Education & Communication: BenefitsPRO LUMINARIES 2022 Honorees
The BenefitsPRO LUMINARIES honorees are being recognized for the dynamic and inclusive ways they are driving the benefits and health care industries forward.
As members of a complicated and ever-changing industry, benefits professionals must continually learn and adapt in order to succeed. Education and communication remain key components of growth and progress, and there are a growing number of individuals and organizations who are leading the way.
The 2022 LUMINARIES honorees in Education & Communication stepped outside of their roles to grow their companies’ in this area. These individuals and companies are being recognized for the dynamic and inclusive ways they are leading the benefits and health care industries. Each was selected by a distinguished and diverse team of industry leaders with input from our editorial team.
We hope you enjoy getting to know this year’s honorees!
Individual
Rebecca Kuzemchak
Rebecca Kuzemchak joined Buck in 2015 as an intern, and quickly became one of the firm’s up-and-coming stars. She was nominated as part of the Buck Future Leaders (BFL) program in 2019, where she helped lead organizational changes during the pandemic.
As part of that effort, Kuzemchak helped craft a communication strategy for temporary salary reductions due to the pandemic, as the company sought to avoid broad-based cuts to employment. She also helped to create and lead the company’s first-ever virtual summer intern program. Her input on a proposed change to provider networks led the company to reverse the proposal, ensuring that no provider network changes were made during the pandemic.
She also served as a mentor for interns and new hires and was requested as a “reverse mentor” for one of Buck’s top executives after he noted her insights during the BFL program. https://buck.com/
Becky Seefeldt
Becky Seefeldt is an industry veteran who has used technology to reach others in the HR field with the latest in consumer-driven benefits and by helping promote virtual solutions in recent months.
In her role at Benefit Resource, Seefeldt has used webinars, a podcast (Bright Side of Benefits), and blog posts. In addition, Seefeldt has written extensively for industry publications, including SHRM, BenefitsPRO, Employee Benefits News, California Business Journal, and others. She is also a member of the Forbes Business Council and serves on the Board and Communication Committee Chair of ECFC, an organization dedicated to the education and advancement of pre-tax benefits.
As businesses sought new ways to communicate and educate, Seefeldt used her experience to create easy-to-digest resources that featured industry experts and helpful links. Topics covered include legislative updates, workplace mental health issues, and how the pandemic has changed employee benefits. https://www.benefitresource.com/
Heather Smith
After nearly 25 years at Fidelity Investments, Heather Smith joined Flimp Communications in 2020, at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was making effective communication with employees more critical than ever.
Smith responded to the challenge by helping to create virtual benefits fairs, which allowed employees to access benefits information remotely, and digital benefits resource centers, which provided employees with fast, universal access to changing company policies and important benefits information.
Smith’s work has been hailed as groundbreaking, in part due to her success in employee engagement. In recent campaigns, her programs have a 72% employee engagement rate, and she has worked with more than 100 employers and brokers on benefits communications campaigns.
In addition to her work in the HR communications field, Smith runs a community nonprofit that provides food pantries and other services to underprivileged members of her community. She is also active in education and currently serves as president of an education foundation. https://www.flimp.net/
Deb Smolensky
Employers increasingly see mental health benefits as a crucial component of their benefit offerings. Deb Smolensky has dedicated herself to helping businesses identify mental wellbeing as the key to helping employees in this area.
Smolensky works with organizations to build a mentally strong foundation to foster more resilience, productivity and happiness at work, providing employers with the tools and knowledge they need to facilitate effective mental wellbeing programs so their employees can show up as their best selves at work.
These efforts include a series of masterclasses, webinars, podcasts and white papers. She has also created a 48-session mental fitness training program and is authoring a book on bringing more resilience, energy and happiness to work based on mental fitness and mental wellbeing system-based models. https://www.nfp.com/
Glenn Turchi
Great communication skills, attention to detail, and a sense of empathy are among the traits cited by Glenn Turchi’s co-workers. Turchi is credited with leadership of the company’s educational programs, and recently helped create an app dedicated to educating employees about their benefit offerings. Turchi realized that with growing use of mobile technology, employees needed a tool that could be smartphone-based and would include all the educational information available from other platforms.
In addition, Turchi has led the company’s efforts in making sure that marketing materials are available in Spanish as well as English.
Company officials also credit Turchi with easing the transition when MGM was acquired in 2021, saying he provided transparency and reassurance that people’s jobs would be retained after the merger. The MGM Benefits Group now provides services for 397 groups, 83,843 employees, and 126,992 members including dependents. https://mgmbenefits.com/
Organization
Financial Health Network
The organization recently widened its net to partner with the human resources community in an effort to convince employers that better financial health outcomes for workers also create greater long-term value for companies. The network’s reach exceeds 200 organizations across multiple sectors, with nearly 220 million customers, and it is directly engaged in designing programs that help customers manage their cash flows, save for emergencies, leverage and use credit responsibly, and plan for the future. https://finhealthnetwork.org/
MGM Benefits Group
MGM recognizes that printed materials are among the most popular methods of learning during enrollment season, which is why its MGM Marketing Tools website allows partners to order customized benefit guides, product flyers, open enrollment handouts and other tools that can then be downloaded and printed. The firm also provides clients with templates and tools designed to simplify and humanize employee benefit options. The MyBenefitsAide app was recently added to simplify the process even more. https://mgmbenefits.com/
Nova Healthcare Administrators Inc.
What’s more, Nova’s care navigators are trained educators focused on compassion, accuracy, respect and empathy (“CARE”). Nova’s integrated medical management program allows care navigators and the client account management team to work together to address health plan trends and support clients and their members. One recent example involved developing a transitional care program to engage and educate members regarding hospital admissions, reinforcing and improving compliance with physician treatment plans, both pre- and post-admission. https://www.novahealthcare.com/home