At Safeway Inc., one of the largest food and drug retailers in North America with more than 1,700 stores and 185,000 employees, living a healthy life starts at the top. CEO Steve Burd is very passionate about the overall well-being of Safeway employees, and is leading the charge to create a culture of physical, financial, and emotional health. Safeway's first step was to encourage greater personal accountability by implementing Healthy Measures, an innovative health incentive program that rewards its 30,000 benefits-eligible corporate and store employees and their spouses for achieving certain health status outcomes...

A leading manufacturer of electronic components progressively expanded through a series of mergers and acquisitions. They called upon Buck to create a global and comprehensive benefits strategy. Buck's two-pronged global analysis provided the client, for the first time, with a comprehensive reference guide to influence its local-market decision-making, and to better engage in meaningful interaction with local subsidiaries on HR and benefit issues. As a direct result, the client was able to resolve several outstanding local compliance challenges and now had an objective basis for accepting or rejecting local benefit design requests. We also armed our client with the information it needed to make more educated decisions about market expansion and relocation....

Increasingly, companies seek to accelerate their global growth and competitive advantage through international mergers and acquisitions. A preeminent player in the worldwide wire and cable industry was aggressively exploring two major acquisitions and they engaged Buck, who quickly deployed a best-practice approach to conduct the crucial upfront due diligence within the tight timeframe...

A major, multinational energy company with more than 100,000 employees in 110 countries deploys hundreds of non-American managers and professionals to work in the United States annually. Because these are typically short-term assignments, most employees continue to participate in their home-country retirement plans and social security systems. Logical but comes with complications because many are unaware that these employees are subject to U.S. taxation on the economic value of their vested benefits as well as the income they earn in the United States. Buck identified baseline criteria for retirement plan features and provisions likely to result in imputed income. This included variables such as the following for the client's defined benefit, defined contribution, and hybrid plans...

A large and highly successful U.S. food distributor with more than 3,000 primarily warehousing and transportation employees wanted to measure the elements and drivers of its culture — considered by the CEO to be the firm's most important competitive advantage. The company retained Buck Consultants to conduct an employee engagement survey to measure three specific aspects of its work environment....

A leading financial services company with 41,000 employees in more than 37 countries worldwide was experiencing significant problems with the administration of death benefit claims. The company needed a solution that would help streamline information gathering and payment processing and provide better service to stakeholders. They turned to Buck's Vendor Management and Oversight (VMO) team....

A U.S.-based professional services company needed to lower its operating costs without sacrificing its quality of work. Knowing that a center of excellence could free up resources for more strategic tasks and reduce costs, the company determined this was its best option. Buck Consultants established a systematic process for developing a center of excellence, or offshoring initiative...

As part of the ongoing financial management of its pension plan, a long-term actuarial client sought to understand the financial risks that the pension plan posed to its organization...

Concerned that its health care costs were on the rise, a FORTUNE 500® company was looking for ways to reduce its overall benefits costs while continuing to provide employees, retirees, and their dependents with the same quality benefits they'd come to appreciate. At the same time, the company was hoping to educate its benefits-eligible population to make fiscally responsible health care decisions....

A leading global energy company wanted to validate the eligibility status of its employees and their dependents in an objective manner, and engaged Buck Consultants to conduct a Dependent Eligibility Audit (DEA). The company believed it was unknowingly providing and subsidizing health care coverage for a significant number of ineligible dependents...

A global telecommunications manufacturer implemented a High-Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) with a Health Savings Account (HSA) to complement its ongoing health and wellness initiatives. The company selected the ACS|BNY Mellon HSA Solution because of its flexibility and market-proven HSA capabilities...

Knowing it is part of an industry with a high rate of substance abuse, a U.S.-based manufacturing company with 92,000 employees was concerned about the overall mental health of its employee population. Buck's clinical audit evaluated three major areas...

A leading grocery retailer, with 100,000 benefit-eligible associates working in 2,500 locations across more than 30 states, wanted to communicate annual enrollment information and benefits updates to its associates in a more engaging and relevant way...

UHS strives to improve the health of the community by providing quality health care services, and to be a great place to work and practice medicine. Buck Consultants worked with UHS to audit and compare the medical management performance of its two current health plans...

Targeted, consistent, and candid communication builds trust with employees during major change and helps employees understand what's in it for them. Delta Air Lines, one of the world's leading airlines, prepared to emerge from bankruptcy as a strong, stand-alone carrier. Delta engaged Buck Consultants to help implement an emergence from- bankruptcy communication strategy designed to rebuild employee trust and engagement...

A wireless communication firm with 30,000 U.S.-based employees made the decision to outsource its leave-of-absence and self-funded short- and long-term disability programs. Working with company executives, the team developed a strategy to deliver stronger attendance and absence control through a series of advanced strategies...

A FORTUNE 500 manufacturing corporation with 22,000 employees announced restructuring plans that would result in the elimination of approximately 3,000 U.S.-based employees. The company wanted to provide meaningful benefits to its terminated employees while reducing the overall cost of its severance program...

Laboratory Corporation of America, Inc. (LabCorp), a leading national laboratory services company had, for many years, faced the challenge of delivering affordable, high-quality health plans to 26,000 employees while managing escalating health care costs...

YORK International Corporation, a FORTUNE 500 company with approximately 10,000 U.S. employees, is a leading manufacturer and servicer of heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration equipment for the commercial, industrial, and residential markets...

Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC), Northrop Grumman recognizes that maximizing the return on investment in its retirement program requires that employees fully understand, appreciate, and utilize the 401(k) plan. Northrop Grumman's size, multiple sub-plans, diverse audience needs, and widespread business locations called for an innovative approach to learning and education...