Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi, A Mutual Insurance Company

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi sees employee wellness and health as a holistic experience. That goes from the newly built employee pickleball courts on the office campus to the 6% company match for 401(k) deferrals.

The insurance provider give employees two, 30-minute, on-the-clock physical activity periods per week during which they can use the campus gym, indoor walking track, golf bay and various courts to play games, says Harold Rogers, vice president of human resources at the Flowood, Mississippi, insurance firm.

“We want to assist the whole person, not just the employee,” Rogers says. “This is what we think makes us unique among employers.”

That focus on wellness extends to the financial security of employees as much as the physical, Rogers notes. Beyond boasting a near-97% plan participant rate and recently updated core fund lineup, Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi recently completed a successful transition for employees out of a defined benefit plan into a defined contribution setup.

The insurer, which had been providing a DB plan for years, decided to freeze it in 2020, which halted benefits for a subset of employees. In order to help them with the transition, Rogers says the employer enhanced its 401(k) with a 6% non-elective annual contribution, as well as a 6% elective company match.

“The most important thing from our perspective is that we—well, mostly me, because we’re not a huge company—we met with all of those pension employees live and in person, before they got something in the mail,” Rogers says.

The HR lead said it was crucial to communicate with employees directly to help them understand the transition, allow them to ask questions and provide them follow-up resources. When employees took into account that, with their own 6% contribution, they could see 18% savings rates, it made the transition smoother.

“When that is the messaging, and people see that benefit, it was actually received very positively,” Rogers says.

Another area the insurer has worked on over the past couple of years is revisiting and updating the core plan fund lineup, as well as the target-date fund suite being offered to employees. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi made the moves with guidance and coordination from its investment advisers and plan administrator, the National Employee Benefits Administration, with the goal of increasing the amount its employees accumulate for retirement.

The participant pool, as Rogers notes, is a diverse one. That is no accident, he says, as the insurer seeks to have “inclusive representation that reflects the state in which we live.”

Women currently make up more than half of the staff at 60%, and minority groups represent 42% of the population. Providing a strong retirement plan and support for these workers is key to helping advance economic progress in the state, including among rural populations, added Megan Moity, the insurer’s senior employee relations specialist.

The firm recently opened a 15,000-square-foot public facility in Indianola, Mississippi, that includes a fitness center, teaching kitchen and health education classes at either affordable price or through scholarships, Moity says.

Whether working on the retirement plan or community projects, Rogers says the firm will continue to focus on the holistic wellness of people in Mississippi. For him, that wellness routine does not yet include any pickleball, but he’s glad it’s available to his colleagues.