Asking the simple questions: How to get the most out of your employee benefit package
Posted On April 5, 2018
Confession time: When I was starting out in my first corporate job, I was handed a package of benefits options and told to pick out, on the spot, what I wanted. And I had no idea.
So I asked my manager what he did. And that’s how I ended up with benefits tailored toward a thirty-something-year-old family man instead of something that would have been more beneficial for me at that time in my life – early twenties, unmarried and childless.
I was not alone in my ignorance of the various elements of employee benefits packages, what they do, and which ones might have been right for me. They can be quite intimidating, especially for recent graduates who may be stepping out from under the umbrella of their parents’ insurance coverage for the first time.
Our guests in this episode of “What’s Working with Cam Marston”are experts in helping businesses decode this riddle for their employees. Jon and Rae Shanahan are the President/CEO and Chief Strategy Officer, respectively, of Businessolver, a national leader in SaaS-based benefits administration technology.
Put simply, what they do is use technology to help employers tailor their benefits packages to their employee population and make those benefits plans more accessible, and more understandable, to employees.
How do they do it? By using technology to ask simple questions of employees (When do you want to retire? How risk-sensitive are you?) and encouraging their clients to offer a broad enough spectrum of benefits, as their budget allows, to cover the answers.
In this episode, the Shanahans share with us:
- The importance of HSAs, and how to convince millennials of that importance.
- Why it’s valuable for businesses to enlist the help of a consultant or broker.
- Why it’s important to reach your employees where they are, particularly through making information available via mobile devices.
- The importance of integrating wellness and fitness into your benefits program.
- The popularity of outside-the-box benefits like device protection, vision benefits and even pet protection.
- The most underutilized or least understood benefits, including short-term disability, critical illness and hospital indemnity.
It’s important, the Shanahans say, for employers to effectively communicate that benefits are a real form of compensation for employees, and for employees to understand that benefits are a real cost for employers.
Join us to learn how to make sure you and your employees are getting the most of them.