How good are your workplace’s benefits? Here’s one yardstick

Jan. 05--With a wicked winter wind blowing, here's a heartwarming story about a local workplace.

IMA, the large commercial insurance brokerage and benefits consultant based in Wichita, was named last month as one of the country's best places to work for parents by Fortune magazine.

What makes a place one of the best to work? Generous work rules, some covering all employees and some specifically for parents.

First, IMA has unlimited paid leave for employees -- with supervisor approval, of course.

"If you just want to take the day off to hang out with your kids, then get approval and do it," said LuCinda Kathol, director of corporate benefits.

IMA -- which has nearly 700 people in offices in Colorado, Kansas, Michigan, New York and Texas -- put the policy into effect in early 2016 as a way of encouraging the company's values for work-life balance, she said. There wasn't worry about employee abuse. In fact, it was just the opposite.

She said the policy started in the tech world where employees are driven and too valuable to be micromanaged. She said the thought was, well, why can't we do it here in the Midwest, in the insurance business?

"We trust our employees to do the right thing," Kathol said. "Over the course of the year, we haven't had any discussions about people taking too much time. It's always about concern about them not taking enough."

In other benefits, the company increased its short-term disability to 100 percent pay, instead of a more typical 60 or 70 percent.

It also grants employees a one-month sabbatical in their 15th year and again in their 25th year. One employee went to the Antarctic; another took a mission trip to Central America, she said.

It's also smaller things such as dress casual unless meeting with clients, allowing people to work from home, an in-house life coach and a Starbucks station on-site at each of the company's locations.

More parent-specific benefits include: 12 weeks of fully paid leave after the birth or adoption of a child.

"Our goal was to support families with children who are working harder and harder," Kathol said.

Heather Haines, who works for IMA subsidiary True North in Wichita, adopted a newborn as a single parent last year. She spent three weeks in Texas with her new baby and got tremendous support from the company, she said.

"I talked to my manager and HR and their reaction was, 'We will work this out' and 'What do you need?' " she said.

Dan Voorhis: 316-268-6577, @danvoorhis

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