by Carolyn Kick | Apr 4, 2019 | New Client Announcements
Launchways, a leading provider of human resources, employee benefits, and business insurance solutions for growing businesses, today announced it has added Rocketmiles as a client.
Rocketmiles has selected Launchways to review their plan performance and provide a comprehensive benefits educational experience for its employees. When asked why Rocketmiles decided to work with Launchways Gautam Kumar, Rocketmiles CFO, said “We chose to work with Launchways because of their ability to provide valuable insights into our plan performance and educate our employees to help them move to more affordable plans that met their specific needs. We also needed to streamline our enrollment process, and Launchways’ experience as a benefits broker enabled them to make open enrollment as painless as possible. We are confident that Launchways will continue to empower us to reduce costs while providing added value to our employees.”
Gary Schafer, Launchways President, noted “Rocketmiles is a fast-growing, Chicago-based company that understands that its employees are the basis of its success. They are the perfect candidate for Launchways’ services, and we are excited to work with them to provide clear and comprehensive benefits while reducing overall costs so that they can continue thrive as they grow.”
The Launchways team conducted a comprehensive review of Rocketmiles plan performance to identify opportunities for optimization. Based on this analysis, Launchways experts educated Rocketmiles employees to empower them to choose the plans that work best for them, saving both Rocketmiles and its employees money while increasing the quality of coverage. Using some of these savings, Rocketmiles was able to offer its employees strong new vision benefits to satisfy employee need. Launchways also streamlined the open enrollment process by creating a digital enrollment form and giving a formal open enrollment presentation to ease the enrollment experience for employees and Rocketmiles alike.
About Launchways
Launchways provides business leaders with the resources and guidance they need to build scalable people processes to support long-term growth. Founded in 2009, Launchways has helped thousands of businesses better approach the people side of their business through strategic solutions for human resources, employee benefits, and business insurance. For more information, please visit www.launchways.com.
About Rocketmiles
At Rocketmiles, we help our customers earn loyalty rewards through hotel bookings so they can travel more. We’re a group of energetic, web-savvy, creative, and analytical individuals with a track record for building new businesses from scratch. We work with loyalty programs worldwide, and attract customers from every corner of the globe. The user experience is curated in-house from start to end: our team includes front- and back-end developers, customer service, data analysts, designers and marketers, accountants, and partnership managers. We began as a start-up, and we were acquired by the Bookings Holdings Group in 2015. With a dedicated team, we’re aiming for the stars. Visit us at www.rocketmiles.com.
by Carolyn Kick | Apr 2, 2019 | Press Releases
Launchways, a leading provider of human resources, employee benefits, and business insurance solutions, today announced that it will be opening its new headquarters at 303 W Madison Street Suite 2000, Chicago, IL on April 8, 2019.
The move comes amid a period of rapid growth for the company.
Launchways expects to double its size in 2019 to accommodate the growing demand
for its human resources and employee benefits solutions. Regarding the decision
to double the company’s size and relocate, Launchways President Gary Schafer
said “For years we have provided scalable solutions to ease companies’ growing
pains. I am looking forward to expanding our team so that we can continue to deliver
the highest level of service to our expanding customer base.”
Throughout its growth, Launchways has had a proven track
record of success. To-date Launchways has helped hundreds of fast-growing
businesses solve their human resources and benefits challenges. Launchways prides
itself on its personalized, hands-on approach to helping companies of every
size continue to thrive as they scale. At its core, Launchways believes
companies of all sizes should be able to offer cost-effective enterprise-level
benefits programs that help them compete to attract and retain top talent.
Launchways offers custom solutions for:
- Human
Resources: build scalable human resources processes to unlock the full
potential of your workforce.
- Employee
Benefits: provide innovative benefits packages that thrill employees
and make every dollar count.
- Business
Insurance: protect your company with comprehensive, cost-effective
business insurance policies.
The location of the new headquarters provides the ideal venue
for Launchways’ continued success. “The West Loop is the heart of innovation in
Chicago, a hub of tech companies, startups, and other industry-leading
businesses. Our new headquarters puts us in the perfect position to continue to
deliver high-impact solutions for HR, benefits, and insurance to the
fastest-growing businesses in the city” said James Taylor, Launchways CEO.
