Tim Arnold, President and CEO, Colonial Life

This is Carolina Business Review. Major support provided by Colonial Life, providing benefits to employees to help them protect their families, their finances, and their futures. High Point University, the premier life skills university focused on preparing students for the world as it is going to be. Sunoco, a global manufacturer of consumer and industrial packaging products and services with more than 300 operations in 35 countries.

Well, spring break, soon holiday vacations are behind us as we head into the warmer months. We get distracted by the seasonality of it all, and that's a good thing. I'm Chris William, and welcome again to the most widely watched and the longest running program on Carolina business policy and public affairs, seen across the Carolinas for more than 30 years now. Thanks for supporting this dialogue. We'll start to unpack some of those things that persist, like the economy, like lending, like banking, like jobs, and what does it mean for us here and now. We begin right now, gratefully acknowledging support by Martin Marietta, a leading provider of natural resource-based building materials providing the foundation upon which our communities improve and grow. Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Visit us at southcarolinablues.com. The Duke Endowment, a private foundation enriching communities in the Carolinas through higher education, health care, rural churches, and children's services.

On this edition of Carolina Business Review, Brooks Raiford from the NC Tech Association, Antoine C. Wright of Blueprint Strategy, and special guest Tim Arnold, President and CEO of Colonial Life.

Happy spring, gentlemen. Thank you for joining us. Antoine, I'm going to start with you. You recently wrote a piece that was in The Hill out of D.C., and you were reflecting on 13 years later of the Affordable Care Act, which is better known as Obamacare in some circles, as you wrote that piece. But really to bring you into a more regional debate, as you reflect on not just 13 years since, but when you see the headlines coming out of North Carolina that they have finally, after a decade, accepted federal Medicaid dollars, how does that wash over you, and does that embolden South Carolina to do the same?

Well, Chris, the Affordable Care Act became a teenager. The most consequential piece of legislation, health care legislation, perhaps in most of our lifetime, has changed health care as we know it. I am so proud, not just as a Carolinian, but I'm proud as an American citizen that North Carolina has put partisan politics aside and did what's best for the people of North Carolina. They've put people over politics. When you think about the business aspect and the economic impact that health care has had on the Carolinas, the region, it makes total sense. In South Carolina, we in the black church we often say, 'delayed but not denied.' So this decision has been delayed for a long time, but certainly not denied. And as a result, you're going to see the economics of health care change the landscape of North Carolina in a real, authentic way, and health care is going to be even more accessible and affordable. And I hope and pray that the good folks of my home state of South Carolina can take a bipartisan, nonpartisan lesson from North Carolina. Because to be told, although we have not expanded Medicaid in the state, the Medicaid budget continues to grow. And I remind people in my closing, Chris, is that nobody retires and moves up north. And so as more seasoned folks come to the South to retire and live, the Medicaid system is going to extend, going to continue to expand and expand. And so we need the federal dollars in order to support that.

Would you think that the state house, though, would become more sympathetic to it now that their cousins in North Carolina did it?

Well, I hope so. And I say this because Governor Cooper is on his way out, so this is about his legacy, and the same with Governor McMaster. So there's no political consequences to working together to come to some sort of resolve so we can open back up the rural hospitals that have closed, give health care a real opportunity not only to survive but to thrive, but also marry what our sister states, because it's going to open up economic development opportunities in North Carolina, and we will be denied in South Carolina.

Brooks, let's bring you into it. Let's focus on economic development. In the Wall Street Journal about three weeks ago, released their annual report around strongest job markets in the U.S. Of the top 10 biggest job markets, Charlotte, Raleigh, or the Triangle, are of the strongest job markets. Of the smallest job markets, Charleston was numbered among those. So clearly the Carolinas are a place to be for jobs. But you know, the tech postings, I know, is something you know something about, and that is what do tech postings look like, especially given what we've seen the last few weeks in some of the major tech employers in the country?

Sure, I'll be glad to speak to that. But to pick up on something Antoine was discussing with respect to the Medicaid expansion, it was interesting to hear, I believe it was the Speaker of the House or perhaps the President Pro Tem of the Senate, observed that one of the reasons for the delay from their perspective in passing reform or Medicaid expansion here was the lack of the technological ability of the system to handle the hundreds of thousands of additional people that would be put into the system. And they have spent some time fixing that and improving the technology. So technology, I guess, does have a hand in some of this stuff. I don't know what the South Carolina situation is, but to your question about jobs, yes, the headlines are about large numbers of layoffs in some of the large branded tech companies that we all know. What's interesting, if you read below the headlines, of course, is often those very same companies are still hiring in areas where they have business growth. They expanded mightily during COVID and are having to sort of moderate from that. That's a common refrain you're hearing from some of the larger companies that had to expand quickly to accommodate consumer demand before workplace technology and also, you know, ordering things on Amazon online happened. But what we are seeing too is there is a slowdown in hiring generally. The Tech Association that I lead in North Carolina does put out a monthly IT job trends report, and the February numbers, which were released in March, so the March numbers will be released here soon, saw quite a dip in openings. However, what's interesting is we also show the top 10 hirers of tech talent. Eight of the ten were not tech companies. Most tech hiring happens outside of tech companies because every organization has a need for tech and has a tech workforce, and that's really where the increase in jobs and job postings are happening.

