You can’t fight my fight: A Q&A with Elsa Glorioso
Elsa Glorioso joined PeopleStrategy as the director of channel partnerships responsible for the expansion and execution of the company’s broker and…
Elsa Glorioso joined PeopleStrategy as the director of channel partnerships responsible for the expansion and execution of the company’s broker and technology channel distribution strategy. She was later promoted to vice president of insurance services where her role is to broaden growth and expansion specifically in the benefits broker space.
How did you get your start in the benefits industry?
I’m a former oncology nurse and I was complaining to a patient one day. The job is so labor-intensive. and working with blood cancers is ten times harder. So, this person is critically ill and I’m over here complaining about my job. But she appreciated it, because it brought her back to more everyday concerns and worries while she was going through all that. She was in banking and the financial world and she told me, “Look, if you ever want to get out of this space, don’t think you’re stuck.” Some time went by, and I was going through some personal things as well and I reached out to her and said, “You know, you said you thought I could do some different things and at that time, we joked around that it was all dependent on you surviving. I met my end of the bargain because you’re doing great now, so let’s talk.”
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She said I should go into banking, so I started at BB&T on the banking side. I was positioned with a manager who quickly said, “I understand you’re starting your career over, but you have the potential to do so much more. You need to get in front of certain faces, meet certain people and tell them about your background.”
I quickly moved out of that space into a merchant services role, where I won a relatively large account for the bank across the U.S. That turned into, “Hey, the agency executive of BB&T wants to talk to you; we have a big insurance side. Have you ever heard of employee benefits?” I said, “Insurance? Hell, no!” I was fighting with case managers every day; they’re the bad guys.
He took a complete chance on me and said, “Look, you’re smart. You’ve got to get licensed and go through these steps, but the hardest part is the connection and the selling, and you’ve got that down.” I was hired as a producer from the get-go. It was great; I was successful early on and was able to transition some of the accounts I’d had on the banking side over to the benefits side.
Shortly after, I felt like I was hitting my stride, but the company rebranded and there were a lot of changes internally to the organization. I’m a very loyal person, but I work for people, not for a company. Unfortunately, that shift dramatically impacted who I was working for, so I decided to look elsewhere. I worked for a short while with a PEO to better understand what they were doing and their processes, as people were moving toward technologies to help with open enrollment.
Again, I was really lucky; I’m not shy, I introduced myself to the right people, was able to learn a lot very quickly and then realized my passion is truly with benefits. So I moved back into that space and here I am.
How has this journey so far shaped who you are, your perspectives on benefits and your role as an advisor?
I experienced watching people waiting for chemo or a blood transfusion because they were waiting for it to be cleared by the finance office. Our goal is really to help people when they find themselves in terrible situations. I feel that where I stand out and go above and beyond is that I don’t stop being a nurse. When I talk to employers and they say, “This is getting so expensive,” I say, “Look, I can go out and try to find you a better rate, but we know we have someone right now who’s undergoing chemo. Think about how that would position you as an employer to say, ‘Sorry, I know this is life and death for you, but we’re going to go with a different plan because it’s 13% cheaper.’”
It is about the dollars, but you have to choose who you want to work with, and I choose to work with people who are truly invested in their employees. If an employer doesn’t see things that way, it might not work out to work with them. I’m looking to help build a long-term strategy. I think the benefits advisors who are going to be successful are those who operate with a similar mindset.
What are some of the biggest challenges/opportunities facing brokers right now?
Some of the biggest challenges are related to technology. I’m really lucky that I’ve partnered with a company that is a fast company; technology is what they do. Our former CEO worked with Oracle and we built our own product; we can adjust and change it. COVID was proof of why that’s beneficial; as this legislation came out and these quick changes were occurring, we didn’t have to deal with bureaucracy and wait for a team to approve something or send a bunch of emails. It was like, “Hey look, this just came out and it’s going to have a big impact. What steps do we need to take to make this go live in a few weeks?”
As far as challenges created by COVID, I think one of the biggest ones is just the mental impact this has had on all of us. Mental health is a huge part of employee benefits, but it’s often not touched on. You can’t run a blood culture to tell if someone’s depressed or has anxiety. I think the pandemic has reminded employers that we’re all humans; we’re all vulnerable.
Before, the conversations were always so money-focused. I think COVID was a slap in the face for everybody, reminding us why we really have health insurance and why it’s so important to have a good plan in place. A lot of my business is based out of New York and New Jersey, so we saw accounts coming where people were going to the hospital or passing away. I think it reminded employers of why benefits were so important; a lot of brokers will tell you 2020 forced people to take a closer look at their benefits packages and the strategies they were using.
I haven’t been able to travel and see people in person, which is something I love to do. I love to conduct open enrollment in person; I’m bilingual and I think it’s very important to talk to someone in their own language and explain to them why they need to consider a certain benefit or they can ask specific questions about their plans and personal situations.
What are some of the areas you’re watching when it comes to issues around innovation, cost and quality?
