Michael Rivera, ProView Global (PvG) President and COO: ‘We spend a great deal of time reminding ourselves that we’re helping someone get their benefits right in every transaction— That’s why we come to work every day.’

“We built and fiercely protect a culture that places high value on kindness, mutual respect, supportive management, meritocracy, and accountability.”

ProView Global (PvG) was first founded, formed, and created on a belief that there was a better way to administer benefits at a lower cost without sacrificing quality. Using a combined 60 years of experience in employee benefits and administration, the founders at PvG deployed deep domain expertise, developed technology-based solutions that enable the workflow of administration, hired and trained the best employees, and opened the doors of the first employee benefits administration company offshore.

PvG is headquartered in Newport Beach, CA, and has an additional office location in Manila, Philippines.

In conversation with Michael Rivera, President and COO of ProView Global (PvG) -

Q. Tell us a little bit about your personal story.

My family migrated to Washington when I was young and spent my growing up years in Seattle. We were a working-class family, which meant going to college was out of reach without either a scholarship or a student loan. Determined to avoid going into debt and realistic about my odds of qualifying for a scholarship, I joined the military to obtain a college education while serving our country.

Struggling to make ends meet with a military salary, I worked evenings as a janitor cleaning office buildings and restrooms, worked part-time as an elderly caregiver, and worked at fast food joints on weekends.

I concluded my brief military career armed with a college degree and a GI bill which allowed me to pursue my MBA in the evenings and weekends as a working student.

My first job as a civilian was with a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO). I started as an assistant to the marketing team, but my natural curiosity and insatiable desire to learn drove me to explore other aspects of the employee benefits industry. This eventually led to my working for PPOs, consulting companies, and Third-Party Administrators throughout my career.

I discovered my passion for operations through this journey, and when an opportunity came up to start a company, I knew the company’s ethos would center around employee experience to effect operations and service excellence. ProView Global (PvG) was formed in 2006 with these as guiding principles.

Q. When was ProView Global (PvG) founded? Brief us about the journey so far.

I co-founded PvG in 2006. We started with four employees in an office space the size of a studio apartment and have since grown to 500 employees in 44,000 square feet of space.

From the start, our focus was on employee experience and operations excellence. PvG pursued certifications for quality and information security—ISO 9001, ISO 27001 and annual SOC Type II audits.

We built and fiercely protect a culture that places a high value on kindness, mutual respect, supportive management, meritocracy, and accountability.

Our results prove the strategy is working.

In our most recent client satisfaction survey:

• 100% are either extremely satisfied or satisfied with our services overall,
• 100% would recommend our services to others,
• 100% are either extremely satisfied or satisfied with the quality of our services.

In our most recent employee satisfaction survey:

• 99% are proud to work for PvG,
• 99% feel they are respected and believe the authenticity of the company’s culture,
• 98% would refer a friend to work for PvG,
• 95% believe their work matters.

I attribute all our success to the hard work and dedication of all our employees.

Q. How would your employees describe you as a leader?

I think they would say that I am an empathetic mentor they trust. Trust is one of the most important currencies of leadership that requires authenticity and consistency to maintain.  I think they would say that I help bring out the best in our people by setting higher performance standards but equally provide a deep commitment and set conditions for them to thrive and be better tomorrow than today.

Importantly, I would like to think that they feel the authenticity of my caring for them as individuals, not just as employees.

Q. What does ProView Global (PvG) offer to its clients exactly ?

We provide organizations in the employee benefits administration industry with customized and dedicated operations to scale their existing processes. Our solutions allow organizations to expand their COBRA, Flexible Spending Account, Eligibility, Compliance, Benefits Administration Technology, and even Brokerage operations.

Some of the benefits to our clients are:

• Lower or no additional overhead expense for the expansion
• Access to trained employee benefits talent
• Mitigate business operations interruption risk
• Lower transactional cost of service

In 2020, we processed over 18 million transactions with over 99% accuracy.

Q. The employee benefits administration industry finds a shrinking talent pool as young adults entering the workforce are not generally attracted to this industry. How is your company’s attrition rate, and how do you address this talent gap for this industry?

This is true. Young professionals are less interested in roles that are more transactional in nature. We address this by not limiting our talent pool to a particular geography. Talent can be found everywhere in the world. We craft our talent by training those who have the aptitude and attitude for transactional work.

Incorporating the purpose of what we do in our recruiting and training also helps. Employee benefits administration is highly transactional, and you can quickly forget there is a human being behind each of those transactions. We spend a great deal of time reminding ourselves that we are helping someone get their benefits right in every transaction. That is why we come to work every day.

I am proud that our attrition rate is one of the lowest in our industry, and we still have employees who have been with PvG since we opened our doors in 2006.

Q. What do you think is the most memorable moment in your career?

I am fortunate to have many of these moments, but if I had to pick one, I would say the day I started PvG.

It changed my life trajectory and provided me numerous opportunities to change people’s lives in a permanent and meaningful way. I am grateful to have been afforded this opportunity and determined not to waste it.

Q. If not a business leader, what else do you wish to be?

I would be a teacher and a mentor. I enjoy imparting my life learnings in the hope that it inspires and encourages others. It is incredibly satisfying to mentor a young person and watch them gain the courage to fight through the dark times and have the strength to be more comfortable with discomfort. Learning is not comfortable, but you have to do hard things to be good at hard things.

The Leader at the helm of ProView Global

Michael Rivera, President, serves as the Chief Operating Officer of ProView Global (PvG). He has direct responsibility for the strategic growth and operations of the company. Prior to founding PvG, Mr. Rivera has spent over 32 years within the employee benefits industry, specifically in operations management, consulting, benefits outsourcing, product management, M&A integration, and helped develop one of the nation’s first systems for HMO management in the industry and has worked extensively with Fortune 500 employers for more than a decade.

Mr. Rivera holds a master’s degree in business administration and has a black belt Six Sigma and a green belt Lean Six Sigma certifications. He is a Certified Outsourcing Professional, a Fellow with a Managed Healthcare Academy designation, and a member of the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

“We provide organizations in the employee benefits administration industry with customized and dedicated operations to scale their existing processes.”