Client: Our organization kept deductibles and contributions low in order to attract younger workers. It didn’t work, considering that 75% of those under age 26 were covered elsewhere. It was a great benefit to the older populations, but all the marketing we did was geared to the fresh-out-of-college set. 

Ask yourself: Are your benefits aligned with your recruitment strategy? 

Client: We wanted to get more of our population onto the plan. We discovered that the population waiving coverage was actually 15-20% more expensive from both a demographic and geographic perspective. Upon seeing the facts, we quickly shifted our focus.

Ask yourself: How are you using data to inform your decisions? Are there surprises in your annual renewal process that could be avoided?

Client: We realized that most new mid-career hires negotiate an additional $2,000 in salary to offset perceived benefit gaps. Because this cost impacts payroll in perpetuity we can’t just rely on benchmarks when developing our benefits strategy.

Ask yourself: What is the true cost of each of your employees? How are your benefits impacting recruitment and retention?

Client: Mid-career hires who were disillusioned enough to leave their previous employer can be highly engaged team members. We recognized the importance of the onboarding and integration process to get employees up and running at full speed.

Ask yourself: How does your current team support onboarding? How are you communicating to your employees outside of open enrollment?