Leadership Perspectives

Doing the Right Thing Is Good Business

by Tim Robb
Executive Vice President and General Counsel

Our company is filled with amazingly dedicated, hardworking and client-driven people. We’re a dynamic, innovative company that’s constantly growing in a fast-paced, highly regulated environment. This is what drew me to NFP 11 years ago, but what’s truly impressed me over the last decade is our company’s cultural focus on compliance and ethics.

Common Threats Need a Common Approach
Our growth is not only fueled by the success of our existing company, but also by the many individuals coming in from recruiting new hires and new acquisitions. To succeed together, we must have a single, ethical culture that’s consistently mindful of risk and focused on doing the right thing at an institutional and personal level. Many studies have shown that companies that embrace ethical business practices and are committed to compliance are consistently more successful in the long run than those that “shoot first, aim later.”

Our mandatory annual compliance training is a big part of our effort to create and nurture NFP’s ethics and compliance culture. The training helps us to promote best practices across all of NFP, as opposed to just islands of it. We’ve designed the training in an interactive format, so that it not only satisfies our mandatory legal requirements – such as HIPAA training for applicable employees – but also provides you with a window into the gray areas where the correct choice may not be clear at first.

What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You … And Everyone Else
This year’s annual training focuses on ethical behavior, cyber risk and annual HIPAA training. We’re very focused on cyber risk, because it’s one of the largest potential threats to our business. While there are huge upsides to moving our business to a unified technology platform, it creates risks that weren’t inherent in a decentralized business model. For example, what somebody might download in one office could shut down computers halfway across the country. We can – and do – focus on strengthening the technology infrastructure of NFP to help manage these problems. But our most vulnerable spot is the human element. That’s why the annual training is crucial and focuses on awareness of so-called “social hacking.” Believe me, once you go through our training, you won’t look at a strange attachment from an unfamiliar email address the same way ever again.

The ethical behavior aspect of the training this year covers anti-harassment and helps you think through issues with common sense. Our company is comprised of individuals who make thousands of decisions every day and, of course, we want each of these decisions to be ethical. However, our world’s often filled with gray areas, and the kind of conduct that we’re trying to guard against through our training program isn’t always clear. Our training puts you through scenarios that are designed to find that gray area and talk about it, so that we can steer you in the right direction and help you be mindful of consequences. This training can also help you to help others make the right decisions and avoid costly mistakes.

Just Ask
I’m not giving anything away when I tell you that many of the answers to these training exercises have to do with us wanting you to alert your manager, contact HR or consult with Legal. This is intentional. We have top-notch HR, legal and compliance professionals who are available 24/7, as well as a compliance infrastructure that includes a whistleblower hotline and a dedicated compliance and ethics committee. Our team thinks through these issues, which lets us guide you away from poor judgement that could hurt you, your career or the company. We’ve also worked to ensure that taking your annual training is as easy as possible.

Easier Than Ever
It really is. And that’s great news, since it’s coming up soon! All of the mandatory training is on a single platform, with a single login and place to track your progress. Just read through the training, then take and pass a test. We don’t want people to fail — we’re trying to make the training valid with results you’ll take with you. Taking the training is a priority that starts at the highest level of the company.

Keep in mind, there are consequences of inaction. If you don’t finish the required training, you’ll stand out. And this is one time when you don’t want to. If you trip over one of these issues and you don’t finish your mandatory training, there may be serious ramifications that affect you, your office and potentially our company as a whole.

So how can you prepare for your mandatory training? We’ll email you the details about the training soon. All you’ll need to do is block off one to two hours of quiet time to focus and then finish between late June and mid-August. If you want to take a break, the system will track your progress and you simply start where you left off. You can complete your annual training from almost anywhere with Internet access, even on an iPad while on vacation at a ranch in Montana with one bar of service — which is how I did it last year.

This year, we’re shooting for a 100-percent completion rate. Let’s make it happen together.

Thanks for Listening to Our Company Call

Thank you to everyone who joined us on the company call on Tuesday, May 17. These calls are instrumental in keeping all of us informed of our company’s successes and ongoing strategies.

Did you miss it? Listen to the call recording by logging in to the PeopleFirst Portal.

Portal login questions? Contact PeopleFirst Portal Administration at pfpadmin@nfp.com.

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HR

RECOGNITION

Unsung Hero, Jose Madera

When it comes to payroll, you need someone who’s reliable, competent and responsive. As a payroll analyst in the corporate HR department in New York, Jose Madera is all of those things and more. Jose’s support is invaluable when it comes to keeping payroll automatic, accurate and running smoothly, ensuring that employees receive their pay on time, every time. In addition, acquisitions tend to initially present challenges on the payroll side, and Jose is there to ensure a seamless transition. For a recent acquisition, Jose helped us sort through extremely complex payroll tax issues relating to numerous forgivable loans, including how to properly withhold for employees located in different states. That undoubtedly makes him an unsung hero, and we’re lucky to have him as part of the team.

