Back to list 2017-07-10 10:18:00

Recently, Starbucks offers a critical illness insurance plan for the parents of its eligible employees in company-operated stores across Mainland China, which caused the sensation in the whole industry. MSH CHINA, as the high-end health insurance service provider, held Salon of "HR Big Name’s Proficiency in Employee Health Benefits”, with a special guest Ms. Hua YU, Vice President of Human Resources of Starbucks China, who has decoded the Story of Starbucks’Critical Illness Insurance Plan for Aging Parents and attractive partnership service of pour your heart into it

In the following roundtable forum, Ms. Hua YU and Mr. Xinrong QIU, Senior Manager of Salary and Welfare, Greater China and Mongolia of General Electric Company (GE), Ms. Rong ZHOU, Salary and Welfare Director of Bosch China, and Ms. Beihua SUN, Senior Director of Business Development of MSH CHINA has shared their opinion on without more extra budgets to significantly increase the benefits, how does the company to improve their employee satisfaction through welfare initiatives and meet the welfare needs of different groups.

After the roundtable, MSH CHINA awarded special guests from Starbucks, GE, BOSCH and Marriott with the “Best Partner”, expressing the gratitude to the HR Big Name for taking the time to sharing valuable experience and insights in the salon, and also thanks for the trust and support for MSH CHINA from their companies over all these years, wishing a continuous mutual trust, friendship and good cooperation in the future.

At the end of the salon, Ms. Beihua SUN gave a speech on “How to Improve Employees’ Satisfaction with the Advantage of Insurance ". It briefly introduces the major critical illness insurance as well as their advantages, and makes a deep analysis on the benefits of medical welfare from different dimensions of employees and companies. In particular, Ms. SUN shared a special benefits innovation, companies and employees sharing the cost of medical insurance, and expanding the scope of benefits to employees’ important relatives with the saved funds, which is a professional advice in critical illness insurance for HR staff in developing the welfare plan in the future.

In addition, Ms. SUN also introduced two critical illness products whose design and follow-up services are provided by MSH CHINA, “China Continent Insurance – MSH Critical Illness International Plan” providing a full range of overseas medical treatment and personal overseas special medical insurance", and "AEGON THTF - MSH life insurance & additional lifetime health cover" focusing on health intervention and critical illness treatment services.

The following is a summary of the speech:

Ms. Hua YU interview: attractive partnership service of pour your heart into it

Ms. Hua YU, Vice President of Human Resources of Starbucks China, has briefly shared her professional experience with everyone in the salon first and then decoded the story of starbucks’ critical illness insurance plan for aging parents.

In April of this year, Starbucks announced a special employee benefit: beginning June 1, 2017, Starbucks will offer fully sponsored critical illness insurance program to partners who have served full-time at least two years in company’s company-owned markets. Parents must be below the age of 75 to qualify for the insurance program. It will cover the medical treatment of 30 common critical illnesses, which is a powerful complement to existing basic social insurance. This industry-leading investment is the first time introduced by Starbucks worldwide, which has benefited over 15,000 parents of its Chinese partners.

Ms. Hua YU said that Mr. Howard Schultz, executive chairman, Starbucks Coffee Company, has always been hoping to build Starbucks as a "very different company", a company that is caring, responsible and receptive, and a company that makes its employees and their family feel guaranteed.

"At Starbucks, we treat all our employees as our partners, and we are family. Starbucks is the first company in the United States providing medical insurance for its employees in the 1990s and the first whole employee stock ownership. Employees’ interests ranking the first and caring for our partners is corporate culture concept for Starbucks all the time. Enhancing our partner's work experience is one of Starbucks’ most important strategies. Only happy employees could bring customers happy service, and this is our priceless return. "

Introducing this Critical Illness Insurance for Parents is closely related to Chinese traditional culture and national conditions. In China, the younger generation is usually responsible for supporting their aging parents, and for the generation after 1990s working in the Starbucks, most of who are the only child in the family, bearing heavier burden. In addition, for the current medical conditions and cost, for those rural areas, especially those families without health insurance, critical illness means that the economic pressure overwhelming the whole family.

