Episode 24 – 2020 Excellence in Benefits Winner Theresa O’Callaghan

Mike Stull (0:10) 

 Hi everyone, this is Mike Stull and welcome to this month’s episode of the Employers Health HR Benecast, your source for expert commentary and insights on current health benefits related news and strategies.  

I’m really excited for today’s episode where we’ll be joined by Theresa O’Callaghan, Executive Director of Benefits Programs and Corporate Human Resources at Command Corporation. Among numerous other achievements, Theresa was the recipient of the 2020 Excellence in Benefits Award, presented annually by Employers Health to a leader in employee benefits and recognition of his or her meaningful impact to the industry. 

Before we get started with the interview, we’ve got a number of great events coming up and they’re all virtual, so we hope you can join us. We recently kicked off the 2021 Virtual Pharmacy Benefits Conference, bringing together the best and brightest to explore value-based strategies that help employers develop, design, and deliver comprehensive yet affordable pharmacy benefits. If you missed any of the sessions, they can be found on the recordings page of our website. Plus, there are still more to come, covering PBM audits, the pharmacy pipeline, ERISA, and more. So, if you haven’t already, be sure to register at employershealthco.com/events. Again, employershealthco.com/events. 

Now for today’s guest, as Executive Director of Benefits Programs and Corporate Human Resources at Command Corporation, Theresa O’Callaghan has harmoniously integrated benefits for 16 acquired organizations and their employees over the years, was instrumental in the creation of the organization’s company-branded benefits website, and spearheaded an annual vendor summit bringing together all benefits providers. Always leading with her employee-first philosophy, Theresa has worked to provide free diabetic prescriptions to planned participants, and among other things, created a Command Care Package for any employees undergoing cancer treatment. She is a member of the Women Advocating Leadership at Command Steering Committee, which she touches on during the interview, leads the organization’s Charitable Contribution Committee, and is a graduate of the Command Leadership Development Program. Let’s jump into the interview.  

Welcome, Theresa. To get us started, can you share a little bit about yourself and how you got your start in benefits?  

Theresa O’Callaghan (2:42) 

Yeah, hi Mike. 

I’m sure I’d be happy to. Well, I’ve been actually in the human resources field for more years than I’m willing to disclose to you or to anybody else. Initially, I began working as a specialist in the areas of recruitment and then compensation, before transitioning into a management position with general responsibilities, which included benefits. And it was really my first experience in terms of starting to work with benefits. And after being in that role for a number of years, my husband and I started having a family, and after my third child, we decided that it was the right time for me to begin a search for a part-time position that would allow me to work remotely in order to be home with my children when they were young. So, after a year-long search, I was very fortunate in finding a part-time benefits manager position, in which I assumed those responsibilities and remained in that role for the 10 years, solely focused in on health and retirement benefit programs. And that’s the period of time that I really became more of a specialist within the benefits functional areas. I eventually transitioned back into a full-time position with broader responsibilities other than just benefits. And these are the type of experiences that prepared me for the role that I currently have at Command, where I’ve been for the past nine years. 

Mike Stull (4:00) 

Great. Thanks for that. Can you tell us a little bit about Command and what it does? And then, you know, from a workforce demographic perspective, what that looks like at Command?  

Theresa O’Callaghan (4:12) 

Sure. 

So, Command turned 75 years old last year. And over that period of time, it’s grown, evolved in so many different ways and in different industries. It started off as a small entrepreneur business and eventually grew into where it’s a publicly traded company. 

In recent years, the business has transformed in its position to focus on highly engineered products and solutions, driving innovation to solve our customers’ most complex challenges. We have, over the years, developed a very diversified portfolio with approximately 54% of our sales in the defense industry, 29% in the commercial business and general aviation, and then 9% in the medical industry and 8% industrial and others. So, a very diverse portfolio, which helps us in times of economic uncertainty. 

As of the end of last year, we employ about 3,300 full and part-time employees globally, with approximately 70% of those employed in the United States. For me, one of the biggest challenges is that the average age of the U.S. employees is 48, which, as you can imagine from a benefits perspective, can get challenging. As we continue to get older, we tend to need more health insurance or health insurance coverage needs. 

So, it is somewhat challenging as the workforce continues to get older.  