Jose loves to spend time with his children, ride his motorcycle and cheer for the Yankees.

Unsung Hero, Terri Chester

Looking for a tireless leader who brings her A-game every time? Meet Terri Chester, regional commercial lines manager, from our Phoenix office. Terri has been engaged with the Epic agency management system integration since it began in Q2 2015. Her insight on the property and casualty (P&C) workflows and procedures has been instrumental in setting the standard for our national P&C platform. In addition to managing a department of 30 commercial lines account managers in 15 offices from Texas to Oregon, Terri has contributed countless hours of workflow design, procedural guidance, data migration coordination, cleanup and testing. Whew — that’s quite the hero! Without Terri’s super skills and leadership, our integration wouldn’t be where it is today.

In between moments with her kids, husband and dog, Terri tries to find time to scrapbook or ride her Harley.

Know an Unsung Hero? Submit a nomination form to humanresources@nfp.com.

Administrative Professionals Day — Our Chance to Say “Thanks”

We couldn’t make it without them. We thank our amazing administrative professionals for going above and beyond every day to make sure business runs smoothly. Many of our offices participated in Administrative Professionals Day, with gratitude shown in the form of notes, gift cards, lunches and more.

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COMMUNITY

Fairfield Awards Dinner

NFP believes that a complete educational experience is a diverse experience. That's why we're an ongoing supporter of Fairfield University's Multicultural Scholarship Fund. Our CEO, Doug Hammond, was co-chair of this year's Fairfield Awards Dinner, which raised $1.1 million for scholarships to expand access to higher education for students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. We’d say that’s one successful evening.

Finance & Literacy

Did you know that Keith Hoffman, vice president of Disability, is a certified financial education instructor through the National Financial Educators Council? He recently presented to a local fourth grade class at Lakeway Elementary in Austin, TX, and plans to continue educating elementary school children in the areas of financial psychology, budgeting, credit, debt and entrepreneurship. “It’s very rewarding,” Keith says, “and we just may have developed some future savers!”

Spring Has Sprung In Santa Ana, CA

Our Santa Ana, CA, office celebrated Spring Break with a beach-party-themed “egg-stravaganza.” They kicked off the day with an old-fashioned Easter egg hunt, complete with candy-filled plastic eggs and one special golden egg. Carol Currier found it and added a crisp $20 bill to her basket. This was one party that was totally “hoppening!” Ok, we’ll stop now.

L to R: Cristina Rager, Dorothy Berryhill, Janae Taylor, Vanessa Maldonado, Emily Vera, Pat Leyerly, Carol Currier and Cameron Spearman

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day at NFP

Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day is a national public education program that connects what kids learn at school with the actual working world. Here’s what the next generation of NFP did:

New York, NY — The day was filled with activities, food and movie time. The kids also created a Caring Tree, adding a leaf for every individual in their life they care about.

Austin, TX — More than 20 kids started off the morning with breakfast and the story of our company. The United Way for Greater Austin joined them in making bookmarks for underprivileged children. Later, the kids took a tour with each department, picking up treats and swag along the way.

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WELL-BEING

Our Atlanta Office Saw Huge Losses … In Weight

Our Atlanta office employees are on their third weight-loss challenge, but they haven’t lost any enthusiasm. Sixteen employees have lost a collective total of 118 pounds in less than three months. Fantastic!

Front Row (L to R): Donna Dravis and Margaret Ward
Back Row (L to R): Bill Schmitz, Beth Erwin, Kim Harvill, Karen Wiloughby, Bonnie Petersen and Erica Camp

Diabetes, We’re Coming for You

1.4 million. That’s how many people are diagnosed with diabetes every year in America. And there’s more bad news. In 2012, a whopping 86 million Americans age 20 and older had prediabetes. Across the country and within our company, many people and their loved ones are affected by this disease. That’s why we're taking on diabetes awareness as an NFP initiative this year with two main goals:

• To help us better understand, prevent and manage this issue in our own health
• Promote diabetes awareness and aid in research to find a cure

In future editions of NFP News, we’ll highlight some ways you can get involved. Be on the lookout for more information coming soon on our summer steps challenge and on the American Diabetes Association Step Out events near you.

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DEVELOPMENT

Welcome to NFP — We’re Glad You’re Here!

