The Right Voluntary Benefits Partner Can Do a Lot More than Save You Money

It’s hard to imagine, but what if your company’s benefits enrollment process saved your department money, not just on the cost of benefits, but in the cost and efficiency of your operations? What if supplemental health insurance for your employees actually made your job easier and increased employee satisfaction?

This scenario isn’t only possible, but easily achievable with the right supplemental health products and the right voluntary benefits provider. And the good news gets better as more providers are turning to technology and innovative products to save you money and increase employee satisfaction. You’ll benefit all across the board, from the enrollment process to employee communications to automatically keeping your employee database current – all at little or no cost to you.
It’s like adding a free employee who’s an expert in voluntary benefits, benefits communication and enrollment options.

Benefits start with bridging the gap

No matter where you are in the United States, you have to find a solution to continually rising health care costs. You want to be able to attract and retain quality employees, but every year it seems health insurance costs are eating into your benefits program budget. The Employer Survey 2006 from Eastbridge Consulting Group says employers spend between 11 and 24 percent of payroll on benefits, and nearly 80 percent of employers surveyed said they’re looking to increase the amount employees contribute toward premiums. They’re also considering increasing their health insurance deductibles. All of this places a burden on the employee and makes your benefits package less of an incentive for employment.

Still, the savings from these changes can be substantial. For example, employers could realize double-digit savings by increasing their health plan’s inpatient and outpatient deductibles and adding an emergency room copay. Making changes in your plan design is a good first step toward managing health care inflation. You can bridge the gap left by higher deductibles with a voluntary supplemental health product. Employees can use the benefits from the product to pay for their increased out-of-pocket expenses or for other expenses, such as child care, transportation, mortgage payments and more. You can pay for a portion of these benefits, or the employee can pay for the full cost through payroll deduction. The right voluntary benefits partner can help you choose a voluntary supplemental health product that will complement your health plan coverage and appeal to your particular workforce.

The best approach is a gradual introduction of health plan changes and voluntary product additions. You don’t want to go from a rich health plan straight to a true consumer-driven health plan all at once. It’s too drastic. Instead, you can take small steps each year and take the time to educate and train employees on their benefits choices so they make wiser decisions. Voluntary supplemental health plans are the place to start. It’s an option many employers aren’t aware they have.

You might think this sounds complicated for your employees – and for your human resources department. But with the right voluntary benefits partner, you’ll find the administration much easier than you think. The right partner:

• Understands your challenges and your limitations.
• Comes to the table with a mix of the products you need to offer today and want to offer in the future – and a track record of developing innovative products that can add to employee satisfaction as the benefits environment continues to evolve.
• Provides benefits communication to help your employees understand any changes in their core benefits and help them understand the value of the benefits you provide.
• Takes the burden of enrollment out of your hands and performs it for you.
• Can keep your employee census database up-to-date while seamlessly integrating with your current payroll system.
• Brings a long record of experience providing timely claims processing and customer service, completing the circle of employee satisfaction.

The right partner excels in benefits communication

There are many reasons why your voluntary benefits partner needs to excel in benefits communication. Because a voluntary benefits program may be new to your work force, employees need help making the right choices. Effective benefits communication also will help your employees understand the value of your benefits program.

It’s in your best interest to help your employees understand what you offer them. For every dollar your company invests in your benefits program, do employees really see the value of what you provide? According to a February 2005 Watson Wyatt Worldwide study, “how well a company communicates the value of its health benefits can do more to retain top-performing employees than the actual richness of the benefits themselves.”

The study also found that perception is more important than reality. In organizations with rich benefits programs but poor benefits communication, only 22 percent of surveyed employees were satisfied with their benefits. In contrast, in organizations that do a good job of communicating the value of less-rich benefits packages, 76 percent of employees were satisfied with their benefits. In other words, how well you communicate the value of your program matters more than the richness of your program.

With limited human resources staff, it’s tough to effectively communicate benefits and their value to your employees. The good news is that with the right voluntary benefits partner, the responsibility for communicating benefits isn’t left up to you.

Your voluntary benefits provider should also be experienced in communicating the value of core benefits – the ones you already provide – along with the voluntary products. This further eases the communication burden on human resources staff.

