As an employer, you have the best intentions in offering your employees health insurance benefits. Too often, though, your plan falls short both financially and in terms of employee satisfaction.
The problem isn’t that companies don’t care about offering solid benefits, it’s that companies don’t know what to base their decisions on when searching for the best quote. What do your employees actually want? How can you provide that while staying within budget — and even saving money?
To provide your employees with the best health insurance benefits possible, you need clear, strategic guidelines when searching for a quote. This includes strong data to influence decisions, determining what your company most needs from a plan and input from employees.
Need help getting started? Here are the top five factors you need to consider when looking for health insurance quotes for your company.
1. Understand why you’re offering insurance benefits, and structure your plan around that purpose.
Quite simply, companies offer benefits to attract and retain the best talent in their industry. 50% of employees surveyed by Waypoint Benefit Solutions say they’d leave their current position, even if they enjoy their work, for a position with better benefits.
Benefit packages have become more competitive in efforts to attract the best employees, and if you want to lead your industry, you need to not just keep up — but outdo your competitors.
2. Collect data to best understand the value of your benefits to both your company and employees.
“One of the things we do at Waypoint Benefits Solutions is survey every employee in a company,” says Brian Savage, Co- Founder. When looking for a health insurance quote for your employees, data is your best friend. Make your decisions based on real, honest feedback from your employees and leadership team.
For employers, this includes data such as improvements they’d like to see in benefit administration and any unique budget cycles they’re going through. For employees, this includes data such as what they’re looking for in their ideal plan, what they value most in their current plan and what they can do without in their current plan. Take the time to figure out your most important questions, and to develop a reliable data-mining and survey strategy for answers.
Actively involving your employees in the process makes them feel valued, heard and appreciated. Incorporating the honest feedback you receive, along with the needs of your organization, gives you invaluable insight into determining the best health insurance plan for you — and finding the best quote to meet these needs.
3. Focus on what your company needs to achieve with your health benefits program, from both an employer and employee perspective.
It’s important to think about this from multiple different perspectives, including your CFO, HR Director and employees.
Consider, for example, how benefit spending impacts your yearly budget. Health insurance is the second-largest operating cost for companies, after employee salaries. Spending this exorbitant amount of money hurts your company valuation and limits your CFO’s access to financing. A more cost-effective quote improves your access to financial health and resources long-term.
For your HR team, consider how much time they spend handling employee complaints about your benefits, working with your broker and trying to educate your organization about your plan. Imagine their satisfaction and increased productivity if you found a program that integrates well with payroll and requires less attention and manual work from their team.
4. Research your current claims experience and associated costs under your plan.
To get the most out of your investment in employee health insurance, you’ll need to see how these dollars are being spent on everything from large hospital claims to medications to routine visits to the doctor.
Remember to consider your employees in this, too. Study the amount your employees spend as patient responsibility, like deductibles and copays, so you can best determine how to save them money while still providing the coverage they need.
Understanding the amount of your spending each year gives you a clearer idea of both where you can save money and where coverage is most needed for employees.
5. Evaluate how your benefits program will integrate with the technology at your company.
Along with simplifying the workload of your HR Department, consider how you’d like your benefits to integrate with technology and payroll. Employee frustration often arises from not knowing how to access their health insurance portal, a lack of understanding in paycheck deductions and a lack of understanding surrounding the plan itself. A program that can streamline and integrate with payroll, and provide user-friendly self-service, will maximize efficiency.
An Innovative Approach to Competitive Quote Creation
At Waypoint Benefit Solutions, we use data-driven insights to create the best, individualized benefit quotes for your company. Our data-mining surveys provide insight to create a plan around your employees’ unique healthcare needs and desires. Best of all, we guarantee full transparency in data, fee structure and communication — you, your voice and your financial health are at the center of what we do.
Ready to explore our one-of-a-kind model and become competitive in your industry? We’re here to help. Contact us today!