OTIP - July2020

OTIP

DIGITAL REPORT 2020

OTIP’s technology driven, peoplefirst response to COVID-19 IN ASSOCIATION WITH

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OTIP’s technology driven, peoplefirst response to COVID-19 WRITTEN BY

GEORGIA WILSON PRODUCED BY

GLEN WHITE

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O N TA R I O T E A C H E R S I N S U R A N C E P L A N ( O T I P )

Stacey Rous, EVP & CFO at OTIP discusses the company’s people-first strategy, technology trends and its response to the impacts of COVID-19

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hen it comes to the workforce at Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan (OTIP), Stacey Rous, EVP & CFO, shares that the organi-

zation understands that staying connected, whether with coworkers or senior leaders, is key. “Creating that sense of community at work is really important, 04

as is the ability to listen and evaluate opinions,” she says. “After anything we do as an organization, we ask for feedback to develop a safe space for people to talk about the organization in a collaborative way.

This allows us to be both responsive and agile in an ever-changing world.”

This mindset played a key role in OTIP’s response to COVID-19. Rous believes that relocating the majority of our workforce to home offices has been the biggest disruption to the company from the COVID19 pandemic. “We moved more than 600 people into home offices in less than two weeks, moving them onto a technology platform that is compatible with working from home. Protecting the health and well being of our employees was top of mind, but at the same time we managed to accomplish this task while maintaining our service to members.”

1977

Year founded

$1.5bn Revenue in Canadian dollars

500+ Number of employees

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Success begins and ends with people.

We help organizations optimize the health and productivity of their people, through innovative and entrepreneurial solutions.

Our technology, people and processes help organizations simplify administration burden and increase productivity, while providing industry-leading member support. benefits administration, Morneau Shepell takes a holistic approach to beneĂžts retirement services, absence management and employee assistance.

We provide the tools and expertise to help organizations solve complex problems to improve productivity and engagement, wellbeing,and and financial security.

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HR Benefits: Technology and Experiences that Exceed Expectations As the leading provider of technology-enabled HR services that deliver an integrated approach to employee wellbeing, Morneau Shepell has been a valued partner to OTIP since 2014. We continuously deliver innovative solutions to their members that support the mental, physical, social and financial wellbeing of their people.

With unmatched industry experience, Morneau Shepell has been providing plan administration services for more than 50 years. We serve mid-sized and large clients, including complex organizations with multiple locations, across all industries, in both the public and private sectors. We support nearly 9,000,000 members through our administrative solutions and have an average client size of 15,000 participants in our North American Health and Welfare client group. Our teams of industry professionals and IT specialists are trusted advisors, subject matter experts and technology enthusiasts. We provide flexible and integrated benefits and pension administration solutions, employee and family assistance, health and wellness programs, and recognition and workplace learning solutions that support organizations in helping their people be healthy and engaged, all towards delivering measurable gains in productivity and results.

Morneau Shepell’s proprietary benefits administration software is a highly configurable system designed to efficiently implement and execute client-specific provisions and processes. The complexity of benefits administration can be magnified and made prohibitively costly to organizations that lack the right technology platform. Our advanced enterprise technology provides a comprehensive and innovative single system for all benefit administration solutions, and is specifically designed to support complex organizations. Our highly flexible technology seamlessly integrates with clients’ existing platforms and infrastructures while providing the security and compliance that is absolutely crucial.

Integral to our advanced platform is intuitive design and navigation so participants can easily interact with the system, and gain a benefits experience that meets their consumer technology expectations.

Paul Sywulych @ Morneau Shepell

Online self-service on any device is standard, with features and functionality covering all aspects of benefits and pension administration, including decision support tools and an AI virtual assistant.

