Humana 2008 Annual Report Download - page 8

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Engines of Transformation
There are two other elements that
bode well for our ability to succeed and
transform in the future.
Begun three years ago, our Perfect
Servicesm initiative has made us service
leaders, inside the health benefi ts
industry and in the wider business
world. In last year’s J.D. Power National
Health Customer Satisfaction study of
Commercial members, Humana fi nished
fi rst in overall satisfaction in key regions
with signifi cant Humana membership.
The survey also confi rmed that Humana
delivers more consistent satisfaction
than all other national plans. Part of
our ability to adjust quickly to changes
in consumer needs has to do with the
ECHO® (Every Customer Has an Opinion)
system, an important part of Perfect
Service. ECHO produces immediate
feedback from 30,000 customers and
consumers every month.
Among important groups that have
taken note of ECHO and other aspects
of Perfect Service is the Disney Institute.
We fi rst became engaged with Disney
as a participant in its world-class service
training program. After three years
Disney determined that our service
progress qualifi ed us as a model of
its principles, and in May of last year,
Disney published a Humana business
case study that has garnered widespread
positive attention through seminars,
workshops and presentations.
The second element is associate
engagement. We’ve long recognized
that the engagement of Humana
employees, whom we call associates,
is at the core of our ability to engage
our members. We also know that
member engagement is the only
way to produce the kind of positive
behavior change that improves health
outcomes while reducing costs. Two
years ago we became very intentional
about measuring, and then raising, the
engagement level of our associates.
The results have been extraordinary. For
our service and information-technology
associates, who were fi rst to start on the
engagement journey, the percentage
of engaged associates has doubled in
24 months. Their improved score is 16
percentage points higher than the U.S.
working-population average, according
to Gallup®
, our partners in engagement
enhancement. And improved
engagement has led to improved
associate retention.
Why is associate engagement so
important? Besides fueling our ability
to engage consumers, associate
engagement is emerging as the
differentiating characteristic of
successful 21st-century enterprises.
Engaged associates are able to respond
nimbly to rapidly changing markets
and consumer preferences regardless
of the type of business they work for.
They enable companies to transform
quickly and effectively – as Humana is
now doing, with our growing emphasis
on health and health-related initiatives.
We’re already an associate engagement
leader in health benefi ts, and as the
statistic above indicates, our associates
are well ahead in comparison to
employees across industries and
across the country.
6 2008 Annual Report