Hello, everyone. I'm Peter Schmidt from Workday. Thank
you for joining us for this podcast.
We are thrilled to be joined today by
Karen Downs, senior director, HR, technology, and operation
at Prime Therapeutics.
Karen, thank you so much for being here
today. Happy to be here. Thanks for having
me. Great. Today, we're gonna discuss human resources
and Prime Therapeutics' use of Workday.
With that, let's dive right into our conversation.
So the first question,
today, Karen, is can you tell everyone about
yourself and a little bit about your professional
experience?
Sure. Happy to. So, as you said, Peter,
so I'm currently at Prime Therapeutics,
in the capacity of senior director, overseeing the
HR technology and operations teams that also comprises
payroll and HR compliance.
So I've been at Prime since February of
this year.
Prior to that, though, I have been in
the work deal, the HR technology space
for around about 6 years. My my background
has really spanned, you know, project management, product
management, program management
Early on in my career,
that led me to some technology
software as a service organizations
and then on to talent acquisition. I led
talent acquisition teams
at a large global supply chain organization.
And while I was in that role, I
found my way to Workday, Cornerstone,
ServiceNow,
really supporting the HR technology roadmap and have
stayed in that space since.
Great. So Prime Therapeutics
might not be familiar to
everybody turning in tuning into the podcast today.
Can you,
explain a little bit about what Prime does?
Absolutely. Yep. So Prime Therapeutics
Diversified
Pharmacy Solutions
Organization,
really in that pharmacy benefits management
space offering innovative solutions around specialty
and medical drug management and, and more recently,
state government solutions. So really servicing
millions of people across the country. A key
component of our mission and positioning
is that we're endeavoring to reimagine
pharmacy solutions to provide the care we'd want
for our own loved ones in what is
typically, you know, very complex and stressful situations.
So looking to challenge the way that things
have always been done in this in this
space, challenging that status quo, to develop intelligently
designed solutions
that focus more so on savings, simplicity,
and support to help people achieve better health.
Great. Well, that that certainly,
helps a lot of us understand what Prime
does.
So back to the my first question and
and your tremendous amount of experience with HR
transformations,
can you share some of the highlights of
your, your history,
doing these sorts of transformations?
Yeah. Yeah. I, personally, I feel really, really
fortunate to have had the experience I've had,
especially over the past 6 years since I've
been in that HR,
technology space. And I would say even for
a couple of years prior to that, being
involved in HR transformations,
it's, it's been fantastic to have, you know,
a a front row seats and oftentimes even
a seat at the table,
to where business and HR strategy is being
defined
and then supporting the enablement of that and
and really being able to be involved in
and influence that end to end employee lifecycle
from that point of candidate attraction
all the way through to, you know, retirement
or termination.
So for me, I would say some of
the highlights have been that, you know, I've
done 2 implementations
of of Workday
and ServiceNow and one of UKG
thus far. And both of those implementations have
really been complex in their in their own
ways.
One was a global implementation. You know, as
we went live in 36 countries and we
were bringing together
various different approaches to HR. Some were some
countries were still working from whiteboards and and,
you know, Excel spreadsheets, and others were on
more legacy
systems.
And then my second implementation
was only in
in the US, but it was in a
very, very regulated
unionized
environment. And so that brought with it its
own inherent
challenges. So they've both been fascinating
implementations of of work data work on. The
companies I've worked through have been going through
rapid change, and that's, you know, either been
caused by growth
into new markets, new geographies,
acquisitions,
or maybe it's, you know, changed due to
technology
that's changing either at the business or the
HR level.
The transformations have also been hinging upon cultural
evolutions going on at the various
companies as well. So just made for really
interesting
and complex work.
Beyond those implementations,
very, very grateful for opportunities to work on
dynamic roadmaps. You know, I love post production
work where we're really able to
leverage the technology that we've implemented to further
HR and business strategy. And that has
been a wonderful experience
to be able to work on that across
the gamut of, you know, payroll benefits, talent
recruiting, it's, you know, compensation
and such.
And I would say the last thing I'd
mentioned here in terms of some, you know,
one of my key highlights is that service
delivery model. I get really energized by models
and putting models in place that
that leverage strong governance,
and effective frameworks and really effective partnerships
upstream and downstream internally. So whether that's partnerships
with IT and finance, audit,
external vendors, bringing all of that together
to create those effective frameworks have have certainly
fallen into that highlight category for me.
Great. Sounds like an incredible history, Karen.
So looking at at Prime and and
especially recently, the Magellan acquisition seems like a
a pivotal moment for Prime.
So is this gonna be a new business
model,
for Prime?
Yes. Absolutely. Yeah. We've,
we we acquired Magellan. Sometimes you'll hear us
call referred to as MRX,
but we acquired them in in December of
2022.
And so since then, we've been in this
post acquisition
landscape of really working to understand how do
we bring together that legacy Prime and legacy
MRX
and really work together in more of that
new Prime
capacity.
