Approaching HR heads for employee health tie-ups

An HR head does not want another clinic's rate card. They want one fewer thing to deal with. When a clinic offers a tie-up, their private questions are simple. Who do my people call? Will they wait? Will a bill land on my desk? A one-page proposal that answers those three, with a named person at the clinic, does more than a discount. Offer the contact first and the concession last.

What the HR head is protecting

The HR head is not shopping for a clinic. They are avoiding three things: an employee who returns saying they were kept waiting, a bill that reaches the HR desk for argument, and a clinic that now sends marketing messages. A tie-up that removes those worries is welcome. One that adds to them may never get a reply.

Fairness matters too. If the company ties up with one clinic in one locality, staff who live elsewhere may feel left out, so describe the arrangement as a convenience for those nearby and never a requirement. A company may also not want to be seen recommending a doctor for a health problem. Keep any wording that sounds like the company endorses your treatment out of the page.

The one-page proposal

Write it so the HR head can forward it to their manager without editing. Five blocks, in this order.

1  WHO WE ARE
   Clinic, locality, doctors by name and registration, years open.
   Nothing you cannot prove.
2  WHAT AN EMPLOYEE GETS ON THE DAY
   e.g. a reserved weekday slot, a named person to call, an itemised
   bill before payment. Only what you can deliver.
3  WHAT THE COMPANY DOES NOT HAVE TO DO
   No payment through the company, no forms to sign, no staff time.
   Employees pay at the clinic, if that is the arrangement.
4  YOUR NAMED CONTACT
   A person, a mobile number, the hours that person answers.
5  THE FIRST STEP
   A ten-minute visit, or a desk at the office on a day the HR head chooses.

Leave out outcomes and cures altogether. Rules on health advertising differ by state and body and change, so have the wording checked by your own adviser or council.

Why the named contact outweighs the discount

The clinic across the road can match a discount quickly. It cannot match a person who picks up the phone. When an employee's father needs to be fitted in on a crowded day, the HR head can say "call Ramesh at the clinic" and be done. That is the service the company is buying.

A discount also changes how an employee thinks about the visit: it turns it into a price question. A reserved slot and a polite call-back are easier to recommend to a colleague.

If you do discount, keep it plain: a stated percentage off a stated list, no exclusions, the same for every employee. Complicated terms generate queries, and the queries go to the HR head.

Getting past the "hr@" address

A cold email to a generic HR mailbox may sit unread. Other routes exist. A patient who works at the company can mention you. An admin manager may already know the clinic. An HR head at a neighbouring firm may introduce you. If you must write cold, send two lines and the sheet to a named person, and ask for ten minutes in person, not a decision.

An invented case: a family clinic near Sanand

Take an invented family clinic near Sanand in Gujarat, close to a cluster of auto-component plants. The doctor posts a rate card with a discount line to six HR offices and hears from none. Nothing on the card says who at the clinic will pick up.

On the second attempt the doctor starts from the admin manager of one plant, whose mother is a patient. One page names the assistant, Kavita, as the contact, reserves the first half hour of each weekday morning for plant employees, and offers an itemised bill before payment. The admin manager puts it in front of the HR head on a Monday. No fee is cut. The HR head knows who will answer, and agrees to put the page on the staff noticeboard.

In the first two months about a dozen employees use the slot, fewer than the doctor hoped, and most are the same few families. The other five plants never reply. The clinic gains a small, steady stream of patients rather than a rush.

This approach fails if your clinic cannot spare the reserved slot. A promise you cannot keep, repeated to two hundred employees, is worse than no tie-up.

Plants, offices and shift workers

The proposal changes with the workplace. An office with a day shift can use a reserved morning slot. A plant with three shifts needs the opposite: a number the night supervisor can ring and a clear answer on which hours the clinic is open. Ask which shift has the most trouble before you promise anything, and write the second block for that shift. A night supervisor who cannot reach the clinic at 2 am will not care about a morning slot, so say plainly which hours you cover and which you do not.

If the company already has a visiting doctor or a first-aid room, do not compete with it. Offer to take the cases that room refers outward, and say so in the first block. The HR head then sees you as an extension of what the company has, not a replacement the HR head must defend.

What to ask in the first meeting

Ask before you pitch. How do staff find a doctor today? What do they complain about? Who handles the complaint? Write the answers down; they become the second page of the proposal. Do not argue with a complaint about a clinic the company already uses, since the HR head chose that clinic and may defend it. If the HR head says everyone already has an insurance panel, ask which needs the panel does not meet. Often it is an ordinary fever, a dental problem or a child's cold in the evening.

Once a company is interested and asks for a health camp, how diagnostic centres quote a corporate health camp shows the quote.

Draft the page before you write to anyone

Fill the five blocks for your own clinic, starting with block 4. If the contact block stays empty, find the person first. When the page is ready, account-based selling is the service for reaching named HR heads, the healthcare hub has more for clinics, and you can tell us what you need.