Arkansas Business

Arkansas Blue Cross & Blue Shield exists to serve its customers, but the state’s largest health insurer has made it a priority to take care of its employees too.

An independent licensee of the national Blue Cross & Blue Shield Association, Arkansas Blue Cross, through its family of affiliated companies, employs more than 2,500. It likes to consider them one big, happy family, and strives to keep them happy and healthy.

Those efforts have earned Arkansas Blue & Blue Shield a place among the 2013 Arkansas Business Best Places to Work honorees.

From the Wellness Works program to the annual 10-Year Club dinner for employee anniversaries, Arkansas Blue Cross places a premium on employees’ well-being.

It starts by keeping employees healthy. Through the Wellness Works program, Arkansas Blue Cross encourages workers to maintain a healthy lifestyle, even offering incentives, including cash, to do so. Arkansas Blue Cross even maintains an onsite employee fitness center, Club Blue, and an onsite employee health clinic in downtown Little Rock.

The clinic is open to all employees and their dependents.

Arkansas Blue Cross offers daily exercise breaks led by management staff, in addition to management-led employee walks. Plus, employees are treated to seated massages to relieve stress.

Work-life balance is another priority at Arkansas Blue Cross. The employee-sponsored Employee Assistance Program provides counseling for employees and their families related to marital, parental and financial problems. It also provides assistance for specific conditions such as substance abuse, smoking and gambling.

In addition, Arkansas Blue Cross offers its employees:

• Productivity and time management workshops

• Onsite personal development and stress management workshops

• Financial education workshops