Prime Therapeutics’ (Prime) Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), Erin Feigal, believes creating “Moments that Matter” is the most crucial element in blending two cultures into one cohesive, inclusive environment. At the recent Minneapolis CHRO Executive Summit — a forum for human resources executives to discuss best practices — Feigal shared the driving principles of Prime and Magellan Rx’s ongoing blending of cultures and talent as they undergo a collaborative merger.

Feigal set the stage by sharing that workers over the past 30 years were looking for a company to join, in many instances for the bulk of their career journeys. But today’s job seeker is looking to prospective employers as partners — ones that seek to understand an employee’s values and provide supports like family leave, recognition and career development — to enrich their experience, leading to higher workplace engagement and work-life balance. In fact, according to a McKinsey survey, employees who have a positive workplace experience are 16 times more engaged and 8 times more likely to stay with a company.

“Prime and Magellan Rx appreciate the importance of being an employer of choice in today’s competitive job market,” said Feigal. “And we’ll compete in ways that attract modern job seekers who are faced with an enticing array of employee-centric offerings. The goal is to move away from an outmoded transactional model to an environment where employees feel more connected to their company on a human level, therefore making them more likely to stay.”

Joining two complementary cultures into one

Prime and Magellan Rx were intentional about how to capture the excitement both companies had around merging their complementary cultures into one. For the integration to succeed as a collaborative merger versus a traditional acquisition, Prime and Magellan Rx agreed to follow a few guiding principles:

• Practice “Radical Welcomeness” — Prime’s Diversity & Inclusion Council coined this term to mean all people are continually made to feel welcome and included for as long as they are at the company.
• Minimize disruption — With approximately 3,000 team members instantly joining the company at one moment in time, transitions needed to be planful, seamless and couldn’t interfere with client service. Magellan Rx employees’ responsibilities continued, even as they onboarded to a new company.
• Retain talent — Prime and Magellan Rx understood they were merging two high performing businesses, full of talented employees who are core to that success. Retention of talent was top of mind and a key guiding principle.

Moments that Matter: Putting guiding principles into action

Together, Prime and Magellan Rx are committed to sustaining a people-first organization, which mirrors its enterprise strategy of keeping people at the center of all they do. One way Prime manifests this is by inviting employee feedback on what they term “Moments that Matter.”

Moments could be anything from logging into systems and accessing data for the first time to meeting new co-workers to having a performance discussion with one’s manager. Prime and Magellan Rx zeroed in on “Moments that Matter,” in this merger which became known as interactions that, when positive, lead to greater employee engagement. Conversely, negative moments can cause team members to disengage. With retaining top talent in mind, the collaborative human resources team created tailored experiences for the “Moments that Matter” — for employees and leaders from each company — designed to represent the company’s optimal culture.

Exemplary employee engagement scores

Feigal continued, “In the short time we’ve been together, our employee engagement scores have increased and even exceeded benchmarking standards. We’re focused on sustaining a cohesive employee experience through programs like DEI and Hub and Home, tools for strategy and goal planning, cultural commitments, change management and welcome ambassadors. This high level of engagement translates to employees feeling more connected to their work, resulting in better service to our clients and their members.”

Moments that Matter for clients and members

According to a Gallup study, companies with a highly engaged workforce are 21% more profitable and 17% more productive.

Feigal pointed out that employee experience and subsequent employee engagement matter to Prime’s clients.  A strong employee experience ignites engagement, and those highly engaged employees produce stronger results in general, and in key moments that matter for clients and members.

Bringing the brightest industry minds together to form one modern pharmacy solutions company, Prime and Magellan Rx are reimagining pharmacy management to provide the same care one would want for their loved ones.

To understand more about the ways Prime and Magellan Rx have come together to transform pharmacy delivery, follow Prime’s Perspectives blog.