Please visit www.launchways.com to explore our website and
learn more about Launchways’ solutions for HR, benefits, and business
insurance.
About Launchways
Launchways provides business leaders with the resources and
guidance they need to build scalable people processes to support long-term
growth. Founded in 2009, Launchways has helped hundreds of growing businesses
better approach the people side of their business through strategic solutions
for human resources, employee benefits, and business insurance. For more
information, please visit www.launchways.com.
by Carolyn Kick | Mar 27, 2019 | Human Resources
This post is a guest post written by Lauchways Diversity and Inclusion partner, Chanté Thurmond.
So, you want to learn more about diversity, equity and inclusion, generally referred to as DEI. That’s good news, because building a diverse and talented workforce is the best way to set your company up for success.
Recent
studies show that greater gender and racial diversity each are directly
correlated with increased profitability and value creation. Companies with the
most women and minorities in leadership positions are between 20-30% more
likely to achieve above average financial performance.
As a DEI consultant, I have a lot experience guiding
companies through the difficult and often treacherous process of tackling the
issues of diversity and inclusion. Every individual and company’s journey will
be different, and each faces their own challenges. But in this article, I will
share some of the biggest lessons that I have learned about implementing DEI
through helping my clients through their journeys. Most business leaders,
managers, and HR professionals can increase diversity and inclusion to build a
diverse and talented workforce by following these six basic steps:
- Raising their awareness of DEI issues
- Aligning their mission/vision and culture with
DEI
- Making diversity part of their brand
- Keeping all of their employees happy and engaged
- Offering compelling and inclusive benefits
- Building a diverse network
Who Should Learn About DEI?
If you are reading this article, odds are that you bear at
least some responsibility for the hiring or make-up of your company’s teams.
Let’s take a look at who can benefit the most, and have the most impact, by
learning about diversity and inclusion.
Diversity and inclusion efforts are most effective when they
are are built from the ground up, as a fundamental part of a company. For that
reason, the people who can have the greatest impact on DEI are the
founders/leaders of startups and SMEs – business leaders who still bear the
responsibility for developing their team and defining their culture. If you are
an entrepreneur or small business person, you have the power to implement the
principles of diversity and inclusion in every part of your business.
The second most important group of people to read this
article and learn about DEI in general are managers and HR professionals at
startups or high-growth organizations. These people’s jobs are to attract
talent and maintain effective teams. They are the front lines of any diversity
and inclusion effort at a larger company – and many smaller ones as well.
Finally, it’s important to educate anyone who has heard
about DEI and is interested in learning more. If everyone were well-versed in
DEI issues, companies wouldn’t have nearly as hard a time building diverse
teams and making sure that they are genuinely inclusive. So, please share these
ideas with anyone you think might take them to heart or learn from them, not
just key stakeholders.
Raise Your Awareness
The first step to tackling any new issue is to deeply understand
it. DEI can be an extremely complex and highly-charged topic, so it is especially
important that you have as nuanced an understanding of it as you can in order
to address it effectively. Misguided DEI efforts can alienate your employees
and hurt diversity, rather than helping it.
There are plenty of resources to turn to in order to
understand the topic. I encourage you to take it upon yourself to do some
research and learn about what DEI is and how business leaders can best foster
it. To get you started, here are some key terms that you should understand:
- Diversity
- Equity & Equality
- Inclusion
- Accessibility
- Socioeconomics
- Social Justice
- Disparities
- Privilege
- Bias
- Oppression
- Marginalization
Also, think about what groups you are having trouble
attracting and retaining and do research into common challenges they face,
missteps that companies make to exclude them, and needs that they might have.
Just don’t forget to treat your employees as individuals no matter what their
race, gender, or orientation.
Align Your Mission/Vision
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the concepts of DEI,
it’s time to put them to work in your organization. The best way to make your
company truly diverse and inclusive is to put the principles of DEI at the very
core of your company mission/vision and culture. Those three things drive the
direction, priorities, and very nature of your company, so orienting them at
least partially around diversity and inclusion can have a significant impact on
how well your company works for all employees.
