Sharon began her employee benefits career in 1999 as a paralegal, assisting ERISA attorneys prepare retirement plan documents, amendments, and IRS determination letter filings for the 2002 GUST deadline.
With her background in health and wellness journalism, Sharon soon segued into employee communication. Her specific areas of expertise include:
- Strategy and planning
- Writing and editing
- Project management
- Employee research
Sharon’s recent projects at Milliman include:
- Developing an integrated open enrollment and wellness communication strategy for a nationwide retail company with more than 2,000 employees
- Conducting a public research project to gather input from small employers for Washington state’s health exchange (Washington Healthplanfinder), including an online survey and eight focus groups with over 90 small employers
- Conducting employee research for an aerospace company to identify key areas and strategy for change management (onsite paper survey of 680 employees with an 88.5% response rate)
- Developing the communication strategy and materials for a defined benefit plan freeze and shift to enhanced 401(k) benefits, including announcement, personalized retirement statement, and retirement education component
- Creating annual health and welfare open enrollment materials (brochures and flyers, benefit guides, healthcare reform Summaries of Benefit Coverage, postcards, posters, presentations, videos, and web tools)
- Assisting with the development and testing of personalized total reward statements that outline personal pay and benefit information as well as cultural values, training and career opportunities offered
- Updating and rewriting a variety of summary plan descriptions