I’m a huge fan of self-funded plans. Personally, I love them because I get to look at all the details and diagnoses. I think these plans are going to continue to become more popular. Same with pharmacy; it’s a huge cost-driver. There are a lot of creative solutions right now around these expensive drugs that are costing thousands and thousands of dollars. If you just carve out two or three, it can be great for both the employee and employer. But again, you need the information. Data is driving everything; the more information you can get, the better you can arm yourself to make a difference.
How are these conversations going with clients? Are you getting more buy-in?
Definitely. That’s why it’s been so challenging to not be able to conduct in-person enrollments or other times throughout the year. People are scared of the unknown, but it helps if someone takes the time to walk you through it. I’m really lucky because I have great people on my team and I let them know ahead of time, “I know we’re going into Q4; I promise I’ll take care of you when this is over but right now, we’ve got to go talk to people about why things are changing and the ways in which it will impact them.”
I tell our HR directors and owners, “If you know folks who are going to be directly impacted by these changes, they will be way more thankful if you approach them ahead of time and give them vast amounts of knowledge about how it will affect them.” It’s a matter of educating people as much as you can. People are tired of continually paying higher premiums and just not knowing what they need to know to make good decisions. People are used to Googling and finding things on their own and pushing back. They want data.
We often hear the term “change fatigue.” Are people sick of change or are they realizing things are unsustainable and becoming ready to try something new?
For me, people are just fed up. We’ve already been forced to go through so much change over the past 18 months or so, many are like, “Well, what’s one more change?” I think people are tired of this and want to know, “What can we do?”
What is one thing you know now that you wish you’d known when you started your career?
I wish I knew how important it was to play golf! I wish I had known how few women were in the insurance industry, because nobody tells you that. You just learn it the hard way. Insurance is a tough business; I wish I’d had the opportunity to have a mentor or coach who was a woman. There are certain things we go through and experience in the space that nobody really prepared me for.
Would it have impacted your decision to join the industry, or would you just have approached things differently?
I think I would have worked harder to find someone in the space who was a woman. I did have two really strong women on the P&C side who didn’t sugarcoat anything. They didn’t know the details of the benefits side of the business, but they were able to prepare me for a lot of the obstacles and land mines out there for women in our industry.
What advice would you give to someone who’s new to the industry or thinking about joining it?
I would tell them to do a lot of research. This isn’t something you want to step into for five or 10 years; this is a long-term career move. You can’t just flip a switch. Compliance is huge, you have to really like to read and stay informed. If you want to be successful, it takes a lot of time and commitment.
How can the industry do a better job of attracting new talent, while becoming more diverse and bringing in young people to keep its momentum going?
One reason there’s a lack of diversity is because we shut our own doors. I say that as a woman and a Latina. Sometimes, we say, “This industry is made up of older white guys who go out to the golf course and close deals” and shut the door before we even try it.
People are very focused right now on diversity and inclusion right now, but I think it’s very hard when the people leading it are not diverse themselves or haven’t experienced what it’s like to be in those shoes. If your company is serious about this, the person leading it needs to be someone who has been directly impacted.
I had an experience where a man said to me, “You’re a good-looking girl, you’re Latina and speak Spanish. I think if I were you and I wanted to be successful, I would focus solely on construction, manufacturing and blue-collar jobs. You speak the language all the employees speak and of course those guys are going to open the door for you.” I was like “What?” Let’s just say the conversation didn’t end too well.
But I have thick skin and I thought, “You know, this guy said this to me in all the wrong ways, but he does have a point. How can I help my community? How can I create changes and start advocating for them?” He didn’t say it the right way, but I got the message. I focused a lot on the blue-collar sector for a long time and told the employers, “I’m going to give the enrollment meeting in Spanish and have them email and text me with questions.”
For the community that’s trying to support change, it’s a matter of offering your support. Not always your ideas, just your support. Sometimes it’s more important for me to know someone’s in my corner than to have someone fight my fight. You can’t fight my fight. That’s on me.
How do you stay motivated and positive?
I always look at the good. I have a saying that I got from a doctor I used to work with. He said, “the only way to be successful in oncology is to always stay medium.” Life is full of ebbs and flows. They are really great times and really bad times, no matter what you’re doing. There will be cases I lose where I feel like I did everything right and I have no idea why it didn’t work out. But I take what I can from the experience, learn from it and then move forward. Life will hit you with surprises and that’s OK. Just stay the course.
What are your favorite things about your job?
It goes back to me being a nerd. I love the data; I love learning about what’s going on. It’s the one thing that keeps me closest to the hospital without having to do that day-to-day work. And it’s helping people. I have a client whose wife just beat cancer and it’s just such a hard thing to go through. People hear the word “cancer” and often immediately think it’s doomsday. He made it a point to tell us, “Thank you so much. You have no idea how something as small as telling me the insurance company can coordinate to have you picked up and dropped off from infusions can really help.”
Those are the things that make me feel really good about my job. So many things in this world could be so much better if more people just started from a good place.
Finish this sentence: The key to success in this industry going forward is…
Doing the right thing.
Read more from our Face of Change series: