Heather H.

Director of Benefits

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Everyday life General Our culture Role Why us

Top Advice

"My advice for anyone new to an organization is to listen, observe, and ask questions. My first year at NMU was spent learning my job. To understand how I could best serve my coworkers and the wider NMU population, I needed to understand how things operated and why they operated that way. Once I had a solid understanding of that, I could bring forward thoughtful questions and suggestions on how to make things better, easier, more efficient, more transparent, etc. Listening, observing, and asking questions builds trust with your team so that when ideas are presented later, they come from a place of understanding rather than a place of criticism."

Career path

Northern Michigan University

Director of Benefits

From Jan 2024 to Present

With nine years of combined experience in the administration of group benefits, human resources management, and overseeing Northern Michigan University's robust benefits offerings, Heather is well-versed in the benefits world. She earned her Bachelor's of Science degree with a concentration in mathematics from NMU in 2006 and returned to the School of Education, obtaining her teaching certificate in 2010. She applies logic and problem solving to every scenario she approaches. Insurance is not so different from mathematics, essentially different languages that one needs the tools to decode. Heather enjoys making benefits tangible for the population she serves and relies on data-driven decision making. Her passion is in maximizing benefit offerings while minimizing cost.

TelNet Worldwide, Inc

Human Resources Manager

From May 2021 to Dec 2023

Leading a team of 3 HR professionals, I managed the day-to-day as well as strategic HR goals of the organization. The business was a call center that employed a fully remote population to provide customer service around the clock for businesses who contracted with us. The industry is one of extremely high turnover so in addition to recruiting, interviewing, hiring, and onboarding employees, my team focused heavily on increasing employee engagement to increase our retention. We routinely hired between 20 and 40 new employees each month. The employee engagement was my passion and my team developed virtual contests to encourage regular attendance as well as high levels of quality assurance. My favorite game was Battleship where employees scoring high on quality assurance got to guess a square on a huge board, attempting to find and ultimately sink the boats, each named after an HR employee. It was a huge hit and we saw a lift in Quality Assurance scores as well as employee outreach to the Quality team asking for tips to improve so that they could get a chance to sink HR. I also led the charge on transitioning physical employee files to digital files. Prior to my arrival, all employee files were physical paper files, which made it difficult for remote members of HR to access information timely. With the help of my team, I developed and launched a series of Employee Surveys at critical touchpoints along the employee lifecycle to capture how employees were feeling so we could tailor our training programs to best support them and decrease turnover.

44North

Account Manager

From Jan 2017 to May 2021

In this role, I provided administrative support and customer service to 50 Michigan employers who chose 44North to administer their Employee Benefits. I prepared and presented educational materials, resolved claims questions, trained in all the new Account Managers, advised my agent as well as the customer on cost-optimizing options, and assisted with prospecting of new business. During my 4 years, I grew my book of business from 1 million to 2 million dollars and I was instrumental in developing a growth path for Account Managers in professional development opportunities and in compensation.

About Heather H.

Current position

Main motivation

I value NMU's commitment to the Okanagan Charter - focusing on wellbeing of person, place, and planet. The benefits package, which I oversee, is robust across physical, mental, and financial wellness as well as allowing for considerable time off for work/life balance as well as personal or professional pursuits. My ideas are valued and I consistently feel heard by my colleagues and supervisor. Many opportunities exist to attend campus events and collaborate with folks in other areas of campus. I am appreciated as a full person; not just for the work that I do.

Top advice

My advice for anyone new to an organization is to listen, observe, and ask questions. My first year at NMU was spent learning my job. To understand how I could best serve my coworkers and the wider NMU population, I needed to understand how things operated and why they operated that way. Once I had a solid understanding of that, I could bring forward thoughtful questions and suggestions on how to make things better, easier, more efficient, more transparent, etc. Listening, observing, and asking questions builds trust with your team so that when ideas are presented later, they come from a place of understanding rather than a place of criticism.

Greatest achievement

I'm very proud of the Engagement Program I built at TelNet Worldwide which spanned across Employee Surveys at various points of the employee life cycle to a new annual engagement program called the Jack Pine Jackpot which rewarded employees for behaviors that positively impacted the customer experience (like consistent attendance, high quality assurance scores, etc) to the monthly games that reinforced behaviors important to the continued growth of the business. Prior to the Jack Pine Jackpot, employees were annually put into a drawing for a chance to win prizes and somehow, the employees that did the best work rarely won while the employees that were unreliable consistently seemed to win. Staff morale improved significantly when their contributions to the success of the business were weighted in the opportunity for prizes. While at NMU, I have focused on improving employee knowledge of benefits. I have met with all seven unions to promote our benefits offerings and answer questions. I have spearheaded the implementation of an online retirement contribution platform. Prior to the platform, NMU had been facilitating all retirement contributions on paper forms. I am in the process of implementing an online benefits platform that will be going live for January 2026's Open Enrollment, again moving NMU away from paper and clunkiness and into efficiency and transparency.