We’re happy to introduce “Welcome to NFP,” a new training course that will help new employees make the most of our great company. The one-hour virtual training course is facilitated by NFP leaders and is held the first week of each month. New hires in any office will have the opportunity to learn about our:

• Structure, office locations and leadership
• Revenue growth, business strategy and service offerings
• PeopleFirst culture and how to access programs that can help you succeed personally and professionally

If you’ve just been hired by NFP, you’ll receive an email from our CEO, Doug Hammond, inviting you to next month’s training session. Not new to NFP but want to participate in the next session? Click here to register for the June 1 training.

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FINANCE

Financially Fit or Fiscally Challenged?

Are you financially fit? Research shows that one-third of all workers have saved less than $1,000, and 82 percent of workers aren’t confident that they’ll have enough money to retire comfortably. The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration posted a new video series that addresses the basics of financial planning and provides useful tools to get started. The brief videos below refer to worksheets that you can use to beef up your financial fitness:

• Setting Financial Goals (2 min. 28 sec.) — Shows you how to set short-term and long-term goals and ways to accomplish them.
• Budgeting (4 min. 41 sec.) — Teaches you to organize your financial documents, set up a budget and track progress.
• Determining a Target Retirement Saving Rate (5 min. 1 sec.) — Helps you determine what percentage of your current annual salary you should save for a secure retirement.
• Debt Management (5 min. 14 sec) — Helps you manage your debt.

Looking to retire in style? Retirement savings is a critical piece of your overall financial fitness, and our 401(k) provider, Charles Schwab Retirement Plan Services, offers additional resources. They include an eight-step savings plan, a retirement calculator and a monthly budget planner. These resources, and many more, are available at www.401kaccess.com/nfp.

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Regional Office & Platform News

California Regional Meetings Grow from One to Two

We’ve grown so much that West regional leadership now hosts two regional integrated sales meetings in California. The recent Northern California meeting was the third annual gathering between our property and casualty (P&C) and benefits businesses in the area. The focus was on helping producers understand the solutions they can deliver to clients. The day included a sales training presentation to help open opportunities across business lines, as well as educational overviews on some of the more niche solutions in the region.

One of the fastest growing areas within our West region, Southern California just held its first meeting. The focus was on creating relationships among our benefits, P&C and retirement teams in the area, as well as giving producers and account teams a better understanding of what their counterparts do daily.

With everyone learning and growing together, there’s no doubt that we’ll see many success stories come out of the West.

Benefits RFP Proves the Power of Teamwork

An unsolicited benefits RFP for a global energy company came to Maureen Deyo, senior vice president in our Houston property and casualty office. Maureen reached out to the Corporate Development team in New York. The team evaluated the RFP and began working with Kelly Hudelson, managing director of Corporate Services, and Rachel Kanady, vice president of Agency Development, both from our South Central region.

With the submission deadline only three days out, Kelly, Rachel and their teams worked together on a comprehensive document. All their hard work paid off when the company selected us as its vendor. We’ll begin working with the company in the next few weeks. Thanks to our team’s professionalism and responsiveness, we won a great domestic client, opening the door to its international needs as well.

This is just one more terrific example of how leads are triaged by our Corporate Development team and delivered to the appropriate region or platform. That’s the power of teamwork!

Educate Yourself on Disability Insurance

May is Disability Insurance Awareness Month (DIAM), the perfect time to educate yourself on DI protection — and the recurring revenue it provides. Right now, about 100 advisors throughout the country are participating in our DI sales webinars and six-session training series that continues through July. Participants are learning that:

• Injury and illness don’t discriminate — They can strike any of your clients at any time.
• Large incomes need protection, too — Your client has significant assets, but those assets may be needed for expensive obligations they have.
• Recurring revenue keeps things flowing — Why wouldn’t you want consistent cash flow?
• Multi-life DI provides coverage when needed — Did you know that multi-life DI programs require no medical underwriting?

Register for these two remaining training sessions:

Intermediate Training | Register
June 7 – Underwriting Process
June 14 – Placing Business

Advanced Training | Register
July 12 – Multi-Life Business, Part A
July 19 – Multi-Life Business, Part B

Missed the other four sessions in this year’s sales series? We recorded them for you:

Replay 4/28 Webinar – Principal IDI Updates — New Products, Tools and Sales Programs
Replay 5/5 Webinar – Filling the Income Gap — MetLife's Total Disability Solution
Replay 5/9 Webinar – Multi-Life DI Trends and Topics
Replay 5/16 Webinar – NFP DI Tools, Technology and Resources

May is DIAM, but you can learn how to sell DI all year long through our vast library of resources and training. Visit go.nfp.com/diam to watch videos and browse sales ideas.

Questions? Contact Keith Hoffman.