Mike Stull (5:38) 

Great. Male, female, or pretty split?  

Theresa O’Callaghan (5:49) 

No, it’s more of a male population, which is typical for, you know, a typical manufacturing type of industry. 

We have an organization called WOC, at Command, which is a business resource group in order to try to improve the diversity of our workforce, primarily focused initially with females, in order to be sure that we have a sufficient number of females, or equal number of females actually, in management positions, which we’re striving to achieve. And then from there, we will also continue to expand out in other areas of diversity and inclusion within the workforce.  

Mike Stull (6:16) 

Awesome. 

So, your Excellence in Benefits nomination referenced the Theresa Touch, and I know from working with you over the years and with Greg, you know, this people-first approach is at the core of your strategies there at Command. Can you tell the audience a little bit about why the people-first approach is so important and such an integral part of your strategy? 

Theresa O’Callaghan (6:41) 

 You know, Mike, you know, whenever I’m asked why I enjoy working at Command, my immediate response is because of the employees. It is a very special place to work. From my perspective, you know, our employees is really what differentiates Command from the other organizations where I’ve worked, the loyalty that our employees have to Command and their commitment to our success is truly prevalent throughout the organization. And likewise, the executive leadership team cares about the employees. I mean, I’ve never worked at an organization where our top leadership team has been so committed to the employees within the organization. 

The decisions that are made are made thoughtfully, with consideration given to the impact of those that work at Command, as well as their families. This aligns with both my professional and personal core values. I don’t ever want to lose the sight of the importance of providing competitive yet affordable benefit plans to our employees. 

You know, we remain focused on the primary objective, which you probably heard me speak, Mike, in terms of keeping the healthy healthy and for those with a medical diagnosis to provide quality programs and services when most needed in the most compassionate way possible. The fact that I work in an organization that supports and is aligned with this approach is extremely rewarding and gratifying. 

Mike Stull (8:02) 

 Yeah, I would say just from my own personal experience, it’s one of the few organizations of its size where, you know, you’d have the CEO, when Neil was the CEO, he would drop into our benefits roundtables. That was just unique to see that type of commitment from the senior most leadership for what we were doing. So, that was certainly a unique aspect of Command, certainly something that has stuck with me.  

Theresa O’Callaghan (8:33) 

You know, and Mike, I agree with you. I mean, it starts from the president CEO and, you know, under Neil’s leadership and I expect that’s going to continue under Ian’s leadership as well, given, you know, my experiences of working with him so far. Neil, in particular, we had to make some very difficult decisions during the course of time that I’ve been at Command under Neil’s leadership and when it came to difficult decisions and some of them having significant impact on our employee contribution rates, he would spend significant amount of time understanding every piece of the recommendations set forth. He wanted to understand what impact it would have on our frontline employees, what impact it would have on our workforce in general and truly took that into consideration in either approving the recommendations or having those recommendations modified. And it really set the stage in my mind for the type of leadership that I was fortunate to work with and really what they considered priorities, not only the company’s financial positioning, but also the impact that our decisions would have on those employees. So, really a unique type of situation that it’s been a true pleasure working within over the past nine years. 

Mike Stull (9:45) 

 Absolutely. 

You bring up kind of into my next question about balancing employee satisfaction and disruption with the increasing cost of medical benefits. It’s the challenge that I think all benefits professionals and all leaders of organizations face on a regular basis. And so, curious how you all at Command go about finding that right balance between employee satisfaction, employee disruption, keeping the healthy healthy, helping those with a medical condition in the most compassionate way possible with the increasing cost of medical care. 

Theresa O’Callaghan (10:27) 

Yeah, it’s um and once you find the answer would you let me know? You know, I think what we try to do is also keep in mind, you know, as we go forward with evaluating our benefit plans and, you know, evaluating options that we have in front of us, is also keeping in mind what the purpose of Command’s benefit program is, which is to attract, retain, and motivate our talent. You know, which is critical for the success of our business. I mean, our benefit programs are, you know, one of the the triggers that we have in order to attract individuals to come to the organization and to stay with the organization so that we can be successful as a business. 

