Senior Vice President Employee Benefits Strategy | executive specializing in transformation, benefit and wellbeing strategy, population health analytics | health innovation | behavioral economics and activation

Rich Krutsch, MBA

At ArcBest, we are encouraged to pursue our North Star, yet when I said mine was to solve healthcare in the US, I was met with chuckles. Why not? As the VP of People Services, I know that what employers provide to the workforce has a halo effect on the communities we touch and that we are in the position of working with vendors and providers to reduce friction. 

From the macro—helping drive down healthcare costs by 13% because we’ve supported significant improved health outcomes—to the micro—hearing from one employee that we’d saved his mother’s life because an expert second opinion for family members is a benefit—I’m driven to create a real difference by innovating within HR and total rewards and by doing my part to create a world where other employers are inspired to do the same.

Much like my experience playing or volunteer coaching of youth baseball for over 15 years, to be successful in business or baseball you need to know your players or team members to understand their strengths, and aspirations.  You are then able to create a culture where your your team feels supported, coached, and positioned for success.  Through continuous development my goal is to create a team that can compete at the highest level year after year where team members feel inspired to work and live their best lives.

𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬
In 25+ years at ArcBest, I’ve help create and foster a values-based culture that maximizes our most important resource, our people, by finding ways to improve their physical, emotional and professional wellbeing and connecting them to our mission.
► Saved 13% in healthcare costs by developing custom predictive analytics and prioritizing wellness to improve health outcomes creating a benefit program with over 80% favorability.
► Implemented Workday and recaptured savings by sunsetting legacy systems with more expected. 
► Co-founded a Leadership Academy with many graduates going on to earn promotions to Director level or higher roles.

I am so passionate about the change HR can make for our people that I speak 4-5 times a year to HR peers,  mentor wellbeing start-ups, and partner on people strategy, employee engagement and leveraging data analytics to improve the work and lives of people.

I welcome connections to people as eager as I am to improve employee wellbeing: rdkrutsch@gmail.com.