. When did Cigna reopen its offices? We started to reopen in a partial fashion in September 2020, just a limited number of sites, including our Bloomfield headquarters. But the large majority of the sites have been open just in the last four or five months and are now available for people to come in. We used the early pilot sites to shape our approach. Are you still at 90% remote or has that number shifted as you opened up more of your offices? It's shifted, but it depends on the week and the day. It's highly dynamic. The large majority of our workforce still remains in that full-time work- from-home or flexible category. But I should point out that before the pandemic, we had about 35% to 40% of our workforce that worked from home permanently. On The Record | Q&A PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Cindy Ryan

• Cover