COMMISSION 
AGENDA MEMORANDUM                        Item No.          8c 
ACTION ITEM                            Date of Meeting      March 22, 2022 

DATE :     March 14, 2022 
TO:        Stephen P. Metruck, Executive Director 
FROM:    Sandra Spellmeyer, Total Rewards Manager 
Tammy, Woodard, HR DirectorTotal Rewards 
SUBJECT:  Contract to Provide a Wellbeing Vendor to the Port's Employee Benefits Program
Amount of this request:          $1,250,000 

ACTION REQUESTED 
Request Commission authorization for the Executive Director to advertise, award and execute a
contract with a wellbeing vendor to provide strategic insight, a robust technology solution, and
access to a diverse selection of wellness content for the Port of Seattle's employee benefit
program for up to 10 years in an amount not-to-exceed $1,250,000.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 
The Port's Spirit and Wellness program is part of the Total Rewards Package that integrates all
aspects of wellbeing into the Port's benefit package and supports each employees' personal
wellbeing journey. Contracting with a wellbeing vendor ensures the Port has a partner dedicated
to wellbeing who will collaborate on the strategic planning for the program, while ensuring the
Spirit and Wellness program is aligned with the program's purpose and guiding principles. A
wellbeing vendor also provides a level of industry expertise in the content and design of wellbeing
materials.  This contract will ensure that the Spirit and Wellness program runs on a robust
technology platform that will support employees in achieving their health and wellbeing goals,
maintain engagement  with  the Sprit and Wellness program, and have the flexibility to
individualize the program to support Port goals and initiatives. 
The current wellbeing vendor agreement will expire at the end of 2022 and Port staff plans to
have a new agreement in place by the end of September to provide sufficient time to transition
to a new vendor. This will allow time to ensure a new vendor will have a good understanding of
the Port's Spirit and Wellness program and ensure that understanding can be integrated into a
new technology solution.


Template revised January 10, 2019.

COMMISSION AGENDA  Action Item No. 8c                                   Page 2  of 4
Meeting Date: March 22, 2022 

JUSTIFICATION 
Contracting with a wellbeing vendor supports the Port's goal of being a highly effective public
agency by helping to ensure the Port offers a robust and customizable Total Rewards Package
that can help retain and attract skilled employees needed to carry out the Port's mission and
goals.
Diversity in Contracting 
Port staff is working with Diversity and Contracting to see if there is a possibility for
subcontracting. If no goal is determined, the  project team along with Diversity in Contracting
department will be outreaching to WMBE firms to notify them of this opportunity. 
DETAILS 
The selected wellbeing vendor will meet regularly with Port staff to provide updates on program
engagement and strategize on Port driven initiatives for the Spirit and Wellness Program. They
will provide support for the technology platform and collect aggregate data points to assess how
employees are engaging with the program and achieving their wellbeing goals. No specific
employee data will be collected or disclosed by the selected vendor, only aggregated, deidentified
data will be collected by the vendor and shared with Port staff. Alignment with the
Port's Spirit and Wellbeing program and the Port's goals and initiatives will be part of the ongoing
conversations with the selected vendor.
Scope of Work 
The work will include: 
(1)   An annual meeting to report the program's previous year's metrics and strategy
development and planning for the upcoming plan year's goals.
(2)   Regularly scheduled meetings with Port staff to review current goals and find proactive
solutions to any issues that arise. 
(3)   Providing a wellbeing technology platform that has robust content options, an intuitive
system design, and is engaging for Port employees. 
(4)   Providing analytic resources, including external benchmarking data, to analyze and
compare the Port's wellbeing program utilization to similar organizations and map out
trends within the Port's eligible employee demographic.
(5)   Providing  industry  experts  knowledgeable  in  developing  wellbeing  content  and
materials for a diverse wellbeing platform to support the Port's development of goals
and strategies for the Spirit and Wellness program. 


Template revised June 27, 2019 (Diversity in Contracting).