You know, that being said though, we’ve communicated, I think going back as early as 2013, repeatedly that benefits is a shared responsibility of the companies and our employees. You know, personal decisions that employees may make unfortunately can adversely impact their health, but it may also impact our ability to continue to offer affordable health insurance benefits. So, with that in mind, you know, we strive through education, through communication, you know, to really reiterate the importance of being an educated health care consumer, that this is a team effort here. 

And we also strive to be as transparent as possible of the benefit plan costs so that in those years when we do need to make difficult plan design decisions because of the costs, escalating increase to the costs, or in those years that we have to modify employee contribution rates, that employees understand the basis of those changes and trust that we are doing our best to manage the increasing cost of benefits without losing sight of the impact that this has on them as an employee.  

Mike Stull (12:15) 

Yeah, I think that’s such an important point in terms of things that you’ve done along the way to enable you to have longer-term success. It always seems that, you know, benefits is, in terms of the financial results, is so much of a short-term, it’s a short-term exercise in terms of looking at the results. How much did it cost us this year? How much is it going to cost us next year? But really thinking about it long-term, especially if you don’t have high turnover, you know, what are the things that you can start doing today even though they may not have an immediate effect? Obviously, they’ll impact your overall cost or your overall ability to make changes when needed in the future.  

Theresa O’Callaghan (13:02) 

Right, and we’re also very fortunate in that we work with many talented account management teams. You know whether it’s the relationship we have with Employers Health or with Cigna or CVS, whatever it may be, the account management teams of each of the partners that we work with truly are collaborative in nature. They work so closely with us as well as with each other to help us strategize in ways that we can implement programs or we can take steps in a proactive way, in the best interest of our employees, while managing our costs. And the willingness of the various account management teams to work together or to come together even physically pre-COVID at a roundtable once a year, on a summit that we would host, to strategize on how we can do things better for the employees of Command has truly been very rewarding. It’s the relationships that we have with the many account management teams that we work with has just been truly beneficial for our ability to manage health care costs and still try to provide the best-in-class benefit programs for our employees. 

Mike Stull (14:17) 

 So, we do have a number of account managers from different organizations that listen in on the podcast. I’m curious if you have any kind of key traits. So, you mentioned the willingness to be collaborative with account managers that work on other solutions that Command uses. Are there other common traits that you see in really good account management teams?  

Theresa O’Callaghan (14:43) 

I do. The ones that are proactive, the ones that are fully transparent with us when there’s an issue at hand that needs talented individuals to come up with a solution. It’s those that are willing to have regularly scheduled meetings with the command team in order to track open issues, to discuss matters, to discuss new trends. And we do this more than just on a quarterly basis in a formal way, but we do it informally like once every two weeks with the key account management teams. So, it’s individuals that are willing to engage, that are open-minded, that want to work with Command and have the same common interests in terms of doing the right thing for the employee while still being fiscally responsible to the company.  

Mike Stull (15:31) 

Great, thank you. So, with all that’s going on in the world today, and there’s obviously a lot, what do you see is the biggest challenge for benefits professionals or what are the top couple biggest challenges for benefits professionals? 

Theresa O’Callaghan (15:46) 

 Well, I think we touched upon a little bit about this already, Mike. I mean, the rising health care costs just continues to be one of the biggest challenges we face as benefits professionals. I don’t know a single person in this field, who not every year, holds her breath waiting for either, you know, the fully insured renewal rates to come out or for establishing the premium equivalent rates for the self-insured plans. You know, you’re just hoping that the utilization has been such that we’ve been able to sidestep any high-cost claimants, which is really a big driver of our benefit plan costs. You know, so that continues to be the biggest challenge that we face. As is, although very effective in the treatment of serious health conditions, the incredibly high costs associated with specialty medications, the new medical technology and long-term courses of treatment is alarming and very challenging to manage. You know, on one hand, we know that they’re effective in terms of being able to manage some very serious health conditions or in some cases, even cure them. But with that comes the very high sticker price and how to manage that and to be sure that our employees have those benefits when they need them, but also to be able to manage the costs associated with those treatments is what will often keep me up nights.  

