Vera Bradley Engages Employees with Conduent’s BenefitWallet

Todd Berkley

Vera Bradley is a luggage and accessories company known for its products’ unique, beautiful designs. You’ve almost certainly seen their bags while walking through an airport, but you may not know that the innovative lifestyle brand is also a leader in employee benefits administration.

Vera Bradley has been a Conduent customer for more than a decade and has successfully adopted BenefitWallet as its Health Savings Account (HSA) platform. We recently spoke with Carolyn Campbell, Vera Bradley Benefits Manager, about the company’s progress and experience since partnering with BenefitWallet.

"BenefitWallet from Conduent has helped us transform our employee benefits and retain talented personnel." - Carolyn Campbell, Benefits Manager, Vera Bradley

Vera Bradley’s comprehensive employee benefits package includes a 401K, life insurance, long-term disability and emergency travel benefits, to name a few. According to Campbell, Vera Bradley employees prioritize medical, retirement and vacation benefits above all others. “This makes the HSA a cornerstone of our main benefits package,” since it is a unique product that really addresses two of our employees' top priorities: medical and retirement.”

The full-replacement HSA approach allows Vera Bradley to capitalize on unique wealth management and retirement benefits. The company was able to maintain its overall benefit costs while increasing its HSA contribution. As a result, employees are in a much better position to manage their finances when it comes to their health care, now and in the future.

“Shifting to a full-replacement HSA and leveraging BenefitWallet from Conduent allowed all our employees to appreciate the value of their medical plan,” said Campbell. “There’s no doubt that it’s helped us retain talented employees.”

Driving HSA Adoption at Vera Bradley

Education and communication are important components of an HSA roll-out, especially when going full-replacement. For a geographically-distributed retail organization like Vera Bradley, these efforts can be particularly challenging.

Campbell says that using digital communication channels is essential for the company. Retail associates are located all over the U.S., so not all employees can take part in live training sessions. Instead, Vera Bradley records and shares video content via mobile devices.

The company intranet is another important channel. Paired with email push notifications, educational content hosted online has increased employees’ comfort level with their HSA accounts. As employees master the basics, Vera Bradley – with BenefitWallet’s help – can dive into deeper topics such as investing account contributions.

BenefitWallet Increases Employee Engagement

Since adopting a full-replacement HSA, Vera Bradley has seen tangible benefits.

Employees have a stronger appreciation of their employer’s contribution – not only towards medical expenses but towards retirement planning. There’s an increased understanding of how HSA contributions build over time and can be tapped into down the road.

But the biggest improvement Campbell has noticed is in employee engagement.

“Employees are really understanding that they have choices. They’ve become comfortable making decisions and taking ownership of their health care.”

HSAs are still a new concept and many employers are unsure of the value they can provide. Vera Bradley is a great early adopter and serves as an example for others to emulate when considering new ways to engage employees in their health, wealth and careers. Partnering with BenefitWallet has helped the company smoothly transition to a full-replacement HSA model, increasing employee satisfaction and engagement in the process.