Mother Tongue

Bonnie C. Hathcock is used to maintaining a balancing act. Responsible for HR practices, recruitment and retention, organizational development, professional development and associate information her ability to juggle different priorities is key. To stay on track, Hathcock focuses on the human resources activities that drive business growth. “We have achieved business success because we have focused on our people.” She adds that she thinks HR takes a back seat to no one. “That’s my assumption going in,” she says, “I look for HR people who are not afraid to get in a room and slug it out professionally for what they believe in.”

Hathcock and her executive team have introduced an HR organizational model with a governance structure allowing them to systematically identify and evaluate opportunities where HR can contribute strategically to the business. “One goal is to provide focus on what is important rather than urgent,” Hathcock explains. “Together we agree on a strategic direction and then they are given the freedom to accomplish their objectives in the way they see best as leaders,” she says. Aware that she has a very talented executive team at her jurisdiction, Hathcock keeps updated on major initiatives through weekly staff meetings and bi-weekly one-on-ones. She is also keen to point out her gratitude in having a “terrific executive assistant” who keeps her on schedule every day.

Trusting your instincts
“When I arrived here nearly nine years ago, the function was in a bit of disarray,” she says when explaining the HR organization at Humana. Hathcock went about engaging the team in creating a vision about what the future could be, the value that strong HR leadership could bring to the company, and the power of a robust human capital platform. Re-organizing the function, Hathcock and her team were able to establish HR “business consultancies.”

The concept of HR executives and leaders having business competencies comes instinctively to Hathcock. In a role prior to that at Humana, she was told she did not think like an HR person, but more like a businessperson. Hathcock soon realized her new department was not operating from a business perspective. Her instincts to do things differently, thinking HR should play a key role in business strategies, were subsequently repressed for her first year there. Then, at a seminar in the early 1990s Hathcock heard the words, ‘Be Bold. Speak the language of business. HR people must be business people,’ She recounts thinking to herself she had been right all along. Hathcock was finally had the confidence to do everything she had been thinking about over her last year. Returning to her office she “unleashed all that pent up energy.”

Upon joining Humana, Hathcock realized the extent of the work she had to do when she first saw the employee file room. “Boxes were piled high, to the ceiling, overflowing with employee data,” she recalls. “We went to work bringing order and discipline to the function.” She explains how her team “drove the development of a human capital agenda which aligned with the goals of the business.”

A key contributor to all that her company is involved in, Hathcock’s focus on business and strategy could easily have resulted in a lesser focus on what is really at the centre of the HR element: people. Yet for Hathcock, where some HR executives may have lost the fight to balance the overall needs of the company with the individual needs of the employees, she does it with natural ease. Hathcock simply plays at a business level because that is how she thinks.

Making changes
Several years ago Humana was facing the same challenges as many other companies across the country, with health care costs rising exponentially every year.  Mike McCallister, Humana’s CEO, challenged Hathcock to come up with a completely new approach to the company’s benefits design. “One that would work for our associates and our customers,” Hathcock explains. This lead to an initiative dubbed MOCHA (More Options and Choices for Humana Associates). Hathcock put together a cross-functional team who came up with a new design providing an array of options, many of which really broke the mold at that time. “We migrated the enrolment process online and engaged our associates in an innovative way to choose, finance and use their benefits,” she explains. “The result was a cost trend under five percent rather than the predicted 19 percent.”

With the introduction of MOCHA, the company took a ‘laboratory-to-showcase’ approach. “Our objective was to create a bold new benefits plan, test it with our associates in the form of a laboratory, and share the knowledge we gained with our customers during the showcase phase. MOCHA became the basis for a series of consumer-focused health plans marketed to Humana customers as ‘smart’ products. “It has been very successful,” says Hathcock. “Customers using these products have significantly reduced their cost trends.” As the architect of the groundbreaking health benefit plans, Hathcock has turned passive healthcare users into savvy, value-conscious health care consumers who are empowered to choose and use their benefits with confidence, something that is fast becoming a revolution in her industry.

Achieving a wide-ranging cultural transformation at Humana has been a pretty mean feat, and Hathcock is quick to acknowledge it has been a collective effort. “At Humana, we have always had talented HR people,” she says. “Over the years, we’ve seen a change in the company with our key leaders embracing the roles that human capital plays in advancing their business goals and transmitting these values to their leaders.”