Deb Smolensky Speaks at Premier Wellness Summit

Our own Deb Smolensky, a senior account executive for the Midwest region and National Wellness Practice Leader for health engagement, was one of the wellness industry's top experts chosen to speak at Thrive Summit 2016, the HR industry's largest conference on employee well-being. This premier event united inspirational speakers, industry insiders, HR leaders and more was put on by Sir Richard Branson's wellness company, Virgin Pulse. Deb was in terrific company with more than 500 HR experts and industry insiders that were lucky enough to hear her insights on creating innovative financial well-being solutions — but we’re even luckier that she’s a part of our team.

Pictured: Deb Smolensky

Janet Horenberg Speaks at Cybersecurity Risk Management 360

Janet Horenberg, a director in our property & casualty division, was chosen to be a panelist at the recent Cybersecurity Risk Management 360 in Baltimore. This premier event brought together expert speakers on cyber security in areas such as insurance, law, financial services, accounting and consulting.

Janet cautioned the audience about directors' and officers' exposure to liability in the cases of cyber-related incidents and explained why cyber insurance isn't as straightforward as other kinds of policies. "These are not standard insurance policies in any way," Janet said. "They're complex, so you've got to work closely with your broker."

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Procurement

New Records Protection and Storage Partnership

We’re excited to announce our 360-degree partnership with Access Corp., which will handle all of our records storage, data protection and digital information management needs. Access is the largest privately held records and information management services provider in the U.S. and our client. Benefits of our partnership include:

• Deep discounts on records management services at all of our locations, due to our collective volume
• The opportunity to clean up existing files in storage to make sure they’re consistent with our retention policy
• A single online database for all NFP records
• Reduced paperwork and administration with one central invoice and automatic monthly chargebacks

Send your existing contracts with other vendors to Silver Chaudry to track expiration dates and discuss the transition to the national program. If you already have an Access account, please confirm that the new rates have been applied. We appreciate your support as we continue to streamline our office services.

Questions? Contact Silver Chaudry.

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Marketing

New NFP.com Is Live

Have you checked out NFP.com? We’ve been working hard for more than two years to refresh the NFP brand so we can tell a much clearer story of what we do and what we stand for. For the first time, we have a single site that fully reflects our capabilities and unique value proposition.

Unexpected imagery, bright colors and brilliant design bring the new brand to life. But aesthetics are just the beginning. Built on best practices and technology that’s capable of addressing future needs, the site’s full of well-organized, up-to-date content that’s easy to navigate. In addition, the design is responsive, which means that the site works equally well on smart phones, tablets and desktops.

This is a complete transformation. One that will truly differentiate us and amplify the power that comes with being a company that takes business personally. Please spend some time on the site and get to know what information is there and how it’s set up. It’s the face of NFP and a hub we can use to educate and support prospects and clients in a way we’ve never been able to do before.

It’s your everyday efforts that enable us to call ourselves a better kind of company. One that cares about every individual in our community, and that does business in a way nobody else does. The site is an incredible culmination of all of those efforts. Every bit of the new brand, including NFP.com, is a reflection of your commitment, so thank you and enjoy!

Tell us what you think. Email comments to brand@nfp.com.

Are Your Email Signature and LinkedIn Profile Brand-Ready?

With all of the recent brand updates, it’s important to ensure that your email signature and your LinkedIn profile are up to date with NFP guidelines. Easy-to-follow instructions on how to update your email signature and ensure you’re using the right logo and information are on NFP Brand Central.

In addition, you’ll find a one-pager on how to update your LinkedIn profile to reflect the updated NFP story and to link yourself to the correct NFP LinkedIn corporate page.

Used correctly and consistently, our brand tells a clear story of who we are, what we do and our core values. Thank you for helping us communicate effectively and in one voice.

Benefits and HR Technology Client Brochures Are Here

You now have access to marketing materials that communicate our benefits and HR technology offering to small, midsize and large employers. Delivering benefits and HR technology solutions is a key part of attracting prospective employers and retaining existing clients. These pieces are a great way to introduce our HR and benefits technologies, resources and consulting services.

Access the new brochures through the Marketing Resource Library, or purchase printed copies through the Online Print Center using the links below. For more HR and benefits technology resources, such as vendor specific marketing pieces, presentations and videos, visit our HR Technology and Benefits Administration page on the internal Corporate Benefits website.

Small Business Brochure Online Download » Order Prints »

Midsize Business Brochure Online Download » Order Prints »

Large Business Brochure Online Download » Order Prints »

Social Media

Get the word out on your office events, charitable efforts and employees’ professional achievements. Submit them to our rapidly growing Facebook and Twitter accounts:

1. Fill out the brief NFP Social Media Post Submission Form. The form is located on NFP Brand Central, where you’ll find tools and support you need for NFP-related branding, compliance, marketing and public relations.
2. Email the completed form and any related photos to communications@nfp.com.

Make sure you’re fully connected to NFP. Follow, friend and connect with us on social media!

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