Express Personnel rolls out new benefits

The waiting is over.

“Now, there’s no hour minimum,” said Jordanna McLeod, recruiting coordinator for Express Personnel in Springfield. “As soon as you start an assignment, you are eligible for benefits.”

Oklahoma City-based Express Personnel Services rolled out the coverage in January for all of its locations.

According to a company news release, Express has nearly 600 offices in four countries.

The new benefit plan is offered through Essential Staff Care, a Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliate, McLeod said, and the coverage was developed specifically for staffing agencies such as Express.

“It’s done a little bit differently than traditional health benefits,” McLeod said, noting that the plans pay 80 percent in or out of network.

“They basically can choose what physician they want to go to,” she added.

The benefits package actually offers three open-enrollment periods: at the time of application with Express; after the first assignment is begun; and annually in December.

A majority of positions staffed by Express are done so on a temp-to-hire basis, so many associates only work for Express for a short time.

The new benefits, McLeod said, are helpful particularly for associates with families, because they need coverage while they’re waiting to be hired permanently, which would make them eligible for coverage by their new employers. “They need benefits for that time they’re working for us,” McLeod said.

Under the new benefits plan, Express associates have access to employee-only medical coverage for $18 a week. Employee-plus-one coverage is $36.50 a week and family coverage, including the employee, is $48.67 a week.

McLeod said Express associates are paid weekly, and rates are broken down that way because of associates’ often-temporary status.

“If they do a temporary assignment for one or two days a week and they don’t happen to work the next week, they can either send in their payments directly, or they can go without coverage for that week, and then payments will start up for the week following, for up to six weeks,” McLeod said.

Attracting clientele

While McLeod did not know how many of Express Personnel’s Springfield associates are taking advantage of the benefits plan, she said the company already is seeing evidence that the benefits are helping to attract associates and clients.

“One of our staffing consultants … has a company that’s going to payroll a part-time (employee) through us because of our benefits, because they can’t afford to offer that on their own,” McLeod said.

She noted that because the benefits are companywide, they can be used by associates who relocate and continue working through Express.

“They know that they have the same benefits available,” she said.

McLeod noted that Express primarily provides job-placement services for clerical and industrial positions, though she said the company is working to expand its presence in the professional sector, including jobs in accounting.