Aflac Case Study

In the world of large organizations, Costco is one of the leaders in sales and strive to be a leader in employee satisfaction. Although there are many functions within the company, human resources functioning appears to provide direct impact of these goals. Costco has made changes to their employee performance management processes such as performance management and training that have resulted in changes to the employee’s career paths. Costco changed their process in performance reviews and training with hopes of cutting costs, however the changes have changed employees expectations of the company.

I am very interested in a career field in Human Resources. For this paper, I interviewed Lillian Mannino who is a Human Resource and Personnel Manager at the UC San Diego Graduate School of Global Policy and Strategy. As a manager, Lillian serves as the link between the graduate school’s management and its employees. She is in charge of overseeing recruitment, employee relations, policy development, payroll, and benefits. Personnel management is a special branch of management that is focus on the concerns of employees at work and their relationship with the organization. Her educational experiences consist of a bachelor degree at UC San Diego in Management Science and a professional Human Resources certificate from UCSD Extension. She has been working in the academic administration for almost ten years and earned her current position as manager through climbing up the ladder. She started off working in this field as a student affairs officer then was promoted to an administrative specialist. Her prior work experience paved a path for her to build up professional experience as well as a solid network within the UCSD administrative system.

Effective February 7, 2013, SeaBright Insurance Company (“Seabright”), a Seattle-based insurance company specializing in workers compensation, entered into run-off. In 2012, Enstar Group Limited (“Enstar”), a run-off specialist, purchased SeaBright. SeaBright continues to manage existing claims but no longer writes new or renewal business, which means that premium activity has slowed down. In 2015, a major change occurred when all of SeaBright’s net liabilities (i.e. loss reserves associated with its prior workers comp business) were shifted to an Enstar affiliate, Clarendon National Insurance Company, through a reinsurance agreement. Circumstances that led the company to run-off: SeaBright was placed into run-off driven by weakened underwriting performance associated with reserve strengthening actions for accident years 2007 through 2009, primarily related to increasing medical cost trends. Additionally, SeaBright was facing marketplace challenges associated with its geographic and coverage lines expansion. Seabright has had to deal with significant pressure from its workers comp book developing adversely year-over-year and having to liquidate investments to satisfy claims and expenses. The reinsurance contract with Clarendon did provide major relief but SeaBright still remains a going concern and without premiums coming in and asset base rapidly shrinking, its solvency status as an insurance company remains questionable. The key now is to track the level of credit risk

I would recommend that Aflac continue its focus on employees and dig deeper into demands such as generational

It has been shown that employees who have a high satisfaction rate on the job or with the company that they work for, are less likely to leave the company that they work for compared to those who have a less satisfaction rate (Hellawell, 2012). As mentioned earlier, this would result not only in cost savings, but it would improve the overall relationship between the employee and the company. Employees that are committed and satisfied are not only not going to leave, they would also be able to contribute more and be more effective and efficient.

Thirty-one percent of employees are at least marginally dissatisfied with their current employee benefits while twenty-six percent are completely unsatisfied (Fronstin, 2013). It is the hope of the company to offset these feelings of dissatisfaction by uncovering what are the most desirable benefits available to employees. It has been found that there is a blatant correlation between employees that are happy working for a company and the success of said company (Stanger, 2013). Figure 1.1 displays benefits that employees find to be the most successful.

Retaining employees is one way the turnover rate can decrease, Branham (2000), focuses on retaining valuable employees by incorporating four key elements. The first key elements is, “be a company that people want to work for”. There are many companies that have been labeled as, “employers of choice”. These employers all have something in common, which is how they value their employers (Branham, 2000). They treat their employees with respect and like family. With being an “employer of choice,” people are the most valuable asset; not just customers but employees too. Many companies go above and beyond for their customers, but not for their employees, yet they wonder why they are losing valuable talent.

Researchers in the past have made valuable discovery about employee relations what is the cause of dissatisfaction and satisfaction at work. Companies that want to

Aflac was founded by brothers John, Paul, and Bill Amos in 1955. Aflac Incorporated is an international holding company based in Columbus, Georgia. In 1958 Aflac was recognized for introducing one of the world’s first cancer expense insurance policies. In its initial year 5,810 plans were sold and by the end of the decade Aflac had 376 agents selling insurance in Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. Aflac began adding many new insurance policies, including accident, short-term disability, hospital intensive care, hospital confinement indemnity, lump sum cancer, lump sum critical illness, specified

A strategic management program is imperative for any successful business in today’s company environment. Organizations are willing to spend not only time, but also invest millions of dollars in the talent management programs because of the obvious benefits the programs create such as employment engagement, customer satisfaction, absenteeism, turnover, employee loyalty, and union avoidance. Talent management programs consists of many critical components that when organized properly foster a setting of continuous growth and success. These components of an effective program include: 1. Onboarding 2. Training and development 3. Performance management 4. Employee engagement 5. Succession planning 6. Mentorship 7.Work Life/Balance 8. Offboarding. Organizations must ensure that they have the human resources capabilities readily available to meet the current and future requirements of an ever changing demand. Therefore, having a strong talent management program is critical and incorporating each of these components will ensure that the talent management program is successful.

Talent acquisition, retention and development is becoming into the range as one of the most critical elements of Human Resource Management. For years, companies have struggled to capture market share through economization and downsizing, while growth had seemed to take a backseat. New technology and tools are now available to address attracting, developing and retaining talent.

Aflac is Fortune 500 insurance company founded which was founded in 1955 by three brothers, Bill, Paul and John Amos. “Since its beginning Aflac has believed that the best way to succeed in our business is to value people. Treating employees with care, dignity and fairness are founding principles of Aflac” Today, Aflac employs more than 4,500 people and has more than 71,000 licensed independent agents throughout the United States and Japan according to the New York Stock Exchange business summary. Its principal business is supplemental health and life insurance. Aflac’s insurance business sells cancer plans, care plans, medical/sickness riders, living benefit life plans, general medical indemnity plans, and ordinary

Exxon Mobil is a business that believes in a diverse workforce comprised of talented employees who are driven by its purpose. The company retains its employees, by continually developing them to be successful. In Exhibit A, the graph explains the training costs and employee retention Exxon Mobil has during the years of 2011 to 2015. “Currently, the company employs more

The overarching purpose of these requirements for gauging the value of HR in these companies is defined through a primarily financial and interactive aspect of employee relations. The value of this competition defines the physical and environmental factors that gauge financial wellbeing and the operational aspects of corporate HR culture: The physical comfort level is also important for successful communications and social interaction” (Werner & DeSimone, 009, p.194). In this manner, Canada‘s Top 100 provides a more materialistic version of HR value to the companies, especially in measuring the effectiveness of these criterion for judging the contestants. This competition offers an application process that is open to all companies of any size as long as they are in Canada.

One of the many strikingly successful aspects of the culture in this company is the extremely low turnover rate, and the promise of job stability for employees.