Abarca Health: Scaling Performance with Values-Driven Growth
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Abarca Health is a pharmacy benefit management (PBM) and healthcare technology company aiming to redefine healthcare with its “Better Way” philosophy. It manages $8 billion in drug spending for 5.3 million lives.
INDUSTRY
Healthcare & Pharmacy Benefit ManagementEMPLOYEES COUNT AND COUNTRIES
750+ employees across the US and Puerto RicoHEADQUARTERS
Puerto RicoAs our organization experienced exponential growth, the need to manage performance effectively became paramount.”
Sonymarie Socarrás
SVP of Strategy to Execution, Abarca Health
Challenges
With its employee base doubling in four years, Abarca Health needed to replace its BambooHR solution with a performance management system that offered greater flexibility and could scale to keep up with growth while helping it maintain its dynamic culture. The company wanted a performance management solution designed to help employees stay engaged, productive, and aligned with strategic objectives.
Its must-haves:
Maintain cultural cohesion across remote and in-office teams
Support structured goal tracking and feedback
Ensure agility in a heavily regulated industry
Solution
Abarca chose Betterworks to build a performance management process that is both structured and flexible. This approach encourages open, constructive feedback and continuous learning, which are core parts of the company’s culture.
Abarca has transformed its performance management, enhancing alignment, development, and feedback at scale.
Goal Alignment
Seamless integration of company objectives into individual performance goals.
Feedback and Conversations
Peer and manager feedback incorporated into reviews.
Calibration and Data Insights
Streamlined performance reviews with advanced reporting for strategic decision-making.
AI Integration
Betterworks AI-supported conversations for improved accessibility for non-native English speakers.
Betterworks has revolutionized our performance management. It helped us standardize processes while staying true to our values and culture, ensuring we scale effectively without losing our identity.
Sonymarie Socarrás
SVP of Strategy to Execution, Abarca Health
Results
Partnering with Betterworks has given Abarca a solid performance management framework – that is delivering real results. Abarca is making great progress on key initiatives, driving scalable growth, and building a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration.
Improved Feedback Culture
Every employee receives a minimum of three peer feedback reviews per cycle.
Enhanced Goal Management
78% of managers completed their objectives, and employee developmental goals were integrated with the learning management system for greater effectiveness.
Higher Engagement & Adoption
100% completion of annual performance incorporating manager and peer feedback and using Betterworks AI-Assist for Conversations.
Scalable Calibration
570 employees calibrated in three weeks through approximately 40 sessions with a user-friendly calibration matrix
Details
Abarca has embedded its cultural values into every aspect of its performance strategy, achieving growth while fostering a culture of continuous improvement and collaboration.
All In:
Embracing experimentation and continuous improvement.
Like Family:
Prioritizing honest, constructive feedback to foster collaboration.
Humble Competence:
Aligning employee growth with business needs through developmental goals.
Fire in the Belly:
Leveraging data-driven insights for strategic workforce decisions.
Off Road:
Expanding Betterworks usage to onboarding check-ins to improve retention.
The Bottom Line
Through its steadfast commitment to its core values and the strategic implementation of Betterworks, Abarca Health has scaled performance management in alignment with its values — showcasing the power of a culture-driven approach to performance management.
Ready to scale performance while staying true to your culture?