COMMISSION AGENDA  Action Item No. 8c                                   Page 3  of 4
Meeting Date: March 22, 2022 
ALTERNATIVES AND IMPLICATIONS CONSIDERED 
Alternative 1  Do not utilize the service of a wellbeing provider and administer the Spirit and
Wellness program internally.
Cost Implications: We estimated the cost of this option to be the cost of providing pay and
benefits to two employees who could develop internal tools and systems to administer the Spirit
and Wellness Program internally. One employee would need to have credentials, expertise, and
experience  in the health and wellbeing industry, while the other would be a software
developer/systems administrator to create and administer an internal web-based interactive
wellbeing platform. The cost for two FTE with these skill sets would be around $357,674 per year
for pay and benefits or a total of $3,576,730 over 10 years.
Pros: 
(1)   We would be creating additional jobs in the current job market.
Cons: 
(1)   This cost would be much higher than the requested option. 
(2)   With today's labor market hiring employees with the knowledge and skills required to
do this work would be a challenge. It would likely take more time than we have available
to hire and fully train two employees on this work and we would not be able to produce
the amount of content a wellbeing vendor would; this could lead to an inferior product
and lower employee engagement with the program than hiring a wellbeing vendor
would. 
(3)   This isn't the HR department's core work, nor is it an area current staff are intimately
familiar with. Partnering with a wellbeing industry subject matter expert will ensure the
Port can continue to support employees with a robust and engaging Spirit and Wellness
Program.
This is not the recommended alternative. 
Alternative 2  Do not utilize the service of a wellbeing provider and provide these services by
using our current healthcare providers optional tools and programing.  This option would include
one FTE program administrator and utilize the different options of our current healthcare
providers platforms for those specific employee populations.
Cost Implications: We estimate the cost of this option would be pay and benefits for one
employee to administer the program, by providing support and coordination with the various 
tools and programs from each healthcare provider. The  program administrator would partner
with our 2 healthcare providers and promote their specific products to those employees enrolled
within those specific plans. The cost for one FTE program administrator would be approximately 
$1,788,370 over 10 years for pay and benefits, and an additional $151,000 over 10 years for
program enhancements within each of the healthcare providers plan options. A total cost of
$1,939,370 over a 10 year period. 
Pros: 
(1)   We would be creating an additional job in the current job market.

Template revised June 27, 2019 (Diversity in Contracting).

COMMISSION AGENDA  Action Item No. 8c                                   Page 4  of 4
Meeting Date: March 22, 2022 
Cons: 
(1)   This cost would be higher than the requested option. 
(2)   The program would be fragmented by using 2 different platforms. This can make the
communication challenging, the requirements would differ, and the aggregate data
challenging to analyze.
This is not the recommended alternative. 
Alternative 3  Conduct a competitive selection procurement and award a 10 year contract to a
wellbeing vendor to provide strategic support as a wellbeing expert, a robust technology
platform that is intuitive, and a diverse range of engaging wellbeing content and materials.
Cost Implications: The estimated cost of a 10 year contract is not more than $1,250,000.
Pros: 
(1)   This is a wellbeing solution from a single source that will provide a thoroughly integrated
and robust health and wellbeing technology platform with a wide array of content
options that is highly customizable to support the Port's Spirit and Wellness program
for the Port of Seattle. 
(2)   Port HR staff will be able to focus on their core work and partner with a vendor whose
core work complements the Port's HR staffs' core work. 
(3)   The cost of this option is less than the other alternatives.
Cons: 
(1)   The selected vendor may not have a local office in the Seattle region, therefore the Port
would not be supporting and putting dollars back into our community.
This is the recommended alternative. 
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS 
The estimated cost of this contract over 10 years is a maximum of $1,250,000.
Annual Budget Status and Source of Funds 
The annual cost for this contract is included in the Port's annual benefits budget. 
ATTACHMENTS TO THIS REQUEST 
None 
PREVIOUS COMMISSION ACTIONS OR BRIEFINGS 
None 


Template revised June 27, 2019 (Diversity in Contracting).