New hires deserve Day-0 coverage, but HRs were working with outdated CD balances. Insurer-issued statements arrived 2-5 days after a manual request, leaving teams with stale numbers when they needed to act.

As a result:

• 45% of HRs delayed endorsements because balances appeared insufficient or inaccurate
• 1 in 3 support tickets were related to statement requests, pulling Account Managers into repetitive, time-consuming tasks

This visibility gap created unnecessary inquires - delayed or denied claims for employees, and heavy operational overhead for Plum’s support teams.

From my conversations with HR managers and Account Managers, it became clear that the core issue wasn’t just delayed statements - it was the risk of missing Day-0 coverage because HRs couldn’t act with confidence.

To address this, I framed the design approach around three guiding goals:

1. Make fresh data the default - remove delays by giving HRs immediate access to the information they need.
2. Create clarity and trust - ensure HRs always know which numbers can be relied upon for critical decisions.
3. Encourage proactive behaviour - shift HRs from reacting to shortfalls toward maintaining healthy balances ahead of time.

This framing gave me a clear direction: the solution had to do more than surface numbers - it needed to enable HRs to act quickly and confidently so that every employee could start with Day-0 coverage.

Instead of “giving HR a fish” - burning support and account manager hours to chase top-ups every few days-we chose to teach HR to fish, surfacing live, trustworthy CD data so they can keep balances healthy on their own and ensure every employee is covered from Day 0.

1. Self-Serve Ledger
   A real-time CD statement inside the dashboard replaced the PDF chase. By showing both the current and effective balance (after pending endorsements), HRs gained transparency and trust in knowing which numbers they could act on.
2. Overview of Endorsements
   Each employee addition or removal was captured with the amount, for whom, and when. This gave them a transparent view of endorsements, letting them clearly trace money movement and anticipate when a top-up might be needed.
3. Proactive Nudges
   Instead of discovering a low balance only when endorsements failed, HRs were given visible cues that guided them to top up at the right time. This kept Day-0 coverage intact without adding extra overhead for HRs.

Within the first 90 days, real-time visibility replaced reactive support - and it showed.

• Missed Day-0 endorsements dropped from 45% → 12%, ensuring timely coverage for new employees
• CD statement-related support tickets fell by ~38%, freeing Account Managers to focus on higher-value work