At The Hartford, combining technology with a human touch is one of our top priorities. To bring that vision to life, we need the right people leading the way. Adam Krawiec is our head of operations for Employee Benefits. We sat down with him to discuss his team, our customers and what opportunities lie ahead.
How would you describe your role at The Hartford?
AK: In my role, I have the privilege of partnering with our operations teammates to support our customers and producers as they do business with The Hartford. Our team members proactively handle customer onboarding and ongoing service needs.
How would you describe the work your team does?
AK: Our goal is to help ensure our customers’ benefit experiences are as smooth as possible. We do that by taking the time to understand each employer’s unique benefits and human resources technology (HR tech) landscape. Every customer has specific, tailored products and technology vendor connections that we need to know inside-and-out so they can successfully administer their benefit plans. Our team also works closely with brokers to better meet the needs of our mutual customers.
Not only do we have to understand what they already have in place, but we need to be keenly aware of how our products and services integrate with those technology ecosystems to create a seamless and effective process.
How does your team ensure success?
AK: We strive to differentiate ourselves by striking the right balance of HR tech utilization and the crucial elements of human interaction with our customers. Whether it’s our account managers, implementation managers or the team members in our call center, we want to have real conversations with our customers and their employees. That’s how they’ll know we’re there for them, in addition to all the ways we support them through our products and services.
On top of that, we spend a lot of time thinking about implementation. Benefits implementation is a key moment in the benefits journey for our customers, because it’s the foundation of our relationship with them. We take the time to listen to customers about our implementation process, asking them: how can we improve? What can we do better? How is your experience? That near-constant customer feedback allows us to continue iterating and streamlining our process in ways that continuously improve the customer experience.
What trends have you seen in the industry?
AK: In the last five to 10 years, I’ve noticed a shift in the way customers are making decisions when it comes to their insurance carrier. A decade ago, if a customer was choosing between two carriers, we could expect that they’d choose the lower cost option each time. Today, customers define value differently. We’re seeing customers consider more than just the dollar amounts and looking at service capabilities, integrations and claims processes. Essentially, customers want to know how their employees are going to experience The Hartford versus another carrier. To them, a higher level of service is worth a difference in price, which wasn’t necessarily the case in the past.
What opportunities does that shift present?
AK: We’ve had the opportunity to dig into the many ways we create value for our customers. For employers, time and information are assets. With the growing influence of HR tech and the prevalence of vendors redefining the HR process, like Workday, we’ve identified huge opportunities to maximize value by being strategic in the way we work with benefit administration platforms to deliver seamless benefits experiences. We’ve invested significant resources into creating a benefits journey that will maximize customer value and contribute to the success of their benefits administration.
That journey has several phases. We start by creating a collaboration-oriented implementation process. Our team anticipates where our customers will need support to create the smoothest experience possible that yields the best outcomes. Then, we have our HR tech vendors streamline the claims process and make our benefits more accessible to employees, which has helped to increase benefits usage. Finally, employers can use our absence dashboard to see how benefits usage and claims work together and the impact to their employees.
Knowing our customers attribute so much value to the caliber of service we offer is exciting, because it allows us to focus on continued iteration and improvement of each part of the journey.
What’s something in your personal life that allows you to show up at your best in your work life?
AK: I have a wonderful support system at home that allows me to bring my full attention to work. My wife and I have been married for 20 years, and we have a 17-year-old son. Our small family is very close, supportive of one another and understanding of the changing demands of work. My loved ones are flexible when I need to travel, and in turn I can be fully present with them when I’m at home.
My relationships at The Hartford are similar. I’ve been here for over 25 years, and I’ve worked with some of my colleagues for the duration. The camaraderie, trust and sense of teamwork we share allow us to push one another to do our best work for the company and for our customers. That encouragement both from my family and my professional network allows me to show up at my best every day.
For more information on The Hartford’s implementation approach, read The Future of Benefits Implementation whitepaper.