Your culture and mission/vision are also important parts of
your hiring process: you want to hire candidates who fit into your mission and
who buy into the values behind your culture. So, basing them on DEI will help
you attract diverse talent and candidates who believe in diversity and
inclusion.
Make Diversity Part of Your Brand
What you tell the world about your company defines its
reality. So, make DEI a part of your brand! Make it clear to the world that you
are a steward of diversity and inclusion to attract diverse employees, clients,
and business partners.
Every social media post, blog article, and job posting
should reflect your key values and commitment to diversity. Bottom line: walk
the talk because consistency and integrity matter, and people are paying
attention to your words as well as your actions.
Keep All of Your Employees Happy and Engaged
This is where inclusion really comes into play. All
employees should be on a level playing field with equal opportunities for
advancement and equal involvement in the life of your company.
It doesn’t matter how diverse your hiring practices are if
you have trouble engaging and retaining employees of all backgrounds. If any
employees feel left out or alienated during their day to day experiences at
your company, are passed up for promotions or new responsibilities, or are not
sufficiently recognized for their accomplishments, then chances are they will
leave.
Keeping your employees happy and engaged also pays off in
more ways than just keeping them around. Happy employees are more productive,
more effective collaborators, and better representatives of your brand. Your
employees’ true feelings about your company will become clear in the ways that
they interact with their teammates and with your clients. Give them every
reason to be enthusiastic advocates for your company.
Offer Compelling and Inclusive Benefits
Generous benefits help retention and engagement across the
board, so are a good investment whether as part of a DEI initiative or not. But
when trying to increase diversity and inclusion at your company, targeted
benefits can be an extremely useful tool.
You should tailor your benefits to the unique needs of your
workforce. It is useful to listen to employees about what they need, don’t just
assume or assert what they need. For example, women still handle most of
the child-rearing responsibilities on average. As a result, they are more
likely to leave their jobs, whether or by choice or not, and be passed up for
promotions. Companies who are serious about retaining and cultivating female
talent would therefore be well-advised to offer benefits like work-from-home
options and parental leave so that women don’t have to choose between their
families and their work. Those benefits will also increase the inclusion and retention
of single parents of all genders. There are plenty of ways to tailor your
benefits package to maintain a diverse workforce.
Ask yourself who is being left out by your benefits package,
and if there are any areas in which you feel as though you could be doing more.
Addressing obvious gaps is a great start, and then take the time to get
employee feedback and adjust to their needs.
Build a Diverse Network
Lived experience informs our perspectives and actions. If
you, as a business leader, foster a diverse network, you will be much more
effective at building a diverse and inclusive company. Not doing so both makes
your DEI efforts seem hypocritical and calculated, and means that you will
approach the topic of diversity with blinders on.
Just like how a diverse workforce increases the creativity
and productivity of the whole team, a diverse network will help you create
original and effective business solutions and DEI strategies. Plus, they will
be able to spread the word about your business and its diversity efforts to
their trusted networks – which are also less likely to overlap with your own or
each other’s networks.
Key Takeaways
This article hasn’t covered every facet of diversity,
equity, and inclusion. But hopefully you now have a road map to guide you on
the journey of educating yourself about the issues and implementing DEI in your
organization. Don’t be afraid to get creative and go beyond the principles
outlined in this article, just remember to always put your employees and their
needs at the center of any strategy that you implement. And, to get started,
remember to:
- Learn as much as you can about the issues
relating to DEI so that you can be the most effective advocate and policymaker
possible
- Live DEI in your company mission/vision,
culture, and brand – and your own networks
- Keep your employees of all backgrounds happy and
engaged, especially by offering the benefits that meet their unique needs
Hopefully this article has gotten you thinking about how you can make your company more diverse and inclusive. We’d love to hear about your experiences, questions, and diversity strategies in the comments section below.