This is reflective of Hathcock’s own belief that when an organization truly values and respects its associates, its business will realize significant value in the marketplace. “The associate value is the underlying principle behind our HR strategy,” she says.

Success stories
“There are a number of initiatives of which I am proud,” Hathcock tell us. “My HR team has done a remarkable job of advancing our work in a number of areas.” One such area is the Humana Leadership Institute. Several years ago, the CEO put forward a bold new strategic vision, now known as consumerism. “Consumerism was new for the company and the industry at that time,” Hathcock explains. With this vision, the leadership team recognized a new set of competencies were required to execute the strategy. “We launched the Leadership Institute with the goal of developing those competencies and creating a learning organization,” Hathcock says. “The work we have done inside the Leadership Institute has had significant business impact, directly leading to initiatives, which have incubated ideas, including a Perfect Service initiative, which has been launched across the enterprise.”

Clearly not a one-trick-pony, other success stories for Hathcock include her team’s work with associate engagement. “We began engaging associates in our benefits redesign when I first joined Humana. Over the years, engagement has spanned numerous fronts,” she explains. “We have since formalized our approach, working closely with business unit leaders to measure and improve engagement throughout the organization.” This has been a great success for Hathcock and her team. Engagement results have increased with improvement twice that of the average participating company over a one-year period. “The groundwork we laid with engagement contributed directly to our ability to capture the second-largest national market share among health benefits companies competing for new Medicare business,” she says.

“We have had tremendous success with our Medicare business doubling in size and revenues over the past two years.  Our challenge is to acquire talent in time to meet business needs and to assimilate that talent in a way which maintains and strengthens the culture we have worked so hard to cultivate.” For Hathcock and Humana, assimilation begins right away. “Each associate is required to participate in a session designed to educate them about our company’s history, strategy and values.”

Teaching culture
It is the support of Hathcock’s CEO that remains critical. “When Mike McCallister and I first started working together, I would talk with him about my vision for human capital and plans for the HR function,” she says.  She explains how McCallister’s accomplished business background at first left him thinking what he was hearing was a little ‘squishy,’ but he trusted her and gave her the green light to go with it. “We have a terrific partnership and he is a big champion of the work we do.  Achieving change on an enterprise-wide scale requires that type of partnership and support.”

This support and partnership also translates into how culture is viewed at her business. “Culture defines what is important, what is acceptable, and what is expected,” Hathcock says. “It’s a two-way street between our leaders and our associates. Our leaders are expected to create an environment in which an associate will be inspired to bring their ‘A’ game to work each day.”  Culture is extremely important at Humana. “We communicate our culture to all associates beginning with the onboarding process, and continuously reinforce these expectations through our leadership development programs and associate communications,” says Hathcock. In addition to educating associates about Humana’s strategy and business philosophy, Hathcock and her team are working hard to create a culture of engagement and inclusion. “We have also taken an innovative approach to driving culture through the design of our workplaces,” Hathcock explains. “One important part of my responsibilities is to manage Humana’s real estate portfolio. Looking through a human resources lens, we approach workplace design with the goal of encouraging collaboration and innovative thinking,” she says.

Hathcock’s belief that HR can enhance business strategies is paralleled by her own desire to teach and enhance others. Those who work with her see her as more than just a leader, but also a teacher. She has been described as someone who is able to focus on strengths and maximize them and who is passionate and tough about her desires. Hathcock’s connection with people on how they can improve ideas, her interest in sharing what she has learnt, and the way she embraces her role all combine to create one overriding impression: while Hathcock understands that HR should be at the heart of business strategies, she is, at heart, a people person.

About Bonnie C. Hathcock
Bonnie C. Hathcock joined Humana in 1999. Working to instill a culture of engagement throughout the company, she has been instrumental in creating a powerful integrated people system that stands as a competitive advantage, distinguishing Humana from its competition. She was named HR Executive’s 2007 Human Resources Executive of the year in 2007.

Fast facts: Humana

• Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky
• One of the nation's largest publicly traded health benefits companies
• Approximately seven million medical members located primarily in 15 states and Puerto Rico.
• Offers a diversified portfolio of health insurance products and related services – through traditional and consumer-choice plans – to employer groups, government-sponsored plans, and individuals.
• Over its 44-year history, Humana has consistently seized opportunities to meet changing customer needs.
• A leader in consumer engagement, providing guidance that leads to lower costs and a better health plan experience throughout its diversified customer portfolio.