Humana

I am five weeks into my internship and I think I have yet to explain to my fans in Readerland what I am actually doing. So lets fix that problem.

I am interning at a company called Humana. When I tell people I work for Humana, I usually get one of two reactions. The first reaction is a blank stare, and the second reaction is one in which the person pretends to know what Humana is, but really has a vague idea. Well let me tell you exactly what it is. Humana is a health insurance company. They sell a variety of products in the health insurance space with the primary driver being Medicare. Humana is the 6th largest health insurance provider with a market cap (the value the market puts on the company) at just over $10 billion. In other words....big. 23, ooo employees big.

I work for a group called the Strategic Consultancy. More specifically I work for the Performance & Productivity Team. The charge of the Strategic Consultancy is to support the front line associates (the workers handling claims in the call center) in a variety of ways (policy development, process engineering, etc). More specifically, the Performance & Productivity Team is expected to work as consultants within the organization to measure associate performance, productivity, impact of various initiatives, budgeting, and staffing. The team has 8 members including myself.


The project I have been assigned is to find a way to measure the productivity of associates in claims quality audits and then assign an appropriate level of production for each employee. The project is pretty interesting and gets me in front of a variety of directors, but I haven't had a lot of success since finding and securing the available data takes more time than I think is appropriate. It is hard to get employees to understand that my timeline is 10 weeks, not the normal infinity timeline they have. I have also been working on various smaller projects to pass the time and acquire new skills. Lets just say I am pretty close to being an Excel master. Once I learn how to write code behind the scenes in VBA, I will own that program. Yea, probably not, but I can at least dream.

I have actually been feeling a small amount of stress from the whole process. I evaluated where I was on my project, and basically, I haven't really started. I won't call the first five weeks a waste of time (I will call the first), but I haven't focused enough on measurable goals for my project. I still need a little more direction on some parts of the project. I guess it just means I am going to be putting in some long hours near the end.

So far, I like the company and most of the people I work with. If they gave me a job offer tomorrow, I would take it.

Song Recommendation - Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show

Hunt-Baumann Wedding

The Haywood's had a full house this past weekend, even though Mama and Katie are getting tans down in Myrtle Beach. Doug, Jodi, Jake, and Ted all crashed at the house for Adam and Bethy's wedding and while it was crowded it was a really enjoyable time. The rehearsal dinner went off without a hitch, and afterward a large group of us went to Sportstime for some drinks while Beth and Adam ran around doing last minute things. As we were leaving, I casually mentioned to everyone that the bar right next to Sportstime (which is basically the same place) was recently ranked the 6th best beer bar in the world by ratebeer.com. Now, I've never heard of ratebeer.com but at least those guys can say that Nick Haywood took to a bar next door one of the top-10 bars in the world. I also took Jake and Ted over to O'Sheas after we put the old married couple to bed. It should be known that apparently living just one year in Atlanta can give you an excellent accent. Jodi sounds like she was born and raised in Georgia, although Doug sounds like he was born and raised in Chesterton. A bit odd.

The next day the groomsmen and ushers met early to try on our tuxes (like we could do anything if they didn't fit) and then went to Wal-mart to buy chocolate brown socks to match our chocolate brown suits. The idea was to grab some lunch and head over to Churchill Downs for a couple of races. Since Adam requested something "light" and I didn't want to do the standard Panera meal (I mean, it's his wedding day...I'm going to try my best to make it memorable), I suggested we head over to Stevens & Stevens Deli. We ended up going to Ditto's instead, and Doug decided he wanted the opposite of "light" and got a plate-full of mashed potatoes. We also decided to skip Churchill because we would have been rushing everywhere, and instead spent some time in Ear X-tacy (from where Adam got me a gift certificate for being a groomsman). The sky decided to finally stop looking gross and actually be gross and it started pouring rain for a while. Then we all went and took naps. Short naps. For like 13 minutes. It wasn't the best nap I have ever had.

After the rain, the skies cleared and it was time for a wedding. The ceremony took place at Beth's Aunt's house in the knobs. It was humid and I have bug bites on my neck, but Rob from Campus House gave one of the best "messages" I have ever heard at wedding. He included quotes from Beth and Adam about each other, and made it sound like they actually loved one another. It was nice. The reception took place at The Forest Discovery Center and included a surprise entrance by the wedding party. Bethy and Adam are off to South Carolina/Florida for a week in sun.

The weekend prior to the wedding, the men in the wedding party (plus Josh minus Styf and Doug) went up to a vacation home on Lake Michigan. We ate at expensive restaurants, went to the driving range, got in the hot tub, listened to records and hung out on the beach. The house was pretty old and had a lot of random doors and hallways. I'm thinking Undergrand Railroad for French Canadians trying to get into America. There was also a creepy basement that probably housed a serial killer at some point. It was a lot of driving, but a good time.

Don't forget the highly-anticipated Ryan Adams cd, Easy Tiger, is released on Tuesday. That's what that gift certificate is getting spent on.

Song Recommendation: Makes No Difference by My Morning Jacket