About the Author
Chanté is a fierce advocate of equity & inclusion; gender parity and social justice initiatives. She is on a mission to learn the backstories of underrepresented leaders and share their voice with the world. Her expertise is in Organizational Development, Social Innovation, Health & Well-being and Community Engagement. In a previous life, Chanté’s work centered around cultivating strategic alliances between public and private sector leaders to reduce public health inequities and improve population health outcomes. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from Mount Mercy University and a M.A. from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN.
by Carolyn Kick | Mar 25, 2019 | Partnership Announcements
Launchways today announced a partnership with CleverRX to offer clients employee prescription drug discounts through the CleverRX Prescription Savings Card. CleverRX is a state-of-the-art pharmacy savings card provider that helps companies provide added value to their employees. Launchways is the first benefits broker in Illinois to offer the CleverRX program to its clients.
Launchways will offer CleverRX Prescription Savings Cards to its employee benefits clients as an added perk of being part of the Launchways benefits brokerage. “We are very excited to offer our clients this innovative solution to the challenge of rising prescription drug costs. Using CleverRX, our clients will be able to access significant savings for themselves and their employees” said Launchways President, Gary Schafer.
CleverRX can save users money regardless of their insurance plan by routing deep discounts on prescription drugs at the point of transaction, while also providing location-based price transparency through its user-friendly app. It can reduce the cost of filling a prescription by as much as 80%, and over 70% of Americans can save money using the card – including employees who opt for high-deductible health plans. As such, CleverRX is a worthwhile addition to any employee benefits package and can be a significant value add for employees. Best of all, CleverRX is completely free to use for companies and employees alike.
Launchways believes in helping our clients empower their employees to become better healthcare consumers. As Jim Taylor, Launchways CEO, noted, “We are proud to be the first benefits broker in Illinois to offer the CleverRX program. We believe in doing what’s best for our clients, and helping them do what is best for their employees, and CleverRX fits perfectly into that vision.”
Why CleverRX? What
Prescription Drugs Cost Employers
Why did Launchways partner with CleverRX, and why should you be excited about this new offering? Prescription drugs are one of the main healthcare expenses for employers, so reducing the cost of prescriptions using CleverRX is an effective way to address this challenge.
Prescription drugs are a major driver of healthcare costs
for patients and for employers. Drug prices increase an average of 4% a year
and specialty drugs, already the most expensive category, increase by
21% per year. Prescription drugs have become the second greatest
healthcare expense for companies and represent roughly a third of total
healthcare costs for employers.
In an age of rising drug prices, and higher co-pays and deductibles, many employers are cutting coverage to manage their costs. But the reality is that you can effectively reduce healthcare costs without sacrificing the quality of your benefits offering. We explored how to address prescription drug costs in a previous article, but one clear way to save is to reduce the cost of drugs directly through a program such as CleverRX.
CleverRx is about more than just saving money for employers. Because CleverRX reduces employees’ healthcare costs, it is a great additional perk for companies to offer their employees. Improving your benefits package is a great way to boost employee morale, engagement, and retention. In 2016, Aflac found that 60% of employees would take a job with lower salary but better benefits, and that 42% of employees said that increasing benefits would help keep them in their jobs. Given that CleverRX is free for you and for your employees, why not offer it to your employees as an added benefit?
From significant savings on prescription drugs to attracting
and retaining top talent, CleverRX can do a whole lot for your company. Ask our
benefits experts how you can integrate the CleverRX Prescription Savings Card
into your benefits package through Launchways.
About Launchways
Launchways provides business leaders with the resources and
guidance they need to build scalable people processes to support long-term
growth. Founded in 2009, Launchways has helped thousands of companies better
approach the people side of their business through strategic solutions for
human resources, employee benefits, and business insurance. For more
information, please visit www.launchways.com.
About CleverRX
CleverRX offers a pharmacy savings card that works for you
by partnering with the healthcare community to bring state-of-the-art,
money-saving tools to patients and employees. CleverRX saves 80% off
prescription drugs and often beats the average copay. It is also completely
free for patients and employers. Now that’s clever! Learn more at www.cleverrx.com.
by Carolyn Kick | Mar 8, 2019 | Partnership Announcements
Launchways is excited to announce a partnership with Chanté
Thurmond, a leading Chicago-based D&I Expert and Executive Talent
Consultant, to create a new series of Diversity & Inclusion training
sessions and offerings scheduled to begin Spring 2019.