Antoine, what are you seeing for tech jobs, or what are you seeing in jobs in general? As Brooks just kind of outlined the tech business, are you encouraged that if there is a softening in the need for workers, but yet you talk about the economic development of a state that's very healthy, like South Carolina, still looking for those jobs, are you optimistic that they're going to be filled easier?

Well, the recent job reports show how strong and vital this economy is, continues to grow under leadership, I think, of some of the folks in Washington D.C. I also think that when you see the recent economic development announcements, like in South Carolina with Scout Motors, as a result of some of the legislative policy proposals that have been put forth in D.C., I think that's only going to trickle down to the South because we are, I think, pregnant when it comes to possibilities for workers and for industry to relocate. And going to my dear friend Brooks here talking about the tech sector, and we're talking about health care, you think about telemedicine and what that's going to mean for North Carolina. You think about the fact that in the bipartisan infrastructure bill, billions of dollars for internet access to be accessible all around the Carolinas. You add that with a growing tech sector, you add that on top of a health care sector, this is now going to grow in the Carolinas because I think North Carolina is going to help the Carolinas in general grow when it comes to that. I think we're going to be primed for growth and opportunity for a very, very long time. And I think broadband is to the 21st century as what electricity was to the 20th century, and that's going to open up opportunities.

Brexit was a... and I'm not saying this just to you, Antoine, as well, but you know, at this point, I wouldn't say it's more than, at least when it comes to consumable news, that ChatGPT and AI that's available web-based is not much more than a novelty now. But there seems to be an arms race, and folks that want to be first out of the gate, strongest out of the gate, is it an overstatement to say that this is going to be a broad disrupter, this AI idea of application?

Well, I'm in no position to say with authority, but people who I trust and who are knowledgeable about this sort of thing seem to think so. Generative AI, which is what we're talking about, ChatGPT is one example, there's others out there. All the big companies are trying to incorporate it into their platforms that exist already, so that when you're working in Excel or you're working in Word or you're working in any communication platform, you're going to have this integrated right into it. You know, Bill Gates thinks it's the biggest thing since the creation of the internet, and I guess he would be in a position to have a pretty strong credibility on the question. I will say it's in its infancy. Academics are worried about it because of students being able to use it maybe to generate papers and so forth. I believe I read that ChatGPT aced the bar exam. It's pretty good at pulling information and data. It gets a little dicey when it comes to sort of the conversational opining, and that's really what it's known for, is it is remarkably conversational in its ability to create text. I did put it to a bit of a test. I asked it about me, and I did it three times over two weeks, and it had me every time. It had different answers as to where I went to college, what my degrees were in, what boards I'm on, what companies I co-founded, none of which were accurate, but it had a few nuggets of truth in there. My MBA from Duke was apparently free, and I missed it, but anyway.

Well, Brooks, I can tell you this: anytime we've seen big technological advances or change, it sometimes causes the system to overheat, but it also forces the industry to make adjustments, as we say in yoga, and be more intentional about how we operate. And I think this is going to be no different. The same way the internet caused the world to make adjustments, the same way that access to broadband and speed and everything else that we've seen integrated into our world when it comes to technology and advances, it's forced us to make adjustments, and I don't think this will be different. Now, the question will be how will we respond, both economically, politically, socially, and how we will respond as a community to the necessary adjustments in order to keep things moving towards progress, not necessarily perfection.

Joining us now is the CEO of Colonial Life out of Columbia, and it's important to note, a program note, Colonial Life is an underwriter of this program. But one of the things about our guest is he shares a very personal story of his own health on their website. And why I say that is because not just our guests, but also the company seems to have some deep roots in the Midlands of South Carolina, but also the communities that they're a part of in South Carolina. So without further ado, we welcome President and CEO of Colonial Life, Tim Arnold. Tim, welcome to the program.

Medicaid expansion, Tim, and I know it's not a complete impact on your industry, but in North Carolina, obviously, it is history now that it took about a decade for them to accept the federal Medicaid dollars. They did, in fact, vote to do it. I change the dialogue now in a couple of ways. Would you expect the South Carolina General Assembly to be sympathetic to it and accept it? And how does it change from a payer, as an insurer, how does it change your calculus, if you will?

