What major mistakes do employers make when developing a benefits strategy?
Employers spend their time operating a business and minimal time on benefit planning. Not having a long-term, well-structured benefit strategy is the most common mistake. Another common mistake is not working with an experienced benefit adviser.
Failing to ask employees what they really want is a very common oversight. There is little to no collaboration with the very people employers are trying to retain. Unfortunately, this can’t be done one meeting 30 or even 60 days before the benefit plan’s renewal. For many employees, and employers for that matter, health insurance is perceived as a hassle. Oftentimes this is a result of not providing adequate choices based on employee needs and budgets. For instance, employers might be surprised to find that employees would be happier if they had a less rich, and less costly, medical plan if they gained access to a vision or a long-term disability benefit.
What can employers do to combat rising costs?
Gone forever are the quick fixes that instantly generate substantial savings. The fixes available today are incremental and must be thoughtfully combined. A professional agent or adviser can provide insight on various plan and contribution strategies that you may not have considered. These strategies can help to properly align your benefit goals.
There is much more to employee benefits than health insurance — and unless the company is promoting a wellness ‘culture,’ wellness programs probably won’t have much impact. Yes, we should all promote healthy behavior, but gaining measurable savings on health insurance premium costs needs to be more than negligible.
Our innovative wellness program is entirely incentive-based. This allows us to laser in on behaviors that drive costs down for our whole population and provide our employer clients with positive and rewarding messages for their employees. These incentives act as a motivational tool that keeps employees engaged, and it doesn’t add to costs.
Employee benefit programs are supposed to help employers recruit and retain quality employees. Every decision surrounding benefit planning should accomplish one or both of those objectives. For most employers, health insurance is one of their largest expenses, after payroll. If it doesn’t help you recruit or retain employees, then why spend the time and money? Think of health insurance as the final piece of a larger puzzle and wellness programs as the thread that weaves its way through all the pieces.
Mark Mixer is a vice president for Alliant Health Plans. Reach him at (800) 664-8480 x271 or [email protected].
