Why Totem?
Whether you’re a public school district or a private sector employer, we use evidence-based solutions and personalized service to help you offer better benefits for your people and your bottom line.
Totem is the benefits consulting firm that does much more than consulting.
Our mission is to be there for everyone. That means we show up — without question — for our clients, for our employees, and for our clients’ employees.
We take a holistic approach to employee benefits — providing much more than benefits consulting because we know that’s what it takes to ensure no employee — your or ours — gets left behind. Our goal is to ensure your employees fully understand how to take advantage of their benefits program to maximize your overall ROI and improve employee recruiting, retention and satisfaction rates within your organization.
When Debbie Schultz, Totem President, became a third-generation employee benefits professional 40 years ago, she quickly noticed that too many organizations were stuck with “benefits in a box” solutions that weren’t scalable as their business grew and the needs of their people shifted.
Senior Leadership Team
Helping you be there for everyone.
When Totem was founded in 2010, Debbie’s commitment to bringing employers everywhere a higher standard of care was the tip of the spear as she launched her own business. To this day, Totem remains 100% independent with no plans to sell or merge as a way to ensure our clients are never pigeon holed into cookie cutter benefit solutions that don’t serve them well.
No matter how many advancements we bring to our industry, one thing will never change: Our commitment to helping our clients be there for everyone.
We’re not like other consultants.
How does your benefits consultant stack up?
Results Totem Delivers
10.5%
reduction in turnover
8-29%
savings in
medical spend
12.5%
increase in perception of benefits
700% +
increase in employee engagement
Our Approach
We don’t do cookie cutter.
Evidence-Based Solutions
The Totem way of navigating healthcare starts with data. Every solution we recommend is supported by your specific data — not just what works for others or what’s popular.
Employee-First Mentality
When designing and implementing a benefits plan, all aspects of the employee and HR staff experiences are at the center.
Cultural Fit
We take the time to evaluate every company’s workforce and demographics to ensure we are providing exactly what resonates with your employees and your organization’s culture.
Crawl, Walk, Run Approach
Good things take time, and the processes we implement continue to payoff as time goes on. This means we don’t implement every solution or change in the first year. We understand that employees are more likely to adopt change when introduced incrementally.
Benefits Plans Custom Built For You
Every single benefits plan, communication strategy and 3-5 year roadmap is completely unique to each individual Totem client. No templates, no repurposing. 100% custom every time.
Why Employers of Choice Choose Totem
What Clients Can Expect from Totem
Our Senior Leadership
It’s nice to put a name to a face.
Debbie Schultz
President
Geoff Rowson
SVP of Consulting
Heather Sjogren
SVP of Operations
Wendy Hendrickson
VP of Account Management, National Accounts
Jose Castano
VP of Technology Solutions
Annette Griffin
SVP of Client Service
Carlene Wilkinson
Director of HR
Our Mission
Be there for everyone.
