Delta Dental of Kansas, Wichita, Kansas, United States: Innovative Leadership

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Our CEO Dean Newton, along with DDKS’ executive management team, have established our company as a collaborative innovation and technology hub that creates value and produces successful outcomes for clients through a focus on operational and innovation excellence, transformative technology, best-in-class service and culture transformation. Our company is guided by six core values that are the foundation of our success.

EXCEPTIONAL BUSINESS RESULTS

The management team generated record growth, organizational best practices and profitable expansion into 34 states by revamping the strategy and organization, modernizing technology, upgrading IT systems, introducing new digital solutions and streamlining operations. This tripled profits and led to national recognition for outstanding company results. The management team manages a dedicated Innovation Lab to bring differentiated products to market, enhance technology and data analytics, and improve the user experience.

In addition, the management team designed and executed a strategic plan that significantly increased B2B, B2C and e-commerce sales via enhanced sales strategies and processes as well as improved automation, user experience and mobile and digital services. They further enhanced talent development and training, business analytics, sales processes and technology solutions resulting in a significant increase in new market sales. The team launched new and simplified products and services, negotiated strategic partnerships, opened new distribution channels, and revamped digital and user services leading to 30% sales growth for our subsidiary. We have grown our provider network into the largest in our over 50-year company history.

Finally, the management team further implemented technology, operations and analytics solutions that improved customer experience, reduced risks and costs, improved productivity and enhanced growth. The innovations resulted in 99.8% client retention and superior 98.8% customer satisfaction (compared to an industry average of 53.3%) and an NPS of 84 (compared to an industry average of 16). The team further revamped the performance management system to align corporate strategy and goals with human capital and resources to far exceed KPIs.

CULTURE TRANSFORMATION

The DDKS leadership team believes that a strong culture and employee engagement drives innovation and success. The team has prioritized providing a positive company culture by creating and following a 10-point culture engagement plan. DDKS leadership has created a culture that emphasizes winning and fun by celebrating success, encouraging all ideas, input and views to achieve the best result through weekly employee surveys, learning from our mistakes, and offering an environment where people enjoy their jobs. Our efforts grew the employee Net Promoter Score (NPS) to double the national average. 

RECOGNITION

DDKS has recently been recognized as: a local and national Best Place to Work; Company of the Year for insurance; Most Innovative Company of the Year; On of the Top 100 Healthiest Employers in the United States for three years in a row and received an AM Best "Excellent" Rating among over 16,000 insurances companies for business management, innovation, operations excellence.

Our Call Center was recently recognized as a Benchmark Portal Center of Excellence, meaning that they are in the top 10% of call centers nationwide. This certification focuses on effectiveness and efficiency, balancing satisfaction and cost across all key performance indicators. The certification was based on our effectiveness in key performance areas compared to our peers in the industry. The call center received additional recognition from Benchmark portal based on the performance results achieved by our customer team: third highest ranking call center in the United States (small center category), Best overall satisfaction rating (among all companies) and Best overall agent satisfaction rating (among all companies).

Our Individual Management Team members in the last two years were recognized as: Innovator of the Year, Executive of the Year, CFO of the Year, National HR Executive of the Year, Woman of the Year, Marketing Executive of the Year, 40 under 40, and Top Sales Executive.

• DDKS leadership manages a dedicated Innovation Lab to bring differentiated products to market, enhance technology and data analytics, and improve user experience.
   
• The management team generated record growth, organizational best practices and profitable expansion into 34 states by revamping the strategy and organization, modernizing technology, upgrading IT systems, introducing new digital solutions and streamlining operations.
   
• DDKS has experienced industry leading client retention at 99.8% and client satisfaction of over 98%.
   
• The management team implemented a Voice of the Customer and Predictive Analytics initiatives to drive product and service innovation.
   
• DDKS leadership established a mechanism for continuous feedback through weekly employee surveys.
   
• Employee feedback has resulted in the implementation of employee-generated and transformative innovations in every area of our company (technology, operations, data analytics, sales solutions, digital solutions, user experience, product development).
   
• DDKS’ Employee Net Promoter Score (NPS) is nearly double the national benchmarking average. DDKS’ Employee Engagement Scores well exceed the national benchmarking average on every measure. These measures include overall engagement, employee satisfaction, employee happiness, frequency and quality of recognition and feedback and relationship with managers and peers.
   
• Over the past two years DDKS has received numerous recognition on both a national and local level as a top company and best place to work.