We’ve got a couple of “Spreading the Good” stories to share, both of which earned their teams Shout Out awards.
We’re sharing here both stories that the People Center forwarded.
Pulling Together during Hurricane Harvey
I recently learned that during Hurricane Harvey, one of our call center teammates (Tammy Gibbs), received an e-mail from a policyholder affected by the storm indicating that she needed help and was not able to connect with her plan administrator, First Financial (who’s also based out of Houston) due to the storm.
The call center representative didn’t know what to do so she connected with one of our Retirement Services teammate, Paula Yates, for help. Paula knew this issue was going to be bigger than one policyholder so she immediately connected with our Call Center Managers (Rob Hollander and Maria Meraz) and a few others in order to come up with a plan and strategy for how we would help the victims of Harvey.
Together, they connected on a daily basis and after a couple of days of meeting, they realized that they needed additional resources so they reached out to others.
The team started with nine employees. Today, the team consist of 27 employees from various areas of the organization and on both campuses (legal, compliance, retirement services, call center, policy owner services, client partner, marketing, IT, ESDO and DMS).
What’s most impressive about this is that it started from the bottom up and not from the top down. These employees knew that something needed to be done and that the effort was going to take getting others involved in order to service our clients affected by Harvey and then Irma.
Texas team (top photo) – Front Row (left to right): Maria Meraz, Carolyn Jenkins, Paula Yates, Charles Jones, Kim Smith, Ellie Peev. TX – Back Row left to right: Sandy Mollett, Tammy Gibbs, Susan Jennings, Mark Farrell, Teresa Thomas, Craig Campbell , Rob Hollander; Not Shown: Debbie Ekes, Maryann Ellis, Kimberly Gray, Jagan Kandunuri, Stephani Myers, Ranjith Ramachandran, Maria Hicks Johnson, Tonya Hernandez, Darlene Flagg
Vermont team (second photo) – Front Row (left to right): Leslie Wilcox, Megan Hand, Darcy Roberts; Back Row (left to right): Michele Jones, Bennett Law, Mark Bates, Bill Aikman, Elizabeth Waring, Aria Allen
Thank you for all you did!
Sharon Butler
Renovations to the Par Course
A big SHOUT OUT and Thank you to Craig Strachan and the facilities team. They hired and oversaw construction work on the Par Course to replace the outdated equipment.
Then held an all-hands on work party to put the finishing touches on the course. This course benefits all National Life and state employees on the Montpelier campus, and ensures that this fitness benefit will be available for years to come.
Front Row: (Left to Right) Craig Strachan, Dawn Rivers, Christopher Day; Back Row: (Left to Right) Charlie Cole, Tim Shea, Brett Tremblay, Randy Fisk
You are the best!
Life Committee