COVID changed how business gets done, and for Marilyn Espinosa, HUB International’s VP of employee benefits, that meant making herself more accessible than she had ever been before.
“In the situation that we’ve gone through this last year, the relationships with my clients are really key,” she says. “Being in my house with them, seeing where I work, it makes me readily accessible and feel a greater responsibility to make them feel secure. Giving clients that personal attention lets them know you’re on it and that it’s important.”
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Espinosa has been tasked with being “on it” a lot throughout the pandemic. After
“It’s difficult, but it’s a balance,” she says. “If you’re home all day and you can’t pay any mind to your children, it’s a bit of a struggle. So I try whenever possible to shut it down and have lunch together.”
Espinosa has learned over the course of her 14-year career in benefits advising and her 11-year tenure at HUB how to better manage the
“Before COVID, I thought I was seeing a lot of clients — but that has really multiplied in order to give them that sense of security,” she says. “You feel the pressure that the HR teams are feeling. Part of assisting clients is helping them narrow down what is the most important thing that they should address. They’re overwhelmed and can’t do everything at once.”
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They also likely can’t understand the complexities of the healthcare system without a calm, guiding voice — especially when it comes to personal, individualized concerns.
“I handle claims on my own and I handhold them and make them feel better about even the worst situations,” she says. “I got a call from a client whose husband had COVID and wasn’t doing well and he needed additional testing. I was able to get her a response in 10 minutes because she had someone she cared about that was in need.”
As some organizations have shifted those responsibilities in-house to HR professionals, Espinosa stands firm that advisers are more important to a company’s success, and their bottom line. With the overwhelming demand for benefits that help employees tackle
“It’s been a struggle to get clients to focus on tackling one thing at a time,” she says. “As a broker, I have to slow them down a little bit. They’re getting involved in the intricacies of how it will be marketed to employees, but they don’t really know how it works. So I present it to them and then we go from there.”
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While Espinosa remains focused on her clients, she’s balancing that out by pushing her own career to the next level. She hopes to carve out a space for herself in sales, an area that has few women leading the charge. Her expertise as a benefits broker has given her the confidence and the drive to bring more to the table.
“It’s definitely one of those industries where your potential is unlimited,” she says. “You can decide how far you want to go, depending on how much effort you want to put in. The fire is on right now to say, ‘Why can’t I do that?’”
