As a broker we often meet with companies who have a group insurance plan in place but have forgotten why they were motivated to do so. For most a group plan is established to keep and retain good staff and remain competitive within their industry and for others it’s to meet the growing and vocal needs of their employees. Few employers consider that in creating a plan design you begin a template of expectations that can be viewed either as a positive or negative by employees and can either become manageable or unpredictable from a financial perspective. So what is an employer to do? Where do you begin, especially if the plan is already in place – how do you possibly change the group insurance financial future without creating an employee up rise? There are solutions that can meet both the needs of the employer and the employees. The key is to move away from those reimbursement type of expensive benefits and implement more true insurance products. Another key is to communicate, communicate, communicate. An employee who is communicated to will be more educated on their benefits and will understand the true value of the program. Gone are the days that employers provide full benefits packages without any employee partnership of some form. Either it’s through contributions, or through plan design and products, but few can afford to do nothing. The bottom line is the more involved the employee is in the program the more respect they will have for the funds that flow through the program. Too often employees don’t see themselves as a consumer when accessing their benefits, because they adopt the attitude – why care it’s the company’s money – right? Engage them as a partner and you have a program that will be understood, valued and scrutinized by employees in every aspect of its use and that will mean less abuse and more financial stability for your program.
The article was written by Rosemary Marsh, Managing Partner at Business Insurance Services. Business Insurance Services is a specialist in group and pension benefits. www.bisinc.ca