The goal is to leverage our mutual expertise to help our clients access
diversity, equity and inclusion resources that will empower their workplace
culture. We will develop webinars and training programs that will help leaders
navigate D&I topics such as: workplace inclusion and accessibility, gender
pay gaps, unconscious bias, employee resource groups, and more.
Launchways CEO Jim Taylor expressed his excitement for the
new D&I initiative, saying “Diversity and inclusion are vital to the long-term
success of any organization. Launchways is dedicated to helping companies
achieve sustainable growth through a strong company culture and effective talent
acquisition and retention. Chanté Thurmond’s expertise and the addition of
D&I consulting to our repertoire is a major step forward in our mission.”
In addition to her consulting work, Chanté Thurmond founded
The Darkest Horse in 2018 to change the national conversation about diversity
and inclusion by inviting business leaders to share their stories. One of her
aims in 2019 is to directly tackle D&I issues in the workplace through her
partnership with Launchways.
Of her work at The Darkest Horse and her partnership with
Launchways, Chanté Thurmond noted “Together, we stand in solidarity to commit
our time, energy and resources to address workplace disparities and workforce
inequities. 2019 marks a year of much-needed partnership, in which we forge onwards
with strategic partners who share our passions, values and goals to help make
workplaces become more inclusive. Jim Taylor and his team at Launchways are the
epitome of strategic partners and multipliers.”
Why You Should Care About Diversity and Inclusion
What is Diversity and Inclusion and how can companies
benefit by paying attention to them?
Diversity covers the area of inclusion, generally defined by
hiring and promoting processes. Diversity trainings have been around for a long
time, and many companies do include guidelines or quotas in their hiring
protocols to increase gender and racial equity on their teams. However,
companies frequently overlook promotion practices and long-term success of
employees of different genders and races. The result is that many diversity
programs function as damage control to protect the organization from
perceptions of bias, and do not result in stronger teams.
This is unfortunate, because physical diversity at every
level of an organization is a key driver of success. Recent
studies show that greater gender and racial diversity each are
directly correlated with increased profitability and value creation. Companies
with the most women and minorities in leadership positions are between 20-30%
more likely to achieve above average financial performance.
That is why inclusion is a necessary counterpart to
diversity. Companies thrive when all employees are full team members with equal
opportunities for advancement and share ownership over the company culture and
mission/vision. Team members need to feel that they belong and can thrive at
the company. Quotas and one-off trainings cannot achieve those results.
Instead, leaders need to put every part of their company under the microscope
to see how they can best serve all employees. Diversity and inclusion
need to become integral parts of the company that are valued and lived by every
day.
This can best be achieved through ongoing training and
strategic policy changes, under the guidance of experienced D&I
consultants. Every organization is different and solutions need to meet each
company’s unique challenges. But with consistent, concerted effort and the right
expertise, leaders can create more vibrant and successful teams.
Launchways is excited to offer the guidance that its clients
need to foster true diversity and inclusiveness through its upcoming training
programs, webinars, and consulting services in partnership with Chanté
Thurmond.
About Launchways
Launchways provides business leaders with the resources and
guidance they need to build scalable people processes to support long-term
growth. Founded in 2009, Launchways has helped thousands of companies better
approach the people side of their business through strategic solutions for
human resources, employee benefits, and business insurance. For more
information, please visit www.launchways.com.
About Chanté Thurmond
Chanté is a fierce advocate of equity & inclusion; gender parity and social justice initiatives. She is on a mission to learn the backstories of underrepresented leaders and share their voice with the world. Her expertise is in Organizational Development, Social Innovation, Health & Well-being and Community Engagement. In a previous life, Chanté’s work centered around cultivating strategic alliances between public and private sector leaders to reduce public health inequities and improve population health outcomes. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from Mount Mercy University and a M.A. from St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN.