According to Ms. Hua YU, "We also learned from the staff communication and interviews, most employees are very concerned about the physical condition of their parents, and hoping to do more to protect the aging parents. So we chose to support the aging parents and offer them with the critical illness insurance, is the benefit with the consideration for our employees. We work to meet the needs and wish of the employees, to ease their worries, and transfer of love and responsibility for our partners to their partners. We hope that with Starbucks' continuous development in China, more and more partners and their parents will enjoy this benefit. We also hope ‘Starbucks China Parent Care Program’ will stimulate the social responsibility of other business employers.

After a short coffee break, HR roundtable forum started: without more extra budgets to significantly increase the benefits, how does the company to improve their employee satisfaction through welfare initiatives and meet the welfare needs of different groups.


Rong ZHOU: give priority to needs and communication ranks the first

Facing corporate welfare, for many employees, especially blue-collar workers, what comes first to them is the effectiveness and the time to fulfill promise, which means some long-term investment welfare program is not suitable for this part of the staff and may fail in meeting their current actual demands. Furthermore, there are differences in positions, age, gender, region and etc. among employees, which leads to different needs. Therefore, employees may not be able to clearly feel and enjoy their own benefits. In this case, what we must do first do is to listen and analyze the real needs of employees, looking for the most suitable way to develop welfare plans tailored to the employees. We make analysis on the specific situation of the staff, and meanwhile, we also hold a special face to face communication for their views.

Communication work after the implementation of a welfare program is also important as understanding the needs of the staff. Without effective follow-up communication, employees may fail to understand how they will benefit from the welfare plan. No matter how much money and manpower has been devoted, no matter how complicated and comprehensive the plan is, the satisfaction from this welfare plan will be greatly reduced. Considering all these, we must provide a good communication platform, and through effective follow-up communication, employees will understand their own benefits and how to seek help when facing difficulties, thus simplifying the process to enjoy the welfare.


Xinrong QIU: strengthen the "sense of gain" on the welfare to improve COST EFFECTIVE

We have a lot of waste resulting from internal friction in our daily work. When it comes to the topic of welfare, if a welfare plan does not exist in the minds of our staff, the corresponding expenditure is wasted. GE also provides long-term benefits of welfare projects, including retirement benefits such as pension benefits, which is not experienced well by many young employees, especially the generation after 1990s, who has never ever considered something after retirement.

Communication shows its importance in this process. Effective communication can significantly improve employees’ satisfaction with the benefits program. The participation rate of voluntary projects rises from 10% to 35% after several rounds of communication. Many young employees are beginning to realize that "retirement" is something important and the company’s caring on their "retirement" matter is indeed felt. We increase the “sense of gain” of employees, thus we increase the investment effectiveness of the company.


Hua YU: bring the staff with a strong sense of belonging and sense of pride

With the advantage of the company's brand, resources and scale, we can help employees to achieve the insurance benefits unavailable for individuals in the development of welfare programs. For example, Starbucks offering critical illness insurance for aging parents this year is not possible if only relying on the individual staff's ability and funds. So when the company launched such a special welfare program, employees will have a sense of pride.

In addition, for employees who have worked for more than 10 years, we have launched a "Star Holidays" benefit program. Employees can pay for a one-year Coffee Break to do their favorite things and chase their dreams. This is also a special benefit of Starbucks.

Beihua SUN: considering the company's actual situation and covering the rate of return into account

Companies of our three HR big names having launched the welfare plan, whether GE's flexible welfare program, Starbucks’ eye-catching critical illness insurance for aging parents, or supplementary pension plan for all the staff in BOSCH, are combined with the company's philosophy, which is inseparable from the company's inherent corporate culture and business philosophy. Cost is a practical problem. When developing the employee benefits plan, besides taking the needs of employees into account, we also have to consider what kind of return the welfare program will bring to the company, such as improving corporate reputation and good social image, extending the staff stability and so on. High-quality welfare plans provide employees with the company's caring and their own value to the company, which is indeed an effective talent-retention method.