So it sounds like there are a lot
of changes in the organizational structure.
So how did how did you manage the
acquisition? How did Prime make that happen?
Yeah. So I would say that, you know,
as is really typical with any of that
m and a activity, it happened very quickly.
There's never enough time, right, to be as
thoughtful
and as planful as you as you would
want to be.
I'll break my answer down into into 2
sections. The first is from more of that
technology
and worker data standpoint.
We engaged Accenture to to support the acquisition.
What helped us in many ways is that
Magellan was also a Workday customer.
So that's that's simplified thing here, less to
do in terms of, you know, data mapping
and such.
So that was certainly going in our in
our favor there.
We didn't actually harmonize any data at the
point of that initial acquisition. So we kind
of brought over Magellan as it was in
its own workday environment.
And then harmonizing
of that data
has really been more of a focus in
that post acquisition landscape the past couple of
years.
Culturally and strategically,
it was framed as a as a collaborative
merger, really intended to be a happy marriage
and a mutually beneficial, I would say, to
to the goals and the strengths of both
companies.
But as you mentioned, it's certainly a new
business model and once that's going through definition
and now socialization.
Internally, it's absolutely,
I would say, a priority to move into
that new prime phase and
also away from those legacy references and and
really look ahead,
to how we reap the rewards of of
what has been a very strong collaborative merger.
Great. I I think one of the things
that always fascinates me is the talent transformation
aspect of this, and it's an important,
part of any company merger.
How did Prime, leverage Workday to help navigate
this issue?
Yeah. I think there's there's actually quite a
few layers, to this question.
Because post acquisition or those merger activities go
through multiple phases, often over multiple years, and
Prime's no exception to that.
So the first stage is really understanding who
our company is now from that talent
perspective, and we really need worker data and
accurate
worker data for that. So, you know, as
I mentioned, we did bring over Magellan structures
and hierarchies and job profiles and such. And
at the start of this year, we began
down more of that aggressive harmonization
path, harmonize working with finance, I should say,
to harmonize cost centers and supervisory
orgs.
And then for the past 2 years, we've
been working on a on a harmonization
initiative
for job and compensation frameworks that will go
live at the end of this year. That's
then really going to pave the way for
a further phase of career frameworks,
skills and competencies
that will reflect
new prime.
And I think that second phase, which will
likely run over 25, 26, will see us
leveraging more of Workday's talent capabilities, both from
a functionality
perspective and then also from an analytics perspective.
Great. So going back to technology,
one of the things that comes out whenever
you talk about Prime
is that, you know, modern technology, and it's
a key focus for Prime. Can you tell
us a little bit about
about that and what types of strategic or
customer objectives
are tied into that move to modern technology?
Yeah, sure. So I would say
I can talk at length about this topic
of, you know, modern technology. It really is
a passion area of mine because, you know,
people have come to expect intuitive,
user friendly, seamless interactions with companies.
If you think about how easy it is
to buy something online or really do anything
in your personal life
through your phone, whatever device you have.
It's that very, very much that
self-service
mindset
that is inherent throughout our society now. And
in some ways, the health care industry has
struggled to keep up with that progress.
In some cases, we're using technology that's, you
know, decades old, which can create barriers and
require a bunch of workarounds that can make
our work harder and in turn can then
cause friction and frustration for members and prescribers.
So
for frustration for members and prescribers. So the
prime uplifting our technology is a top priority,
and we are making progress in that regard.
For example, you know, technology is enabling us
to complete more
prior authorizations automatically, which means
prescribers can receive real time clinical reviews and
responses.
And members can then get their prescriptions without
surprises when they actually get to the pharmacy.
And I would say another example is our
pharmacy match products. So Prime is conflict free,
and doesn't direct patients to our owned pharmacies.
So what pharmacy match does is it's a
cloud based solution
to help ensure members specialty medications prescription process
between our clients and members
easier,
faster, and more intuitive.
But what I'd also say is this, you
know, concept of modern technology
absolutely extends to our HR solutions. I I
have this little joke of, you know, we
live in the 21st century until we come
to work. And that is one of my
own motivators to work in HR technology because
of the opportunity
to work on solutions that that bridge that
divide between personal and work life.
And I would say one example is that
we recently implemented
Workday help as a means of providing our
employees a more modern, personalized, and and self-service
driven model with which to engage with with
HR.
Great. I I mean, it sounds like a
phenomenal thing for for members to be able
to, to to especially around specialty
drugs, to be able to to find the
the optimal situation for them. So,
obviously, transparency is important to to Prime,
conflicts of interest.
You wanna mitigate those. And,
and and I think another interesting fact is
is that, you know, Prime talks about, going
beyond profits.
So, you know, how do these, company values
show up in your operations and in business
practices,
you know, particularly particularly in in in human
resources? Are are there other things that you're
endeavoring to do?
