It Pays to Be Healthy

Barry Barber, of Kimley-Horn & Associates, tells us why the decision to pay 100% of employees’ healthcare premiums is so symptomatic of the culture of his firm.

“Our culture is to treat employees well, therefore, our approach to healthcare is a logical extension of our culture”
-Barry Barber of Kimley-Horn & Associates

“I remember a conversation several years ago when healthcare costs had spiked dramatically,” says Barry Barber, SVP Human Resources at Kimley-Horn & Associates. “We came together and said, ‘Should we begin passing a portion of this on?’ And the gentleman who was our chairman at the time said, ‘Well, why would we? We’re able to pay the full amount, it helps with recruiting and it helps with retention. It’s the right thing to do’.” He laughs, adding, “An hour and a half meeting was over in 15 minutes.”

Of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For – which this year sees Kimley-Horn ranking at 38 – only 12 companies offer to pay 100% of healthcare premiums. For Kimley-Horn , this is a policy that has been in place since the company formed in 1967. That’s over 40 years of fully paid employee healthcare premiums – quite an achievement. Barber, who has been in his role as Head of HR since 1999, agrees: “We certainly feel that being able to offer this to our employees is something that differentiates us from other firms and in a time when it’s difficult to find as many great people as we need, it’s very helpful to us from a retention perspective. It allows our people to see that our firm is trying to provide support and security for them and for their families.”

Interestingly, Barber admits that the policy may not actually play a big role in the culture of the firm, but instead exists because of the culture that the firm has taken on. “In other words, our culture is to treat employees well. Therefore, our approach to healthcare is a logical extension of our culture.”

Barber goes on to explain how healthcare programs and benefits are actually outsourced to third-parties as these administrators have access to networks and discounts that would otherwise be unavailable to the firm. Barber admits that there isn’t a ‘full-blown’ wellness program in-place, but he makes this point as a positive, not negative: “We do have several programs that provide education incentives to help employees and their families lead a healthy lifestyle. For example, our primary medical provider is Blue Cross, and they have what they call their B luePoint s System, which allows employees and their families to get points for daily exercise. If you get a certain number of points you’re able to get prizes .”

When we speak with Barber it is actually the day after leaders at Kimley-Horn have sat down to discuss the benefits approach for 2009. With the credit crunch raging on, it is certainly a challenging time for many companies. Healthcare costs are rising too. They may not have ‘spiked’ again, like the time Barber referenced, but there can be no denying that costs are increasing. Nonetheless, Kimley-Horn’s healthcare policy remains intact. “Obviously the economy is difficult right now,” Barber agrees, “but we, again, affirm that we’re going to have a healthcare offering that allows 100% payment of employee and family healthcare . “ A lot of things would change before we’d change our support for healthcare.”

Fortunately that change is unlikely to occur. “Covering our people 100% does offer real ROI for the company because it allows employees to focus on their work and not worry about the healthcare issues that they or their families might face. It helps with recruiting and retention and it helps with the peace of mind of our staff. That’s an intangible that’s very difficult to put value on, but it certainly has an impact.”

In addition to healthcare benefits, Kimley-Horn also boasts a respectable retirement plan and a healthy firm contribution in terms of 401(k) and profit sharing. “We offer the long list of other benefits that many firms offer,” says Barber, “such as educational reimbursement, employee assistance programs, vision, drug, life insurance, short and long-term disability, flexible spending, college saving plans and those kinds of things,” concluding that it is really the healthcare programs and retirement plans, which, from a dollars and cents perspective at least, are the two ‘biggies’ at the firm.

Barber himself actually has an unconventional background for the role he does at Kimley-Horn, and is the first to admit it: “I’m actually an accountant by background, but had always been very involved in recruiting and training activities with my previous employer as well as at Kimley-Horn. ”

Focusing most of his time on helping with recruiting, retention and development efforts, Barber is aware that he works in an industry where there are not enough people to do all the work that needs to be done. “While things have subsided a little with the economic situation, in past and in the future the industry is in a talent war. Most of what I focus my time on has to do with helping us to be successful in terms of finding the right people, hiring the right people and keeping the right people.

“We have significant recruitment programs and our recruiting tends to break into a couple of different categories,” he continues. “Our number one source is college recruiting, and we have a very active, vibrant college program where we hire several hundred people each year. Internships are a part of that, but ultimately it’s about hiring recent graduates.”

This then relates to hiring senior people, or the more experienced roles within the company. “It’s a matter of positioning ourselves in the marketplace as a great place to work and making ourselves attractive to prospective and current employees as a great place to stay,” says Barber, “The healthcare and the retirement that we’ve talked about shows how we’re doing the kinds of things that allow us to be well positioned for that kind of activity.”

The fact is, paying healthcare premiums is is a selling point for Kimley-Horn: and they know it. “By paying 100% of healthcare, as well as paying a strong retirement contribution, and providing other benefits, we’re communicating that the firm is putting its money where its mouth is,” reckons Barber. “When we say we really care about our employees and we really want our employees to be able to have a strong career and care for themselves and their families, we really mean it. The point is that that helps build employee satisfaction.”

Satisfaction among staff has become much more of a firm’s focus lately as global markets continue to be plagued with uncertainty. In the US, there is the additional issue of the presidential elections that is causing further scrutiny, as Barber notes. “We’ve got this pesky election going on here in the States,” he jokes, “and whichever candidate wins, there’s no telling what’s going to happen and what is going to get through Congress.” Because of there is so much beyond any firm’s control, there seems to be a wait-and-see attitude across the industry. This is true for Barber, too, who admits that the firm isn’t doing a lot of looking out into the future. “We have to play it in terms of what we know now and what we know for next year,” he says.

While changes in the industry landscape may not be easy for Barber to predict, one thing is certain: Kimley-Horn is going to continue to pay 100% of healthcare for the simple reason that it is indicative of everything the firm is about. And that is supporting and securing a healthy workforce that pushes on through a difficult market.