A Day in the Life: Director of Corporate Communications at Humana

Over the past 25 years working in public relations and, prior to that, television news, I’ve learned the importance of telling stories that people care about, as well as how to provide information that matters.

I’ve brought everything I’ve learned with me to my current position as director of corporate communications at Humana. In this role, my responsibilities include oversight of communications related to our CSR platform: Healthy People, Healthy Planet, Healthy Performance. In our CSR messaging, we seek to provide transparent data, share stories of our associates giving back to their communities and communicate the synergy between Humana’s CSR strategy and business strategy. My title demonstrates that you don’t need the words “sustainability” or “CSR” in your job title in order to address these issues on a daily basis.

Over the years, I’ve been a part of many meaningful firsts on Humana’s CSR journey: our first formal ethics policy, our first formal CSR platform, our first Green Team, and our first ENERGY STAR certification. Today we celebrate another first: our CSR report – Well-Being Starts With Us: 2010 & 2011 Corporate Social Responsibility Report – is the first publication among major U.S. health insurers to use the Global Reporting Initiative framework.

After nearly two years of planning and execution, this report has been a long time coming. Our challenges included learning the GRI framework, gathering data from diverse parts of the company and aligning the visual design with our new brand standards. However, this process informed our knowledge of the reporting process and will certainly help us in future years.

Day in the Life

8:15: I arrive at work excited for today’s launch of our CSR report. My first order of business is to give a final read to our news release and then send it out via Business Wire and CSRWire. Time to share our report with the world!

9:00: I scan the news for items including Humana and watch for our release to cross the wires.

10:00: My next order of business is to check in with my colleagues on the associate engagement team surrounding our CSR efforts. News of our CSR report has already been posted on the home page of Humana.com, is front and center on Humana’s intranet HOWIE – and is the lead story on our daily employee-news resource, Humana Today. We’re also developing a CSR Toolkit to empower our associates to participate in Healthy People, Healthy Planet, Healthy Performance.

11:00: Next I prep for an upcoming meeting of Humana’s CSR Stewards, a group of 12 senior-level executives who provide strategic counsel for our CSR work. Our meeting agenda includes planning our upcoming CSR benchmarking, which will allow us to analyze the competitive landscape and identify leadership opportunities for Humana.

12:00: Grab a quick lunch at The Hub, Humana’s cafeteria which features six food stations offering homemade, healthy meal options.  

1:00: Upon returning to my desk, I pick up voice mail messages from a couple of key stakeholders regarding the CSR report. I note their feedback and save it in a stakeholder engagement file.

3:00: I visit Buzz, Humana’s internal discussion forum, to see what associates are saying about the report. Several associates are excited about our new energy savings targets – I make a note to refer them to our local Green Team.

4:00: Now it’s time to write thank you notes to our CSR report task force, leaders from across the company who reviewed report drafts since day one. They played a vital role in creating an accurate and credible report.

5:30: Time to head home after a busy day.

--Jim Turner, Director, Corporate Communications, Humana