WellPoint Named One of Working Mother's 100 Best Companies for 2010

WellPoint Praised for its Dedication to the Advancement of Women in the Workplace

INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, WellPoint, Inc. (NYSE: WLP) announced that it has been selected as one of the nation's top companies in the Working Mother's Magazine 2010 Working Mother 100 Best Companies. This is WellPoint's second consecutive year to be recognized.

WellPoint has been instrumental in supporting the advancement of women and continues to be on the forefront, with women comprising 77% of its workforce and 30 percent of its executive leadership positions.  

"WellPoint is pleased to be included in this list," said Dijuana Lewis, WellPoint executive vice president and president of the Comprehensive Health Solutions Business Unit. "This recognition can be attributed to our concerted efforts to build and develop a strong female leadership pipeline as well as a culture predicated on the understanding that maintaining a healthy work-life balance is integral to successful and rewarding careers, not just for our working mothers, but for all associates. As a working mother myself, I understand the challenges of balancing work and home and appreciate that Working Mother magazine recognizes the efforts of WellPoint and other companies that  make concerted efforts to support working moms."

The 100 Best Companies' family programs adeptly help employees in all areas of their lives to achieve a work-life balance.

While WellPoint and all the Working Mother 100 Best Companies continue expanding their family-friendly benefits and programs, those at many companies across the nation are lagging. Just 44 percent of American companies offer telecommuting (vs. 100 percent of the 100 Best), 17 percent offer formal mentoring (vs. 95 percent), and 37 percent offer health insurance for part-timers (vs. 100 percent). In contrast, all of the 100 Best Companies listed offer paid maternity leave, lactation rooms, flextime, mental health consultations and elder-care resources; and 98 percent offer health screening and wellness programs—particularly significant in a stress-inducing, weak economy.

"Twenty-five years ago, we made a bold decision to launch our Best Companies initiative and challenge businesses to address the unique needs of working mothers," said Carol Evans, President, Working Mother Media. "The immense influx of women into the workforce demanded changes in workplace culture as companies strove to keep working moms' talent and loyalty. Today, we celebrate our winners' untiring commitment to their employees through an impressive array of programs." 

Profiles of the 100 Best Companies, as well as national comparisons, are in the October issue of Working Mother and at workingmother.com/bestcompanies.

Methodology:

Companies were selected for the 2010 Working Mother 100 Best Companies based on an extensive application with more than 600 questions on workforce, compensation, child care, flexibility programs, leave policies and more.  It also surveyed the usage, availability and tracking of programs, as well as the accountability of managers who oversee them.  Seven areas were measured and scored: workforce profile, benefits, women's issues and advancement, child care, flexible work, parental leave and company culture.  For this year's 100 Best, particular weight was given to benefits, flexibility and parental leave. 

About Working Mother Media

Working Mother magazine reaches 2 million readers and is the only national magazine for career-committed mothers; WorkingMother.com brings to the Web home and career information, advice and a broad range of solutions daily. This year marks the 25th anniversary of Working Mother's signature research initiative, Working Mother 100 Best Companies, the most important benchmark for work-life practices in corporate America. Working Mother Media, a division of Bonnier Corp. (www.bonnier.com), includes the National Association for Female Executives (NAFE, www.nafe.com), Diversity Best Practices (www.diversitybestpractices.com), the WorkLife Congress and the Multicultural Women's Conference and Leadership Summits. Working Mother Media's mission is to serve as a champion of culture change.

National statistics are taken from a recent study by the Society for Human Resource Management.

About WellPoint, Inc.

WellPoint works to simplify the connection between Health, Care and Value. We help to improve the health of our communities, deliver better care to members, and provide greater value to our customers and shareholders. WellPoint is the nation's largest health benefits company, with more than 33 million members in its affiliated health plans, and a total of more than 69 million individuals served through all subsidiaries.  As an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, WellPoint serves members as the Blue Cross licensee for California; the Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee for Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri (excluding 30 counties in the Kansas City area), Nevada, New Hampshire, New York (as the Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in 10 New York City metropolitan and surrounding counties and as the Blue Cross or Blue Cross Blue Shield licensee in selected upstate counties only), Ohio, Virginia (excluding the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C.), and Wisconsin.  In a majority of these service areas, WellPoint does business as Anthem Blue Cross, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield or Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield (in the New York service areas).  WellPoint also serves customers throughout the country as UniCare.  Additional information about WellPoint is available at www.wellpoint.com.

SOURCE WellPoint, Inc.