Interviews from HR Innovator Magazine

Point of No Return?

Tom Van Berkem
Chief, HR
WellPoint, Inc.
Thousand Oaks , CA 

Last October, Thousand Oaks, CA-based Wellpoint Health Networks Inc., announced plans to merge with Indianpolis-based Anthem Inc. in a $16.4 billion deal. The combined company, called WellPoint Inc., will serve nearly 26million subscribers. For most people in the United States , such a news event would translate into the questions: "What will this do to my health care coverage?" or "How will this hit my wallet?" But for the combined 40,000 people who work for Anthem and WellPoint, a more pressing question looms, "What will this do to my job?"

Some of the key spots have already been sorted out. Among the leadership positions that remain an open question is that of Senior Vice President of Human Resources. As WellPoint's HR chief, Tom Van Berkem, sits across the table from his Anthem HR counterpart, Randy Brown, working out all the details of building out the new company, they both know that by the time the dust settles, only one of them will remain. When HR Innovator columnist Martha Finney sat down with Van Berkem to discuss his career path at this point, he still didn't know what his immediate future would hold.

Martha's interview with Tom is a fascinating moment in an epic career when a dedicated HR innovator is captured, quite literally, in a state of suspension between his immediate past and his immediate future.

What is your most important mandate right now?

Given the merger, I have a very critical mandate. HR has a seat at the most important table at the company right now - the executive steering committee which is making recommendations to the new CEO on both fundamental structure of the new organization as well as a process to ensure a fair and equitable assessment of all the people for new jobs. This is an important mandate, considering that there are 40,000 futures that are being affected right now. At the same time, we have a continuing requirement, which is to find, develop and retain the best talent in the country.

The goal is to make the new WellPoint the best it can be. I'm very proud of what we've built up to this point. We're FORTUNE magazine's Most Admired Health Care Company for six consecutive years and the quality of the management team is one of our highest-rated components. I am proud that I helped recruit half of the management team. I don't mean that in a self-important sense. But in terms of impact, HR helped recruit, among others, our CFO, CIO, chief medical officer and one group president. I believe that our FORTUNE magazine rating is in large part because of the HR function having contributed to the building of such a strong management team.

As we go into this merger, I'm going to fight for the new WellPoint to have as much of what we've built already. It is truly a merger of equals. At this point, though, there are two heads of HR. Two payroll departments. Two compensation departments and two training departments, etc. My Anthem counterpart and I have been asked to work together to build a recommendation of what the future looks like. It's going to be a very interesting project for the two of us to work together knowing that there isn't going to be room for both of us at the table when all this is finished, but I know we can do it.

What's your main concern for your employees at this point?

I want them to have a job. I want them to have a good job making a contribution to the next phase of WellPoint's life. And I want them to have the opportunity to have a fair shot. Since we've announced the headquarters is moving to Indianapolis, they're feeling one-down right now. I have a total complement of HR professionals who could take on an acquisition and provide a state-of-the-art operation. I have a loyalty to the new Wellpoint to make sure the company has the best HR function. I also have a natural loyalty to my people. If we put the WellPoint and Anthem HR departments together, we have almost 600 people, and we don't need that many. So with fewer people, that means change.

Another challenge is hanging on to our people until they have the chance to discover what great opportunities may be available at the new WellPoint.

What have you learned about yourself in the process?

I've turned around three HR departments now, and I don't know if I need to do it a fourth time. In all three companies I had to do major surgery, fire at least half of the people who were there, replace them and double the size of the department from there. I'm not sure I want to do this again. This is a build vs. change however.

So I have to ask myself: What's the best and brightest use of my skills and experiences next? Do I want to be head of HR of the largest companies in America with "gazillions" of associates? Of course I may not have the choice. I've accomplished my financial goals and will come out of this comfortable. I'm free to do what I want to do from a content point of view. I can be just as happy, maybe even more fulfilled doing things that I'm still trying to change, like the quality of family life throughout the country. There may be more direct ways I can influence that. I discovered years ago that as we improve work life for people, we can improve the home life for people as well. That's still important for me.

So HR is truly a calling for you?

I have long recognized HR as an opportunity to change things for the better outside the immediate workplace. It's not just about making a company more profitable. It's about changing people in work so that it affects the larger life that they live. HR has a wonderful multiplier affect about it.

A number of years ago I ran a seminar on interpersonal skills in Houston . And six months later one of the attendees came up to me at the follow-up session and said, "When I went to your seminar my teenager was a juvenile delinquent and my wife was leaving me. Now our son is home doing well in school and our marriage has never been better. It's because of your program. I never got around to applying it on the job, but I used the learnings at home and they worked!" That was a key moment that told me that my place is in the corporate world. to make changes in peoples' lives.

Are you still in touch with that feeling?

I'm not as connected as I've been in the past. But I still have a special place in my heart for this work and am often accused of providing too many resources for the organization development and training department, as opposed to my other departments. So I keep my hand in it.

You had your own moment of truth a while back.

I had cancer three years ago, which was discovered through an executive physical program I had championed and installed. I had no symptoms. That's a very profound moment when the doctor says, "If you don't have this surgery, you'll be dead in five years."

The lifespan scare certainly has my attention. In my fifties, I'm at the age now when I've had friends who have died. That combined with the you-may-be-dead-in-five-years-let's-hope-we-don't-find-more-cancer-when-we-cut-you-open-experience has caused me to think, "I'm really going to think hard and fast before I decide to do this again. My family is saying, "You have an opportunity to spend some quality time with us, how about doing that?"

What's the best thing new entrants can do for themselves?

If someone has decided to go into HR as a calling, they should try to get a line job. If we're expecting HR people to be consultative, what better way to learn how to talk the talk than having walked the walk?

What's the worst thing?

Never assume your learning is done.

This article originally appeared in the April 2004 issue of HR Innovator magazine. Reprinted with permission.