Insuring Company Culture Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota combatting The Great Resignation by putting communication first
With a combined workforce of over 2,500 people between Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota (BCBSND) and its affiliated companies, keeping turnover low since the onset of the pandemic has been a major priority for BCBSND. (Left to Right ) Kelsey Roth, VP of Human Resources and Dan Conrad, President and CEO
That isn't to say that they've walked through "The Great Resignation" completely unscathed. According to VP of Human Resources Kelsey Roth and President and CEO Dan Conrad, BCBSND has seen an uptick in employee retirement since the onset of the pandemic as well as an estimated increase in turnover rate of about 2-5%. However, turnover has been "less than expected." "We focus a lot on retention," Conrad said. "And throughout
the pandemic, we really tried to focus on employee wellbeing and making sure that our employees have been well taken care of. So, I would say our turnover has been a lot less than expected." However, that doesn't mean there weren't challenges along the way. According to Conrad and Roth, they, like the rest of the world, faced numerous obstacles during these unprecedented times. The pandemic hit during Conrad's first few months
Did you know? Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota insures and/or administers claims for over 310,000 people in North Dakota. That's over 40 percent of the state's population! 42
APRIL 2022
as the company's CEO and he was faced with more challenges than a new role would usually bring. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota had very limited remote work experience because of their industry's security requirements and they had to navigate the sudden change as an extremely large organization.
because we had no direction, none of us had lived through a pandemic before. We were really trying to make decisions that were right on behalf of our employees."
"There were a lot of challenges right away," Conrad said. "We didn't really know the right thing to do
"I'm sure not everyone had every piece of equipment or technology that they needed immediately," Roth
In making those decisions, BCBSND was proactive in getting its workforce remote, acting earlier than many other businesses.