Talent retention and financial performance shifting to corporate social responsibility expanded to include security will be the unassuming spotlight for exchanges in 2016.
Talent Retention
While performance was replaced with value in 2015, nothing replaces good employees who leave. “All employees are replaceable,” is the big lie executives repeat with a chilling cadence. Walk into any company and its quite evident that individuals drive change, innovation and transform organizations. Processes, policies and standards line the desks of the people doing the actual work. As demand for great talent increases in 2016, Exchanges will be required to focus considerably more effort, managing top performers and building employee morale. It will be reported as compassionate, empathetic, and acknowledgement of the need for a better work-life-balance; however, it’s corporate self-preservation. Exchange leadership, both public and private, knows that great employees are fueled by purpose, mastery and autonomy. Heading into 2016 leading Exchanges will focus on building passion around mission, providing opportunities for knowledge growth, and offering flexibility with employee friendly programs encouraging deeper employee engagement. Companies must either meet the expectations of top resources or be in the business to replenish them.
Security and Corporate Social Responsibility
The issue of Corporate Social Responsibility can be framed with one question: Does society hold leaders legally accountable for ethical decisions that attack the privacy, security and health of citizens? The threat of legal action ultimately holds leaders accountable for unethical decisions that harm society. However, the threat of legal action is not enough. We first have to redefine value creation as not only financial performance but include the impact to natural resources, our customers, our suppliers and more importantly the economic distress of the communities which produce our products. This couldn’t be more true than when considering the impact of patient and consumer security in the healthcare industry.
Patients suffered repeated blows from payers and providers in 2015 by failing to protect patient and member information; Excellus Blue Cross and Blue Shield with 10 million affected (USA Today), UCLA Health with 4.5 million (NPR), CareFirst with 1.1 million (NY Times), and Premera Blue Cross with 11 million (Forbes) affected to name a few.
We trust payers, provider, and agencies to protect our personal information. When controls fail, the reason rarely matters to those impacted. That trust we spoke of earlier, well that won’t be earned back. Now ask patients to contribute their medical information for the betterment of population health – good luck. When are we going to hold individuals personally accountable in healthcare for security? Only when this happens will we see a shift in urgency and immediacy of action as financial responsibility expands to envelop corporate social responsibility that includes corporate security.
One out of three individuals will have their healthcare records exposed by cyberattacks in 2016, reported Lynne Dunbrack, research vice president for IDC Health. Patients will demand protection in 2016 and individual accountability of those responsible for the protection and safety of patient data.
References
hamptonroadschamber. (2014). Bills On Our Radar (online image). Retrieved January 15, 2016, from http://www.hamptonroadschamber.com/page/bills-on-our-radar/
Peter Nichol, empowers organizations to think different for different results. You can follow Peter on Twitter or on his blog. Peter can be reached at pnichol [dot] spamarrest.com.