Hope is in the air at Cape Fear Valley Health System (CFVHS) in Fayetteville, N.C., where about 4,800 doctors, nurses, technicians, housekeepers and administrators in five hospitals with 765 beds face the same work-life challenges as other working Americans.
An innovative benefits offering designed to help employees make affordable and convenient purchases of computers and electronics to make life more manageable at home is proving popular in an organization that, like many of its competitors, must be creative in the face of key labor shortages and pressure to achieve operational efficiencies. The program is managed by Purchasing Power, which specializes in computers, electronics and home appliances in the worksite market.
“I think the ability to purchase big-ticket items, whether it’s flat-screen TVs or computers, and be able to do it through payroll deduction allows employees who are certainly budget-conscience to not have to buy something all at once,” explains William Pryor, senior vice president of human resources for CFVHS.
He recently spoke with a female employee whose college-bound daughter needed a laptop. “The employee felt she could not afford a laptop,” he said, “so we talked about her using Purchasing Power. She went online and selected a very nice computer, and she realized she could purchase it through payroll deduction and it worked out very well for her. Now her daughter has the laptop and is very pleased.”
More open to new benefits
Elizabeth Halkos, vice president of sales and marketing for Purchasing Power, says hospitals and health care systems are struggling to manage the law of supply and demand. “There’s declining enrollment in nursing schools and dearth of primary care physicians, as well as a 21% employee turnover rate in this industry,” she notes. “Yet, there’s also an aging workforce that is going to create a greater need for more health care support services.” These and other issues make it important for employers in this industry to stay competitive.
As turnover increases, it can have a direct impact on a hospital’s patient-discharge and mortality rates. She adds that social media Web sites are starting to rank the quality of care provided by hospitals, which means the search for talent takes on an even greater sense of urgency than before.
Lastly, even though the industry is financially stable, she says there could be business partners of these facilities that aren’t being paid as frequently, which can have an impact on cash flow – which in turn affects the stability of the workforce. One such example involves state budget cuts with respect to the treatment of Medicare and Medicaid patients.
Given the breadth of these issues, Halkos describes the health care sector as more proactive and open to new benefits than other industries. “We’ve seen some of these clients use our program as a differentiator within a market to retain employees,” she says.
Purchasing Power’s premier purchase program is offered to CFVHS’ eligible employee base, 44% of whom have made purchases compared to about 15% to 20% on average across the service provider’s book of business over the three-year period of time suggested to adequately build program awareness.
Much like many of the employee populations served by Purchasing Power, CFVHS’ demographics skew female, with salaries averaging between $50,000 and $60,000. The workforce also tends to be highly mobile as opposed to sitting in front of a computer, which may fuel demand for the latest computers or electronic devices because they don’t have the same kind of access to these products as workers in other industries.
Purchase prices have been averaging $1,205, which equates to a manageable $45 to $50 deducted from their biweekly payroll. CFVHS’ repeat buyer metric during the most recent enrollment period was 85% compared with the more than 50% average among all Purchasing Power clients.
Better quality of life
“CFVHS has a very involved HR department that cares a lot about their employees,” Halkos says. “One key to that success is the communication of all of their benefits, and certainly ours gets to benefit from that communication practice.”
Sales are split about evenly between computers and electronics (the program’s household appliance category has not yet been extended to this employee population). Laptops outnumber personal computers by about a 70% to 30% margin, while televisions account for the most popular electronic product. Among the reasons those employees cite for valuing this program: it empowers them to improve their daily quality of life and bring together family members.
One hidden advantage to Purchasing Power’s premier purchase program is how seamless it is to administer. “Sometimes when you get a payroll deduction slot set up with voluntary benefit products,” Halkos reports, “employers will say it’s not easy and is a burden to take on.” She also notes that the vendor’s account service has scored high marks for its pledge to help clients manage the manpower devoted to this program.
To learn more about Purchasing Power, please visit www.purchasingpower.com or http://l.purchasingpower.com/premier to view another customer testimonial.
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