“Morneau Shepell has been partnering with us for over six years. They have helped OTIP through a digital transformation process by streamlining our benefits administration solution. The value of offering a single system to our members that simplifies the administration process and delivers the services that participants want and need has enhanced the experience for both administrators and plan participants. As our organization continues to digitally transform and grow, having a proven and reliable partner that understands our culture and truly cares about our members is invaluable.” – Stacey Rous, Executive VP and Chief Financial Officer, OTIP Now more than ever, organizations need a complete benefits administration solution that utilizes the latest technology and a single platform to improve accuracy and productivity, but also helps participants improve their lives. Morneau Shepell’s solutions deliver advanced technology for simpler, more cost-effective management that improves participant wellbeing, engagement and overall financial security. Our approach spans services in employee and family assistance, health and wellness, recognition, pension and benefits administration, retirement consulting, actuarial and investment services.

By improving lives, we improve business.

O N TA R I O T E A C H E R S I N S U R A N C E P L A N ( O T I P )

“ We are a people-first organisation. There will always be tweaks to how we work, but our core strategy of ‘people first’ has not and will not change” — Stacey Rous, EVP & CFO, OTIP

Achieving this incredible feat was not easy, and not done alone. Rous says that OTIP’s partners and stakeholders have been vital in adopting this work from home strategy. “Prior to COVID-19 we didn’t have the system capacity for everyone to work from home. We had been planning for 20 to 25%, but certainly not 100%. Our partners really stepped up to help us implement this capability once the healthcare sector was under control, allowing us to stay connected to our

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employees and members.”

The OTIP Story CLICK TO WATCH

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E X E C U T I V E P R OF IL E :

Stacey Rous Stacey Rous is the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at OTIP, Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan.

OTIP serves the education community across Ontario, providing health benefits and other insurance needs as a not-forprofit Trust. At OTIP, Stacey is responsible for Finance and IT strategy, including financial operations of the company and accountable for the Project Management Office. Stacey is an accomplished financial executive known for achieving financial and service benchmarks by creating a compelling vision, clearly communicating strategies and providing strong leadership.

Over the years, Stacey has been helping insurance and health care organizations grow and improve member experience with her finance and operational expertise. She has more than 25 years of progressive leadership experience in operational finance. Stacey has provided executive financial leadership to the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network, Allianz Global Assistance and Cowan Insurance Group of Companies.

Outside of her role with OTIP, Stacey is

actively involved in building strong partnerships with communities to make a positive impact on social issues such as social isolations, poverty, inequality and mental health. She serves on the Board of the YMCA for Kitchener Waterloo, the Canadian Mental Health Association for Waterloo Wellington and International Women’s Forum Waterloo. She previously served on the IWF Canada Sponsorship Committee to raise funds for the IWF World Leadership Conference.

Stacey is an MBA graduate from Athabasca University and holder of CPA designations in Canada and the US. Throughout her career, she has continued to seek educational opportunities and certifications that enhance her finance and operational capabilities, including: Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA, CMA) designation, Certified Public Accountant (US designation), Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) designation and Advanced Health Leadership certification from the Rotman School of Management Executive Program.

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Brooklin Consulting: accelerating productivity with OTIP Brooklin Consulting is a management consulting organisation with worldwide experience in several leading industries. The firm helps companies overcome their unique business challenges, discover their greatest opportunities and achieve significant results. Brooklin Consulting has over 30 years of experience in global consulting, primarily focused on productivity improvement, strategic implementation and digital transformation. Brooklin Consulting specialises in achieving measurable results that improve their client’s performance quickly and efficiently.

Michael Flemming is the Vice President of Brooklin Consulting. He leads projects to execute strategy and improve productivity, working with both senior leaders and frontline employees. Brooklin Consulting has formed a partnership with Ontario Teachers Insurance Plan (OTIP) to help improve productivity. Flemming believes this collaborative business partnership is essential and is the “archetype” of any successful consulting relationship. “We’re able to build trust, and work closely with every level of the organisation, which is the key to building solutions that drive the largest impact and are sustainable beyond the term of our engagement,” he says. “Every single change, large and small, is developed with the front-line managers responsible for the area. We work through the development and testing of solutions, but most importantly, we see those changes through to implementation. The collaboration between consultants and operating managers ensures changes are not just theoretical, but drive improvements in the real world.”