Yeah, okay. Antoine?

Tim, first of all, thanks for what you do. It's so important for what you and your organization does. But I do have a question. I wrote a piece a few days ago in the Well News, and I talked about the decision of a 57-year-old federal judge, Reed O'Connor, who basically says now in his ruling that insurance companies that, by where the Affordable Care Act were required to pay for screenings and preventive measures, are no longer required. That goes out of the window. That's 3.6 million women every year, not to mention, as a black man, you think about the issues in our community when it comes to colon cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer, you have depression because of the pandemic. What do you think this will mean for the health care system? Because I know the consequences, or I can see the consequences it would mean for communities that look like mine. What do you see that decision meaning overall?

But earlier in the program, I mentioned that one of the reasons given by the Republican leadership in North Carolina for delaying what now has been approved in terms of Medicaid expansion was that the technology behind the system was not robust enough to accommodate successfully hundreds of thousands of new enrollees. That's been fixed, updates have been made, and that now that's no longer a concern. So I'll sort of flip the question to you as an insurance company. When we read about the reduction in IT jobs, which we talked about earlier today, we also see conversely most hiring of tech is outside of tech companies. Eight of the ten top hirers of talent last month in North Carolina were not tech companies. You must have a lot of technology in your organization. Talk about the job landscape, the talent landscape, when it comes to how a company like yours functions and provides its technology support.

President Arnold, during COVID, it surprised many people, but we saw this emergence of attention to mental health. The stressors, obviously, because of COVID, the stressors because of working from home, and no one had, you know, the sea legs to figure that out quite in the early days of it. But now we're past COVID for the most part, at least past the emergence part of that, and mental health now is not talked about as much. Mental health clearly still is squarely on the top hit list for many employers. Is it for you, and do you feel like the health care marketplace is still trying to find solutions to help companies address mental health challenges?

Like Chris mentioned the Christmas and mental health, my friend Brooks mentioned the tech sector, I think it's important for you to try to explain the role the business community plays, because you're a business, right? You're a capitalist like me, that's at the end of the day, that's the goal. But the business community plays a tremendous role in shaping policy, pushing back where necessary because it benefits the overall, I would say, bill of health, economic bill of health for the local economy and the regional economy. Can you talk about the role the business community plays in shaping policy decisions? Because I think it's important that people should know the business community plays a tremendous role in weighing in on some of these issues and prioritizing them.

Well, you know, to pick up on that, in North Carolina, when you lead an association like I do or a chamber, you've got a lot of companies, a lot of members, sometimes not in unison on a topic. But there are times when we're asked to weigh in as an association that represents a sector, in our case, on issues, sometimes even something like Medicaid expansion, which is not our wheelhouse. Sometimes it's broadband expansion, which Antoine talked about earlier, major initiative in North Carolina and lots of places right now. But what I always say is a legislator or a policymaker is going to listen a lot more closely to an employer who's a taxpayer, has lots of employees who live in that state and pay taxes in that state, than in many cases an association that maybe itself is quite small and not necessarily have a direct impact. It's always encourage our member companies to give voice. The letters from them, op-eds from them, phone calls from them are far more impactful than any lobbyists out there. And I'm sure, Tim, you've experienced that yourself.

Tim, stating the obvious to you, but obviously Colonial Life is a substantial subsidiary of Unum. You are technically an insurance and financial services business. So when you watched some over the past few weeks, when you watch not just the testimonies before Congress, but some of the headlines around the SVB bank collapse, the Signature Bank, New Republic, etc., etc., how does that impact your business? It's financial services. Does it create more scrutiny? Will it create more regulatory oversight, or will it just bring more needed application of what laws are already written on the books?

You know, we've literally got two minutes left, so I'm going to ask you a final question here, Tim. Early on in the disruption of whatever the new working model is, you were flexible enough to allow everyone to work from home. But now we're getting to a different place. Now we've all read the stories about how many people are coming back in because they want to, but also because competitively they need to. So where do you find yourself and some of your contemporary CEOs and companies from in-person to work from home? Where are you in that continuum?

In about a minute, and I know you kind of answered this question a little bit before, but with the tech layoffs being as substantial as they have been, finding it easier to get the talent you need now?

Yeah, well, Tim, I appreciate you joining us again. Thank you again. Thanks for your support, but also mostly thanks for your leadership. Nice to see you. Stay well. Brooks, glad you could join us. Please come back. And Antoine, always good to have you on the program. Gentlemen, thank you. Happy holiday week to you all, and have a good spring. Until next week, I'm Chris William. Goodnight.

Gratefully acknowledging support by Martin Marietta, Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina, Sunoco, High Point University, Colonial Life, and by viewers like you. Thank you.