Q: What are you hearing from your employees as the most important elements of their healthcare benefits, and how are you accommodating their needs?
Erica Bloudek
Chief Operating Officer
Wilde Wealth Management Company
Sector: Financial Services
Our rapid firm growth has expanded our footprint to 16 offices across seven states, making intentional communication and connection with our remote teams more critical than ever. As we scale, keeping our culture united starts with listening directly to what our people need to thrive.
Across every location, employees consistently emphasize the need for affordable care that protects their entire family through every walk of life. From milestone moments like welcoming a newborn to routine family needs like braces or accessing professional legal guidance, our team wants practical, whole-life security.
To accommodate these needs across our expanding multi-state footprint, we are offering plan designs with competitive premiums and manageable deductibles to keep whole-family coverage genuinely affordable. We are also enhancing family dental, orthodontia and maternal health benefits while providing integrated legal assistance plans for life’s complex decisions. Finally, we are partnering with nationwide networks and providing robust telehealth options to ensure employees in every office receive equal access to high-tier care, regardless of where they live or work.
Erica Bloudek is the COO of Wilde Wealth Management Company, an award-winning financial services firm that provides comprehensive retirement, investment, real estate, insurance, legal and tax planning services all under one roof.
Kami Cothrun
Founder
PS Academy Arizona
Sector: Education
What we hear most from our employees is that healthcare benefits need to be both affordable and practical. Employees want coverage they can actually use without premiums and out-of-pocket costs becoming a financial burden. They also value having choices, because healthcare needs can look very different depending on an employee’s age, family situation and stage of life.
As a smaller organization, we work hard to balance those needs with the rising cost of healthcare. We regularly review our benefit options, listen to employee feedback and look for ways to provide strong coverage while keeping the employee portion as manageable as possible.
One change we made was adding Short Term Disability coverage for all staff, recognizing that an unexpected illness or injury can have a significant financial impact. We have also developed a tiered benefits structure that allows us to invest more in employees as they build their careers with PS Academy. Teachers receive full coverage of their insurance benefits, and other staff members become eligible for fully covered insurance benefits after five years of employment with PS Academy.
We’ve also learned that employees look at benefits as more than just health insurance. Paid time off, retirement benefits, supplemental coverage and a workplace culture that recognizes the importance of life outside of work all contribute to an employee’s overall well-being.
Ultimately, our goal is to offer benefits that support our employees in a meaningful way while remaining sustainable for the organization. Our staff give a tremendous amount of themselves to our students and families, so taking care of the people who make PS Academy what it is remains an important priority for us.
Kami Cothrun is founder of PS Academy Arizona, a specialized school in Gilbert serving teens with autism and other neurodivergent learning needs. She is dedicated to creating supportive educational environments that help students build academic, social, functional and independent living skills. Through her work with students, families and educators, Cothrun advocates for meaningful learning opportunities that prepare neurodivergent young people for adulthood.
Joe Dicks
Senior VP of Human Resources
McCarthy Building Companies, Southwest Region
Sector: Construction
As a 100% employee-owned company, McCarthy puts our people at the core of every benefits decision. We listen closely to what they need and take their input into consideration with every benefits decision we make. And I think that shows, based upon the feedback we receive.
Across our workforce in Arizona, and nationally, our employee partners consistently tell us that affordability and access to whole-person care is what matters most. This means care beyond just physical health, and includes mental, financial and family well-being, too. We’ve taken their feedback to heart, which is why McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. invests in medical plan cost-sharing and layers in free resources like a personal health concierge, virtual care, family support and mental health programs. Our offerings go well beyond industry norms because we want every McCarthy employee and their family to have the care that fits their personal needs.
People ask me all the time about being part of an employee-owned company. I think our health benefits program is an excellent example of how employee-ownership culture works — we take care of the people who build it.
Joe Dicks is senior vice president of Human Resources for McCarthy’s Southwest Region. He is a trusted leader who focuses on strengthening learning and development, partner engagement, and talent acquisition. He oversees HR functions supporting the full employee lifecycle, including the delivery of meaningful benefits and resources that promote the physical, mental and financial well-being of McCarthy’s employee-owners, craft professionals and their families.