When seeking to establish a mutually beneficial and sustainable partnership, Flemming has a clear idea of what he looks for. “We find that the most successful relationships are the ones where we collaborate through every step of the process, regardless if the problem is big or small,” he explains. “We’re prepared to work with clients through every step of the journey to find a solution that is going to succeed. Solutions developed together are always the most successful, and that is a key reason for the strength of our relationship with OTIP, and a key reason our projects have consistently generated 3:1 returns in their first year, while at the same time improving customer service and satisfaction.”

BizClik Media Interviews Michael Flemming, VP at Brooklin Consulting

Over the next few years, Flemming expects the future of Brooklin’s relationship with OTIP to continue to thrive as new technology shakes up the industry. “Organisations like OTIP need to be nimble and ready to change at a moment’s notice in order to stay competitive, and I expect key trends revolving around robotics and AI will push analytical decision-making to the next level and provide better quality to customers,” says Flemming. “We’ve been able to install a culture of continuous improvement with OTIP and help adopt those trends quickly and in a meaningful way. I believe the continued strength of our relationship will allow for those future opportunities to be adopted efficiently and robustly.”

Stacey Rous, EVP & CFO at OTIP, says “The team at Brooklin Consulting has supported OTIP through several improvement projects over the past two years, each resulting in a significant return on investment.

Their methodology has helped us transform our management operating system, allowing for better analytics, faster decision-making, and ultimately improved service to our members. Most importantly, they have helped our people to see challenges as opportunities, leaving behind an approach to continuous improvement that carries on internally beyond the term of their engagements. I would strongly recommend their services to organizations looking to improve their operations.”

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“ My best advice for girls and women looking to get into tech is to seek out a mentor or coach in the industry” — Stacey Rous, EVP & CFO, OTIP

the pandemic. “Our industry is under extreme financial pressure. People’s driving habits have changed, and there is an expectation that auto premiums will reduce accordingly. At the same time, the closure of things like dental offices and other health providers creates a mountain of questions for us and our members on how we handle things like claim limits, cancelled procedures and benefit premiums during and after the pandemic.”

Rous believes that technology will be key as COVID-19 continues to change how organizations and the insurance

Rous adds that she is extremely

industry continues to operate. Post

proud of how OTIP’s employees have

pandemic, she says, a digital mindset

adapted, driving new ways of con-

should be seen as a way of doing

necting with its members, clients and

business, whether that be on-line

employees, but at the same time not

virtual doctor’s appointments, or using

exhausting them with the technology.

Telehealth and Telemedicine more

“Our members and our management

proactively. “COVID-19 should teach

teams are very accepting that there

us that it’s okay to do some things digi-

may be children in the background,

tally. We need to harness what we’ve

dogs barking or doorbell rings from

learned through this and not go back to

home deliveries, which previously

the old normal where it doesn’t make

would have been considered very

sense. Many of these technologies

unprofessional.”

are so powerful, and they will be cost

She adds that the insurance industry itself has not escaped impact from

effective for both our community and our healthcare system .” w w w.o t ip . com

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O N TA R I O T E A C H E R S I N S U R A N C E P L A N ( O T I P )

While Rous thinks that we are a long way from a post COVID-19 world, she does believe that “we are entering into a new normal and that the industry is going to have to settle. For me the future is about the financial stability of a company going forward. I think the finance and the tech folks are going to have their hands full for quite some time.”

TECHNOLOGY TRENDS IN INSURANCE Looking past the current pandemic, Rous highlights that digital innovation, 14

artificial intelligence (AI) and data are still the overriding trends in the insurance industry, adding that “these are the technologies that allow us better understand and service our members.”

She details that, at the core, OTIP’s digital transformation strategy is designed to streamline communication and harness data analytics, using a data warehouse and data mapping to provide a seamless service to its members. “This is something that is still ongoing for us at OTIP. We have only just scratched the surface of this journey, however, the recent hiring of a new director of data and digital technologies supported by a dedicated team is going to allow us to really grow this potential.”

