Communications Manager - Provider Engagement

Why Wellmark: We are a mutual insurance company owned by our policy holders across Iowa and South Dakota, and we’ve built our reputation on over 80 years’ worth of trust. We are not motivated by profits. We are motivated by the well-being of our friends, family, and neighbors - our members. If you’re passionate about joining an organization working hard to put its members first, to provide best-in-class service, and one that is committed to sustainability and innovation, consider applying today! 

Learn more about our unique benefit offerings here. 

Use Your Strengths at Wellmark as a Communications Manager! 

About the opportunity: As a Communications Manager on the Provider Relations & Engagement team, you will help develop and curate provider messaging and educational content, integrate data, and present information on Wellmark strategies that support and reinforce Wellmark’s vision to Make Health Care Better. You will do this by closely partnering with Wellmark Agile product teams delivering initiatives, leaders and the Corporate Communications team to strategize, write, design and expertly communicate in a way that educates, influences and engages our network of providers. You will proactively lead project communication planning and execution to support the delivery of division initiatives. You will serve as a guest star on divisional Agile product teams to influence timelines and rollout of key provider impact initiatives. This role is about delivering on the marketing and design of communications; and proactively partnering to understand key messaging and corporate narratives around certain topics to ensure alignment with the broader organizational message. You’ll test and refine communication tactics to optimize channels and message effectiveness. While this is a highly collaborative role, you will independently drive this work through setting and driving timelines, making decisions, and effectively executing and prioritizing work in accordance with Provider Relations & Engagement strategy. 

About you: You are innately creative and love the challenge of taking complex health care information and making it consumable and engaging. You are a skilled consultant and a self-starter who possesses expertise in creating communication that ‘tells the story’ and enhances education and engagement. You do this by leaning into your data visualization and content presentation skills. As a naturally inquisitive person, you thrive on building relationships and partnering across multiple teams to learn new subject matter so you can proactively develop comprehensive content and materials. You welcome and seek feedback to assess the effectiveness of communication programs. You are organized and can effectively prioritize to proactively complete initiative deadlines and goals, sometimes with limited information or roadblocks. This doesn’t faze you – you effectively drive work forward through active consultation and partnerships, tactfully influencing others to act to reach a common goal. 

This position will work a hybrid schedule of at least 3 days (Tues-Thurs) in Wellmark’s Des Moines office, with two days (Mon/Fri) remote option. 

Preferred Qualifications - Great to have:

• Bachelor’s degree in communications, marketing or journalism.
• Health insurance or provider communications experience.
• Exemplary presentation development and delivery skills, especially with use of PowerPoint.

Required Qualifications - Must have:

• Bachelor’s degree in related field, or direct and equivalent work experience.
• 4+ years of health care, insurance, or related business knowledge with demonstrated ability to understand and delineate the value proposition.
• Excellent writing and content creation skills in alignment with AP Style and brand guidelines.
• Strong verbal and written communication/editing skills with the ability to produce creative, engaging content that meets business/stakeholder and customer needs.
• Experience managing digital communications tools and systems.
• Strong consultation skills with the ability to influence and solicit cooperation and consensus from stakeholders. Must be able to understand the needs of others, ask meaningful questions, distill relevant information into actionable solutions.
• Outstanding interpersonal skills with the ability to cultivate and manage key relationships. Professional, polished, and charismatic in approach.
• Self-starter who can work well independently or as a member of a cross-functional team. Adaptable and flexible with changing priorities.
• Ability to apply strong analytical, problem solving, and critical and strategic thinking to work with vendors and internal departments. Willingness to take an innovative, creative approach to developing solutions.
• Previous strategic planning skills.
• Demonstrated proficiency with MS Office – e.g. Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively verbally and in writing, expressing complex concepts clearly and concisely with multiple levels of an organization, including external stakeholders and professional organizations.
• Knowledge and understanding in principles of building adult education content.
• Ability to develop and facilitate presentations as needed and to distill information and write creative copy that translates business objectives and speaks to the end audience.
• Presentation skills, having a knowledge presence, yet also have strong people skills, ability to read the room and adapt to the audience.
• Strong organization, time management, and prioritization skills. Ability to manage multiple projects while adjusting to changing priorities and business needs.

What you will do:

a. Convey Wellmark’s provider engagement strategies and initiatives by creating and writing clear, engaging and concise communications materials across a variety of channels including email, e-newsletter, presentations, letters and other educational/operational materials for key internal and external network audiences.

b. Proactively research and collaborate with subject matter experts to develop in-depth knowledge of Wellmark's network strategies, initiatives, and offerings, and use that knowledge to anticipate communications needs to continually enhance engagement and communication efforts with providers.

c. Partner with Wellmark Marketing and Corporate Communications teams, Network Performance, Provider Relations, Health Services, and other internal stakeholders to develop comprehensive provider education and communications strategies and materials with the objective of education of providers regarding new initiatives, business process, and policy changes.

d. Seek feedback from the provider network and internal stakeholders regarding the effectiveness and value of provider education and communications. Use this feedback to implement associated process and system improvements that streamline and enhance education and communications outcomes.

e. Facilitate consultative structure discussions to develop communications plans and materials for internal and external stakeholders.

f. Coordinate communication efforts to ensure a consistent approach in internal and provider /health care organization outreach.

g. Consult with Marketing and Corporate Communications peers and cross divisional stakeholders to ensure that provider communications are integrated into other organizational communication channels and timing is aligned.

h. Proofread all copy/content thoroughly and edit material in accordance with Wellmark brand guidelines.

i. Other duties as assigned.

An Equal Opportunity Employer

The policy of Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield is to recruit, hire, train and promote individuals in all job classifications without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by law.

Applicants requiring a reasonable accommodation due to a disability at any stage of the employment application process should contact us at [email protected]

Please inform us if you meet the definition of a "Covered DoD official".

At this time, Wellmark is not considering applicants for this position that require any type of immigration sponsorship (additional work authorization or permanent work authorization) now or in the future to work in the United States. This includes, but IS NOT LIMITED TO: F1-OPT, F1-CPT, H-1B, TN, L-1, J-1, etc. For additional information around work authorization needs please refer to the following resources:Nonimmigrant Workers and Green Card for Employment-Based Immigrants 

Wellmark supports and expects the responsible use of AI for our workforce! We welcome the responsible use of these tools by job seekers as well and are interested in learning from you; you will have an opportunity in the application process to share which tools you used and how you applied them.