Mike Stull (17:07) 

Yeah, I would, I would echo that, that, you know, those, those prices of specialty drug, specialty drugs that are out in the marketplace today certainly pose a challenge and even more so the specialty drugs that are in the pipeline that aren’t on the marketplace yet. I always say they’re, they’re both exciting and very scary at the same time. It’s exciting because of the new, new cures and technologies and science that they are making available but scary because of the cost. And so, I’ve been thinking on how do we work across employers to try to mitigate some of that risk? And I know that’s something that the big health carriers are also looking at. I would expect to see some additional, some additional solutions coming to market here soon.  

Theresa Callaghan (18:01) 

I hope so, but it always seems that we’re trying to be one step ahead, you know, and sometimes I feel like we’re always two steps behind, you know, just a lack of transparency in that whole form of the industry, you know, in the pharmaceutical industry makes it even more difficult to really understand what are the true costs and whether or not we’re managing them to the best of our ability because there is not a whole lot of transparency, at least not from where I sit. 

Mike Stull (18:25) 

 Yeah, no, but from where I sit too. 

Theresa O’Callaghan (18:27) 

Oh, don’t tell me that, Mike.  

Mike Stull (18:33) 

We have more transparency than most, but we don’t have all the transparency we want. 

Theresa O’Callaghan (18:35) 

 No, but partnering with the coalition has provided us with a whole lot more transparency than we had in prior years, so I do appreciate the work that you guys do. 

Mike Stull (18:44) 

Thank you. So last, last question is, you know, what piece of advice would you like to leave for other benefits professionals who are listening?  

Theresa O’Callaghan (18:53) 

You know, and again, if I were to speak with my colleagues, I would think that they would say the same, you know, as a benefit professional, we really wear two different hats. You know, we have a very important role of being a financial steward for our organizations with the responsibility of managing these programs that can have a significant impact on the bottom line, but just as important, we have a role of an employee advocate. It is critical for us to listen to our employees, understand the challenges that they are facing, and to be responsive. Although, given all the reasons that we’ve already discussed, we cannot always provide the answers or solutions that our employees wish for, we can take the time to really listen, respond to them honestly, and with compassion and with empathy. You know, it’s every once in a while you receive one of those calls from an employee who is appreciative for what either the health plan did or you did personally, you know, and that’s the day that you realize that you, and with the support of the company and the leadership of our organization, made a difference in someone’s life, and for me, that makes all the other daily challenges worthwhile that we deal with, you know, day in and day out, knowing that we have the ability to make an impact on an employee’s life. 

Mike Stull (20:13) 

Absolutely. All right, well thank you, Theresa, for joining us and sharing some of your thoughts on both the rewards of working in the benefits field, but also the challenges. We appreciate you taking time with us. 

Theresa O’Callaghan (20:06) 

Well, thank you, Mike. I appreciate it.  

Mike Stull (20:28) 

Congratulations again to Theresa. She joins an outstanding class of previous recipients. Nominations for the 2021 Excellence in Benefits Award will open later this year, so start thinking of a deserving benefits professional you’d like to nominate.  

Next, I want to share the keyword for this month’s episode. This month’s keyword is Excellence, so if you’d like to be considered for the $50 gift card, please submit the keyword Excellence, along with your name and email address, and any questions you might have using the link on the landing page. 

 Before we go, I want to thank our sponsors for helping to not only make this podcast possible, but for supporting us in providing all of our great employee benefits-related content. Thanks first to our annual supporters, CVS Health and Elixir, our executive supporters, Amgen and Greenwich Biosciences, and our premier supporters, iMed, Delta Dental, HelloHeart, and Quantum Health. 

Again, don’t forget to submit your questions by completing the field on the landing page or clicking the link titled Submit Your Questions Here, and then be sure to subscribe to HR Benecast to be notified when the latest episode is out, and you can hear the answers to your benefits questions.  

There’s always something new at Employers’ Health, so be sure to follow us on social media, our LinkedIn and Twitter accounts, to stay up to date. You can also check out our Benefits Insights blog on our website for relevant resources on trending topics. 

That will conclude this month’s episode. Thank you again to Theresa for sharing her insight and expertise, and for being such an outstanding leader in the employee benefits industry, and a great member of Employers Health, and thank you for taking the time to listen and for your continued interest, membership, and participation in Employers Health.

Be well, and we’ll see you soon.