“ COVID-19 should teach us that it’s okay to do some things digitally” — Stacey Rous, EVP & CFO, OTIP

When it comes to adopting innovative technology to drive this strategy, Rous explains that the organization started using robotics in collaboration with RPAI and Blue Prism Software.

“We were one of the first in Canada in 2016 using robotics to reduce the amount of non-value-added tasks from our people,” she explains. For OTIP, Rous continues, the use of robotics is seen as an extension of its workforce. “Our employees like it because they can focus on the valueadd work for our members.”

Rous continues, saying that even though OTIP was one of the first in Canada to use robotics, it was doing very small projects. “We were more in the investigation stage, using it to understand how our members wanted to do business with us. Now, with our new director and dedicated team, we are ramping up our innovation and adoption of robotics for automation.”

With regards to developing these technologies, Rous stresses the importance of strategic partnerships. “Our strategic partnerships with Rogers, our internet provider, or Central Logic, lay the foundation and w w w.o t ip . com

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our insurance partners like Morneau,

“From a woman in tech perspective, we

Manulife, Economical and Aviva, are

have a number of BSA and data spe-

all intertwined. We don’t want to build

cialists – at least 50% – that are women,

our own tech, we want to build our own

which we are doing very well in,” she

intelligence around our members with

explains. “On the traditional side of

the help of the technology our strategic

tech, such as networking systems, the

partners provide. You don’t need to

figures are slightly less with about 25%

own those technologies, you need to

being women.”

leverage those technologies.”

Outside of the working environment, Rous explains that the organization has

WOMEN IN TECH

key people helping young girls learn

Rous believes strongly in the inclu-

code, known as girls for coding, to

sion of women in tech, a mindset that

promote females joining the industry.

is shared by the entire organization.

“However, I think it is still a generation

OTIP Sponsorship of Schools Projects and Initiatives CLICK TO WATCH

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O N TA R I O T E A C H E R S I N S U R A N C E P L A N ( O T I P )

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away. Currently schools are working

is about finding people who you trust

to get the materials needed to show

and are willing to help you navigate the

girls the opportunities within the STEM

challenges you will face in this industry.

industry, but it is going to take time for

Don’t try and do it alone. You need

young girls to see themselves as coders.”

people out there advocating for you.”

Rous, seen by many as a leader and a mentor herself, shares that she did

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS

not get where she is today by herself.

Returning to the organization’s strat-

“My best advice for girls and women

egy, Rous reiterates that regardless of

looking to get into tech is to seek out

COVID-19 or changes in technology,

a mentor or coach in the industry. I

OTIP’s member-first approach has not

cannot underscore the importance of

changed. “We are a people-first organi-

finding people to help you through your

zation. There will always be tweaks to

career. Gender isn’t important here. It

how we work, but our core strategy of

‘people first’ has not and will not change.”

Throughout the pandemic, OTIP has been active in the communities it serves, donating more than $250,000 to food banks and mental health associations across Canada. “I’m on the Canadian Mental Health Association of Waterloo Wellington and a recent study highlighted that 70% of us are feeling isolated due to that lack of connectivity, which is having a detrimental effect on all our mental health right now.”

In addition, she continues, 70% of those same survey respondents said they were concerned about becoming

“ The recent hiring of a new director of data and digital technologies supported by a dedicated team is going to allow us to really grow this potential”

sick from COVID-19, or losing someone close to it. “This crisis remains at the top of everyone’s mind. Given the corresponding mental health challenges we are going to see from an industry perspective, we need to be ready to help the people that maybe unwell, and be there for both employees and members to help them.”

— Stacey Rous, EVP & CFO, OTIP

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ONTARIO TEACHERS INSURANCE PLAN (OTIP) 125 NORTHFIELD DR WEST WATERLOO ONTARIO CANADA T 1-800-267-6847

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