Benefits X 8,200
- All in a Day's Work for Betty Young

Next time you scratch your head over the fine print on your health insurance policy or tax-savings annuity plan, think of Betty Young. She manages the benefits programs for more than 8,200 UC employees.

Dental coverage, disability, medical insurance, retirement options, 403b accounts -- not to mention all the providers that supply these services to UC's 21 employee groups - make up the details of Young's work life on a daily basis.

As director of the university's Benefits Office, she says she loves her job and loves keeping track of all the particulars. "It's a constant state of learning. You have to know where to find your references and materials. You have to know the policy book," she explains. "It's a high-stress area because benefits are things that people get emotional about. It tends to be very personal, like medical coverage, retirement or a kid's tuition remission. You've got to like and enjoy working with people who are sometimes not at their best."

On average, Young and her staff of 11 answer 1,500 phone calls a month. Plus Young serves as the contact point for 39 primary service providers for the various benefit programs, as well as those who would like to become UC service providers. For example, last spring she fielded phone calls from about 50 such hopefuls who contacted her in the aftermath of the federal securities investigation of S.G. Donahue.

Once her day begins, there is no stopping it. Young usually starts her workday at 6:30 a.m., turning on the copier machine, preparing a couple pots of coffee, gathering all the faxes she has received and then "diving" into e-mail and voice mail messages. "For every 10 e-mails I answer, there are 10 more," she has found.

"Some days I just go from meeting to meeting." When she does have time between meetings, she answers phone calls about benefits and attends to the dozen or so ongoing projects that are stacked around her office. She gets so busy that even her husband of two years complains that she doesn't take time to return his calls during the day.

Her boss, Paul Michaud, associate vice president for Human Resources, notes that Young brings a private industry background/mentality to her post at that has proven to have big cost-savings for the university. "She came here from Jewish Hospital, where she was the assistant director of benefits and compensation. When she came to this institution, she questioned the way lots of things were being done here in the public sector. She brought a refreshing point of view and began recommending changes, many of which have been implemented. She renegotiated almost all of our contracts with health care providers, saving the university countless dollars. She is an exceptional person to have on staff."

In all, since Young's arrival four years ago, the Benefits Office has saved the university approximately $7 million in cost avoidance or in outright savings, Michaud said. "What's best for the university is paramount in her mind and she knows how to negotiate very well with our health providers, whether its medical, dental or disability." Here are just a few of the other accomplishments achieved under her watch:

• Design and implementation of the Alternative Retirement Plan.

• Redesign and implementation of new annual enrollment process, with Benefits Fair.

• Testing an on-line enrollment system that will be used for the first time this fall.

Young's future educational plan includes finishing her Master's in Labor and Employee Relations. She had nearly completed the program when she accepted her job at UC. The complexities of her new position required a change in focus and a major time commitment in restructuring the Benefits Office goals, programming and service delivery.

Not that she's not accustomed to juggling school with work -- throughout her 22 years at Jewish Hospital, she worked and went to school part time. She worked her way up the ranks from animal technician, to parking lot attendant, to security officer, before joining the Human Resources office. All the while, she attended college classes at Cincinnati State Technical College to earn an associate's degree in business administration and UC to earn a bachelor's degree in criminal justice.

Once she was offered her first job in human resources, she had to decide which side to pursue - benefits or compensation. Believe it or not, she opted for benefits because the field seemed to be on the cusp of change and she found that exciting. "It was really at the advent when managed care was at the forefront. I thought that benefits would be a very dynamic issue for the next five years forward."

Fourteen years later, she's convinced she made the right choice. "I love my job. I love what I do - even as hectic as it gets around here. I have a great group of people to work with, too," she said.

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