Canadian HR Reporter

www.hrreporter.com 17 ADP Canada sees high signup rate This same adaptability was essential to ADP Canada when the company looked to enhance and modernize its benefits package in 2020. Setting out with the goal of building a more flexible and holistic health plan for employees, and recognizing that company divisions in other countries had been using virtual care for some time, the company decided to explore the same solution for Canada. In evaluating providers for virtual care in Canada, Jill Doucette, senior total rewards consultant at ADP in Toronto, found a wide variety of models and decided to narrow the selection process by focusing on connection time to the physician as a guiding principle. If the goal was to make accessing a physician as easy as possible for employees, why have employees go through multiple steps, lengthy triage processes and layers of interactions before getting to the medical provider they needed? Other important decision criteria for ADP included bilingual access, multiple ways to speak to a physician (phone, text and video) and full family coverage. Implemented in January 2020 for its eligible Canadian workforce, the new "Many employers in our industry had never explored virtual care and we wanted to be an early adopter." Catherine Leclair, Gore Mutual virtual care program was already showing encouraging results prior to COVID-19 and social distancing measures. "I am talking to everyone who will listen about my experience," says one employee. "I just can't get over it. I picked up my prescriptions last night and the whole process took 20 minutes. It is still blowing my mind how effective, fast and simple it was — and all without having to call to make an appointment or wait for hours to be seen." Employees at ADP's company's offices in Eastern Canada were particularly grateful for the service since ongoing physician shortages in the region had prevented many of them from having reliable access to health care. They often had no choice but to either take time off work and sit in an emergency waiting room or, worse yet, avoid taking care of their health needs — an option that can lead to longer-term absences and disability claims. With the virtual care option launching in early 2020, ADP Canada has already seen a signup rate of nearly 60 per cent and an annualized utilization rate forecast to hit 106 per cent. The average employee satisfaction rate of 4.8 out of five stars is a testament to the platform's seamless patient experience, low wait times and impressive resolution rates. "Associates' engagement and feedback has been very positive so far. Our associates are especially pleased with how quickly they can connect with a Maple physician (24-7) for routine health issues and to renew prescriptions," says Doucette. The new normal For both ADP Canada and Gore Mutual, finding an intuitive platform that fit employees' schedules has been critical, along with a turnkey setup coupled with a customizable communications plan that explained the process in easy and accessible language. Both companies saw strong interest and enrolment in the early days of their programs, which not only helped their respective teams see almost immediate benefits, it also let word of mouth do part of the job. In looking at the use cases for virtual health care, the top 10 across the employer and insurer business are: • prescriptions • sexual health concerns • cough, cold, flu • ear, eye, throat or urinary tract infections • headache • skin concerns • physician note • vomiting, diarrhea, constipation • fever • mental health As today's workforce begins to find its new normal, virtual care will continue to add value as a tool for key areas such as employee wellness, retention, engagement and absenteeism management. As we turn our minds to the lasting impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, a greater understanding of the impact telemedicine services can deliver for employers should be at the top of our list. CHRR Christy Prada is vice president of business development at virtual health-care provider Maple in Toronto. For more information, visit www.getmaple.ca.

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