Lead and Learn
Sam Dolezal, Well-being Officer
Aug. 24, 2022
Background
Union Bank & Trust (UBT) is a family-owned Midwestern bank that takes a personal approach to providing a breadth of services. Major turning points in your life — your first car, your first job, going to college, getting married, purchasing a new home, having children, entering retirement — are what we love to help with most. Our guiding principle is that at UBT, people don’t have your money — your money has people. Located primarily in Lincoln, Nebraska, with locations across Nebraska and Kansas, the organization’s culture lives and breathes a faith-family-friends-work hierarchy. UBT is a healthy, thriving organization because of its healthy, thriving people.
Health and Wellness Education
UBTwell — UBT’s worksite wellness program — has a long, rich history of offering programs and education focused on health and wellness. Founded in 1993, the initial mission of this program was to inform associates of all aspects of health awareness and provide opportunities that would, over time, lower healthcare costs, improve productivity, and promote healthy attitudes. More than 25 years later, UBTwell offers numerous programs, educational opportunities, and support to engage in its current mission of fostering an organizational culture that encourages healthy behavior and empowers healthy decision-making.
UBTwell has focused on overall employee well-being, including mental, emotional, and financial wellness and physical wellness. The program also provides supportive paid time off policy, accessible employee assistance program, wellness reimbursement program, and an employee connection group. UBT has worked to foster a culture where all are welcomed and supported on their unique health and wellness journeys. Through this culture, we strive to evaluate social determinants of health (SDoH) as part of the intricate environment that influences our associates each day.
Social Determinants of Health (SDoH)
The U.S Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2030 notes five areas of SDoH: economic stability, education access and quality, healthcare access and quality, neighborhood and built environment, and social and community context. UBT touches and tracks the impact in each of these areas to continue to improve the lives of its associates, their families, and the communities where we all work and play.
Starting with economic stability, UBT strives to provide its associates unique and tangible opportunities to bolster economic health. Options such as 401(k) match, free healthy lunch program, health savings account starter for medical plan participants, free on-site fitness facilities, and access to free wellness, financial, and mental health counseling allow associates to use their hard-earned dollars on items them need to stay healthy and well. These opportunities and their usage are monitored and regularly examined to determine if these resources are accessible to all and meeting the needs they set out to meet.
Healthcare access and affordability continues to be a top priority for many companies, and UBT has taken great strides to reduce the barriers that exist for our associates and their families. By switching to primary care provider visits for wellness screenings versus on-site screenings, our healthcare analytics are showing a 10% increase from 2020 to 2021 in primary care provider visits in associates and spouses on the UBT medical insurance. With this increase in primary care provider visits has come an increase in other preventive care services such as vaccinations and cancer screenings.
A common barrier to healthcare is cost, so UBT gives each associate a health savings account starter of $1,000 for associate-only coverage and $2,000 for family coverage at the beginning of each year to help offset some costs. The inclusion of affordable telehealth services, free mental health counseling through our employee assistance provider, and on-site flu shots has also helped reduce the barrier of costs relating to healthcare.
Relationships are what connect humans In the social and community context, UBTt strives to connect associates to one another and to their families in realistic ways. Programming around harassment, boundary setting, resiliency, and communication help set the stage for better conversations and connection. Through UBT’s generous paid time off program, associates can take time for a dance recital, birthday party, or a day simply enjoying time together with loved ones.
SDoH forms the foundation of our lives by creating the structure in which we live and engage with one another. By understanding SDoH and how they can impact the lives of our associates, we as an organization have become more tuned into how associates are bringing their whole selves, environment and all, to work. You understand your people when you understand where they are spending their time and in what physical and social arenas. We support the personal and professional aspects of each person when we support their SDoH.
Guiding Your Employees
More and more employees are looking for guidance and support from their employer, and Ubt is no different. Our associates look to us for best practices and avenues to support themselves and their families. Changes we have seen since taking an in-depth look at social determinants of health are the increased primary care provider relationships, loyalty to the company because of the intangible and tangible offerings, increased strategizing of benefits by associates to meet more needs, and a better internal understanding of our associates for what their needs are both at work and at home. You support your business when you support your people. UBT’s culture of faith-family-friends-work is a living, breathing statement that you can see in the hallways and offices of UBT each day.
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