A successful voluntary benefits enrollment includes a team of benefits professionals who meet face-to-face with your employees on a one-on-one basis. Each employee sits down with a benefits professional who already has the employee’s payroll and other benefits information loaded on a laptop computer. This allows the enroller to show real numbers for how different choices will affect the employee’s take-home pay, as well as the benefits the employee will receive. The enroller can also go over your core benefits program, helping your employees understand just how extensive – and expensive to you – their benefits are, so they no longer take them for granted. In addition, the enroller can talk to the employee about special concerns and needs, and provide the employee with specific information and brochures about helpful products. When a decision is made, the enroller enters the information directly into the laptop, which will be uploaded to your payroll system after the enrollment.

These meetings will help your employees understand their options and benefits, as well as the cost to them – and to you. They’ll learn of your company’s investment in their benefits and come away with a greater appreciation for your program and your degree of support for your employees. With consistent communication and yearly re-enrollment opportunities, your employees will have a better understanding and a more positive view of their employer-provided benefits.

Another advantage to you of this face-to-face interchange is that the enrollers will have the opportunity to update your records, making sure that you have each employee’s current address, phone number and other information. We live in a mobile society, and many employers are surprised to find how out-of-date their employee database has become in only a few months.

If you have employees in a variety of states or locations, make sure your voluntary benefits partner also has expertise for multistate benefits communication and enrollments. An experienced voluntary benefits provider should offer enrollment and benefits communications solutions at no direct cost to your company.

The right partner offers you a wide variety of enrollment options

You want a voluntary benefits partner who’ll do what’s best for you and your employees, who’s willing to establish a long-term relationship with you and who acts with your best interests at heart.

Annual benefits assessments and re-enrollments are where you see the strength of a voluntary benefits provider. Some newcomers to the voluntary benefits industry try to put a lot of voluntary products into your initial enrollment because they don’t have a benefits team to handle your annual re-enrollments.

Because an enrollment team helps represent you to your employees, your partner’s enrollers need to be professional, personable and knowledgeable. Be sure to ask for performance survey results of your partner’s enrollment team. You might even ask to talk to several of their customers to find out how well your partner really performs.

Your partner should also offer you a wide variety of enrollment options to meet your company’s particular enrollment needs, such as group enrollments, face-to-face enrollments, call centers and self-enrollments when employees may not be able to meet face to face. Your partner should also be available to handle new-hire enrollments and be available after the enrollment to provide local service.

If you’re like most human resources departments, you already have more work than you can do. Your voluntary benefits partner should be able to handle the enrollment work for you.

The right partner makes you look good all year round

Your employees’ experience with your voluntary benefits partner doesn’t end with enrollment. That’s why you want a provider with the back-office support to handle account administration using proven technology that works with your system, making enrollments hassle-free and keeping billing accurate. Policies must be quickly issued to employees, and employees shouldn’t experience any billing errors.

When employees file claims, they should receive prompt and courteous service. Your partner must do more than talk a good story. It must be able to deliver in a way that meets and exceeds your employees’ expectations.

The right voluntary benefits partner can provide solutions to many of the problems you face. You can save money and enhance your benefits program by adding voluntary benefits, and your employees will benefit from innovative voluntary supplemental health products that bridge the gap left by higher deductibles. What’s more, you’ll get professional help with benefits communication and enrollments.

About the Author

Mary Milling is vice president of marketing for Colonial Supplemental Insurance products and services. Colonial Supplemental Insurance is the marketing brand of Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company. Colonial is a market leader in providing voluntary insurance to employees and their families through the workplace, along with personal benefits communication, enrollment capabilities and a commitment to service. Colonial Supplemental Insurance products are underwritten by Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company and include a broad portfolio of insurance coverages, such as disability, accident, life, cancer, critical illness and hospital confinement indemnity insurance policies. Similar products, if approved, are underwritten in

New York by a Colonial affiliate, The Paul Revere Life Insurance Company.

A subsidiary of UnumProvident Corporation, Colonial is based in Columbia, S.C. and operates in 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. “Colonial Supplemental Insurance,” “for what happens next” and the logo, separately and in combination, are registered service marks of Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company. All rights reserved.
For more information about Colonial’s products and services or opportunities with the company, call (803) 798-7000 or visit www.coloniallife.com.