Unum and Colonial Life Select Wonolo to Build On-Demand Workforce

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 08, 2016 -- Wonolo, an on-demand staffing platform enabling businesses to fill their immediate labor needs, today announced it has welcomed Unum and Colonial Life as clients. Both businesses are insurance industry leaders in providing financial protection benefits at the workplace. By leveraging the Wonolo platform, Unum and Colonial Life are able to access on-demand talent to meet growing customer needs through qualified, pre-vetted, local benefits counselors.

“One of the main aspects of our growth strategy is forming collaborative relationships with organizations that can help us rapidly evolve and acquire new capabilities,” said Richard Shaffer, vice president of enrollment for Unum and Colonial Life. “Wonolo has provided us with a new way to manage and develop our workforce and helped us embrace change to better serve our customers.”

For agent-assisted enrollments, Colonial Life and Unum depend on a team of benefits counselors who hold face-to-face sessions with potential clients to help them understand their needs and benefits options available. As millions of these transactions take place each year, the businesses require clear visibility into counselor supply to identify and deploy the right counselors quickly. The demand is even greater each fall season when most employers conduct their annual benefits enrollment periods. A steady supply of counselors to serve a growing client base is essential for Unum and Colonial Life to quickly welcome new business.

Recognizing the need to fill jobs faster, Colonial Life and Unum implemented Wonolo in 2015 in select test markets, before rolling out Wonolo nationally this year. Through Wonolo, the businesses have been able to optimize access to qualified benefits counselors across the country who can be deployed quickly. As a result, the businesses decreased the typical time to schedule needed benefits enrollers from several days to just minutes or hours by sending out job opportunities through the Wonolo app and getting immediate responses from local individuals who can fill those roles.

During its initial engagement with Wonolo, Colonial Life signed up 180 benefits counselors for one of the first test markets, the South Florida territory. The territory office increased year-over-year sales by 25 percent in the fourth quarter. Since then, both Unum and Colonial Life have signed up more than 1,000 benefits counselors and plan to increase that number significantly before the fourth quarter of 2016.

“As more companies recognize the advantage in leveraging Wonolo to get more value out of their own workforce, Unum and Colonial Life show they’re ahead of the curve,” said A.J. Brustein, co-founder and COO of Wonolo. “We look forward to helping these businesses continue to fill their immediate and long-term needs, connecting with the talent they need to serve their clients and achieve their growth objectives.”

About Unum
Unum is a leading provider of financial protection benefits through the workplace. Unum’s portfolio of financial protection products includes disability, life, accident and critical illness coverage, which help protect millions of working people and their families in the event of an illness or injury. In 2015, Unum paid $5.8 billion in benefits to more than 563,000 individuals and their families. For more information, visit us at www.unum.com or connect with us at www.facebook.com/unumbenefits, http://www.twitter.com/unumnews and www.linkedin.com/company/unum. Unum is a registered trademark and marketing brand of Unum Group and its insuring subsidiaries. 

About Colonial Life
Colonial Life is a market leader in providing financial protection benefits through the workplace, including disability, life, accident, dental, cancer, critical illness and hospital confinement indemnity insurance. The company’s benefit services and education, innovative enrollment technology and personal service support more than 85,000 businesses and organizations, representing more than 3.5 million of America’s workers and their families. For more information visit www.coloniallife.com or connect with the company at www.facebook.com/coloniallifebenefits, www.twitter.com/coloniallife and www.linkedin.com/company/colonial-life. Colonial Life is a registered trademark and marketing brand of Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company.

About Wonolo
Wonolo – which stands for Work. Now. Locally. – takes on-demand to a new level, building the future of the gig economy and the flexible workforce, helping companies address their unpredictable labor requirements. From Wonolo's platform, businesses can manage their teams – whether their own internal workforce or Wonolo’s community of vetted on-demand workers – and schedule work all in one place. Headquartered in San Francisco, Wonolo serves markets across the United States and has partnered with hundreds of leading companies, from startups to FORTUNE 500s, to provide a newfound flexibility in their workforce.

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Note to editors:  Trademarks and registered trademarks referenced herein remain the property of their respective owners.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Rachel Giustina
Wonolo
[email protected]

Jeanne Reynolds
Colonial Life
[email protected]