Mike Sullivan, president of Cubic Health, talks about his unique experience working with State Farm Insurance, as the organization set out to better manage its benefits plan.

Sullivan says that State Farm’s cross-border structure—Canadian benefits are managed by the company’s U.S. corporate head office in conjunction with its Canadian HR team—and proactive stance—the company wasn’t in “crisis mode,” but rather seeking to streamline information—made for an interesting case study.

“Because the house wasn’t on fire, things weren’t in a difficult position,” says Sullivan. “So it wasn’t as though they had to go out and completely redesign the plan. They made a few small tweaks initially, but it was overcoming that inertia at the front end [with] most of their team looking at the financials [saying], ‘things are great, do we really need to be making changes?’

“They were concerned about the perception of reducing or eroding the benefits plan, so the first major change was getting into the mind space that we can make some changes that aren’t negative, and that are going to put us in a good position moving forward.”

Watch the video to find out what else Sullivan has to say about his experience with State Farm.