Yeah, I would say so from a business
standpoint, first, you know, at Prime, we really
are focused on doing what's right for those
we serve and helping our customers
choose the best and most affordable path for
their for their members
to get the medicine they need prioritizing
more so of that seamless
integration into the health care journey. Because as
I mentioned earlier, that's what we would want
for our loved ones. You know, so we're
not looking to steer people to our own
pharmacies or pursue the highest margins and instead
prime
focuses on demonstrating true transparency
to do what's right for its customers and
their members,
passing value back to those that it serves.
From an HR standpoint, similarly,
I think that transparency
is important and more really focusing on what
do our employees need
to not just do their work at Prime
in an efficient in a productive way and
breaking down some of those barriers and and,
you know, mitigating some of the inefficiencies that
can exist with the
with the systems that employees have to have
to navigate. But then also for them as
an employee itself, you know, they look to
work day, they look to h. R.
To support them as an employee
around, you know, whether it's pay and benefits,
etcetera.
So
I would say a focus for our strategy
and our roadmap going forward is really on
promoting that positive
employee
experience, empowering our employees to be effective and
productive employees, but then also taking care of
the human
first as well through their interactions with HR.
So exciting milestone for us to introduce Workday
help and, and have that be
an example of how we're able to be
transparent
around HR policies, processes, putting information at our
employees fingertips,
and then providing
a high level of care to our employees,
as they are engaging with HR moving away
from some of those legacy mailboxes moving to
more of that modern experience,
but making sure that our HR teams as
they engage with employees
through, through Workday help case management, that they
are committed and still continue to provide
those superior levels of customer service.
Thanks for sharing that. Really appreciate,
the the commitment that that,
Prime has on these topics.
So
can't have a can't have a a podcast
discussion without talking about AI. Mhmm. So can
you talk a little bit about what Prime,
what the plans are for AI
and how that might, you know, affect what
you're working on?
Yeah. Yeah. So Prime is exploring options to
harness AI to make our work stronger,
more engaging, and more valuable to our clients
and members.
But it is important to note that with
any option that we're pursuing,
strong security
has to be a top priority for us.
Our clients and our members trust us to
be good stewards of their data when we're
dealing with PII, PHI, etcetera. And so we
have to make sure that we ensure the
proper policies, guardrails and governance
exist in order to do exactly that. Naturally,
AI solutions to enhance and enable HR strategy
and processes
is certainly in scope for this discovery work.
And I would say that, in general, there's
a strong appetite and a desire
to explore what AI can do for Prime
and what AI can then in turn do
for our members now, our employees.
But we are really balancing that out with
strong due diligence,
around security,
especially for for data.
Great. So,
obviously, you know, you've got a tremendous amount
of experience with Workday.
Specific to Prime, you know, how has Workday
helped Prime reach their corporate goals? Mhmm. I
think in a in a couple of ways.
You know, first, Workday itself is a company
in in growth mode.
When choosing vendors, I personally am always looking
for vendors who can scale and diversify
with us. That to me feels a far
better scenario
for simplifying a technology footprint versus needing to
find alternate vendors for more of those bolt
on custom solutions.
So with Workday's approach to R and D
and continually expanding capabilities
and its own acquisition strategy, there are increasingly
fewer, if I can say that increasingly fewer
needs that Workday can't meet.
The second, I think, is is influence and
enablement. You know, the Workday community is so
strong and it has such a it's such
an advantage to be able to network and
align with companies
who forged a similar path and have tackled
like challenges.
So there's a lot of inspiration, a lot
of assurance and solutions in being part of
the Workday ecosystem.
You know, we also get visibility into industry
trends to validate or influence our goals. And
I think especially from an HR standpoint, to
help us feel confident that we're working on
the right things.
Thank you. So we do have a couple
of, final questions for you here, Karen.
And, you know, contingent workforce is is really
an important
part of the strategy for for most health
care organizations.
Does Prime leverage contingent workers?
Yep. We absolutely do. Yeah. We have both
staff
augmentation
vendors, and then we have more of the
professional consulting, contingent workers. So we
the different contingent worker populations in a couple
of different ways. The first is
staff augmentation,
We manage through a third party through through
Fieldglass that integrates into into Workday.
More of our professional consulting
contingent workers, we process them via ServiceNow.
IT is on ServiceNow
And then we add them manually into Workday.
So relative to Workday, do you have plans
to increase
how you manage those workers with Workday?
I don't think it's necessarily a matter of
increasing
how we
our view of contingent workers. But as with
anything else, you know, on our roadmap is
making sure that we are looking to leverage
technology in the most appropriate way
that we,
that we automate, that we simplify,
and that we ensure that we've got access
to the to the data that we need
around,
this important worker population.
Great. Well, Karen,
really appreciate,
your time today.
Thank you so much for joining,
the discussion. It's been a pleasure speaking with
you. I'd also like to thank, Workday for
making this podcast available.
And you could turn into more podcasts and
virtual events from Becker's Healthcare by visiting, beckershospitalreview.com.