Saskatchewan Blue Cross unites purpose with passion

Last fall, Nicole Onufreychuk attended a Ronald McDonald House charity event in Saskatoon for which her employer, Saskatchewan Blue Cross, was the family sponsor. “We were able to sit with the family to hear their story and they told us how we made them feel so special,” she says. “My colleagues and I who attended connected to our purpose on a deeper level – giving back to the community is what it’s all about.”

A not-for-profit organization, Saskatchewan Blue Cross has been serving the health-insurance needs of residents since 1946 from its offices in Saskatoon and Regina. “Saskatchewan Blue Cross has always been there, giving back to every Saskatchewan resident,” says Onufreychuk, senior vice president, chief people and culture officer. “I love working here because I know the work I’m doing is directly impacting my family.”

Born and raised on a farm in the province, Onufreychuk was drawn to Saskatchewan Blue Cross because its organizational values – empathy, ambition, flexibility and discipline, building community, dependability – aligned with her on a personal level. “It was important to me to have that strong value alignment,” she says. “When people feel like they’re valued and have a purpose, that’s magical.”

Regular opportunities for recognition and conversation adds to employees feeling valued, as does an awards program and the one-on-one in-person and virtual meetings Onufreychuk started scheduling with all 260 employees soon after she joined the organization in June 2022. “Our doors are always open. We want people to feel comfortable reaching out to any person in leadership with an idea, an opinion or a concern,” she says. “Our employees are the lifeblood of our organization,” she says. “We want to ensure that we’re giving them the best experience.”

Interim President and CEO Kelly Wilson says “SBC has always made a concerted effort to listen to employees to uncover opportunities or potential problems. Our approach is to sweat the small stuff and focus on the details,” she says. “We’re becoming stronger in this area by working to really understand what matters to employees.”

Diversity, equity and inclusion have been impacted by this collaborative approach. When teams pointed out that health benefits forms should be updated with more inclusive language, senior leaders acted on those suggestions.

“Forms have old-fashioned ways of putting people in boxes,” says Wilson. “That suggestion made us think, ‘how is this process making people feel?’ We’ve also enhanced other experiences to be more inclusive, including using hiring panels in our candidate interviews to help remove biases.”

Saskatchewan Blue Cross is equally attuned to the needs of its community and is working to improve health literacy and overall health and wellness in a variety of ways. By partnering with non-profit organizations such as Global Gathering Place, programs are available to help immigrants and refugees arriving in the province navigate accessing health care – from finding a family doctor to getting their children immunized if they want to do so. Through these programs, newcomers are paired with people who can help them navigate health services in their own language.

“We have a strong sense of pride for the work we do to advance health literacy,” says Wilson. “We really want to change one life at a time.”

This article appeared in the magazine announcing this year's Saskatchewan's Top Employers winners, published March 14, 2023 in the Regina Leader-Post and Saskatoon Star Phoenix. This article was prepared with the financial support of the employer, which reviewed but did not write its contents.