Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/518124
Digital Media & Film 58 Doing Business in Connecticut | 2015 productivity and buying power, but it does take a lot to manage and market to them, and to keep them happy." To engage them, the company has launched a program called "My Tomorrow," including a public website that helps guide Millennials through their choices. "It's very life stage-driven, with helpful information about moves, jobs, planning a family — a lot of career and financial advice," Pollak said. And of course, most of the information they need to make insurance decisions is online. Just as important, said Susan Johnson, vice president of Diversity and Inclusion at e Hartford, is to attract these talented young people as employees and keep them challenged and fulfilled. "What's really significant about our approach at e Hartford is that we work hard to provide an exceptional employee experience, and leverage a range of talents that's increasingly diverse. We offer some pretty significant leadership development and hands-on career opportunities which we know is important to Millennials to enable them to be successful long term." In addition to operating a summer intern program and a university hiring initiative, the company creates webinars specifically geared to career development, promotes two-way mentoring with older employees, offers "lunch and learn" sessions with senior executives, and involves younger employees in decisions that affect them. "We've implemented a rule that we will not have any meetings about Millennials without a Millennial in the room," Pollak said. "We have to include them in the conversation." e Hartford also conducted a Mil- lennial Leadership Survey to determine what was important to Gen Y in terms of workplace retention. While responses varied with gender, age and lifestyle (i.e. married or single), roughly 58 percent of respondents said flexible work schedules were the most important, followed by regular merit-based raises (41 percent) and insurance benefits (38 percent). "I am a Gen-Xer," said Pollak. "It didn't occur to me that I would work anything other than 9 to 6. Millennials are saying that flexibility is incredibly important; they know other companies allow it, and that technology allows it." Online and at home "We look to be a leader and an innovator," says Gil Keegan, Aetna's market head of sales and service for small groups and the middle market for Connecticut and Maine. In addition to offering products and services at various price points to appeal to a wide variety of people, Aetna has changed the way it interfaces with its customers. ree years ago, it acquired iTriage, a mobile app that allows people to look up their symptoms, identify associated conditions, conduct research on treatment op- tions, and get information about medications — all from a tablet or Smartphone. rough iTriage, patients can also find nearby physicians, make appoint- ments or find ER wait times, get directions, and manage their personal health records. Aetna also launched CarePass, a web platform that lets consumers connect various health-related apps with their personal health records. Anyone — not just Aetna members — can visit the CarePass website, create an account, and start using all of the health and wellness apps available there. In addition to meeting the information needs of customers, Aetna also works hard to retain its employees, not only providing flexible work schedules, but allowing certain categories of employees to work from home. Keegan said in Connecticut, 43 percent of Aetna's 6,100 employees telecommute. is policy not only saves the company millions in overhead but creates "a lot of worker satis- faction. People don't choose to leave." Keegan said in 2014, Aetna's telecom- muting policy saved 127 million miles of driving, 5.3 million gallons of gas, and 46,700 metric tones of carbon dioxide from spewing into the environment. "Our CEO and executive team are not afraid to be the first at anything. You feel great working for a company that is trying to make change for the better versus waiting for change to happen," Keegan said. He said while not everyone's job is suit- ed to working remotely, many are, including information technology and service opera- tions, claim processers, customer service agents, salespeople, attorneys, underwriters, actuaries, case managers, nurses and com- munications professionals. Aetna first introduced telework as a retention tool, but in the wake of corporate acquisitions, "it has also helped us to con- solidate our footprint so we've been able to significantly reduce our real estate cost, and it helps us to compete more effectively." e program also helps with "load balanc- ing" in emergency situations like the October 2011 hurricane. "When the storm knocked out power to Connecticut, we had 21,000 telework- ers collaborating from all over the place. No matter what happens, you can always reach us." Forging new partnerships Ensuring that people receive the best possible healthcare requires an ongoing investment in stakeholder relationships, says Mark Butler, Cigna's president and general manager for New England. He said the company's relationships with everyone involved in the health care system — customers, employer clients and physicians chief among them — "helps us to better understand INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT › Insurance & Finance The Hartford has done business in Connecticut for more than 200 years. PHOTO/THE HARTFORD > Continued from page 57