What to Look for in the Perfect Group Benefits Plan
What if your business could offer the perfect group benefits plan? One that attracts top talent to your business, boosts employee retention, and doesn’t hurt your bottom line?
While “perfect” is a relative term, your company can design a group benefits package that perfectly meets your employees’ — and your business’s — needs. Learn the key elements that make up the ideal plan, then contact Advantage Pacific for assistance with tailoring and managing your group benefits plan.
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A Plan That Is Tailored to Your Employees’ Needs
Every workforce is different, and you can’t expect a cookie-cutter group benefits plan to meet the unique wants, needs, and goals of your employee base. Instead, you should take the time to understand what your employees value in an employee wellness package, then design a plan around those goals.
The best way to find out what your employees are looking for is to ask them directly. Send a survey to all of your employees that asks questions like:
- Which of these health benefits do you anticipate using the most?
- Rank these health benefits in order from most important to least important.
- What do you value most in an employee health benefits plan? (Cost, coverage, flexibility, etc.)
Then, compile the data from your survey to understand what types of benefits and coverages to offer within your group benefits pack.
Advantage Pacific provides this service to all our benefits partners for free.
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A Plan That Is Flexible and Can Change with Your Workforce
Your employees’ health needs are ever-changing, but workers shouldn’t need to jump through hoops to adjust their coverage when they need to. Offering flexible benefits plans can enable your employees to choose the specific coverages in their plans, adding and taking away benefits as their health needs change.
For example, when an employee first joined your team, they may not have needed new parent benefits — but now they do. Alternatively, a worker may have initially used mental health support benefits, but now no longer needs this benefit and doesn’t want to continue paying for it.
Your employees should feel like they have some control over the benefits they pay for from month to month. By providing benefits that can change with your team, you enable them to exert this control and always gain the most value from their benefits package.
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A Plan That Has Sustainable, Cost-Effective Rates
You don’t only need to think about how group benefits will impact your employees. You also need to consider how they will affect your business — namely, your bottom line.
Many providers of group benefits plans increase their rates annually. A rate that may seem sustainable now could increase significantly over the next five years to the point where you have no choice but to look for another provider simply for cost-containment purposes.
However, some providers allow you to pay slightly more to ensure the sustainability of your plan long-term. Your company can take advantage of this pricing structure to eliminate any surprise costs down the line and ensure stability for your employees.
If you can’t afford this up-front price increase, consider starting with a lower-cost option with the knowledge that you’ll be able to afford a higher-priced plan down the road. You can also take other measures to make your plan more cost-effective, such as eliminating low-use benefits.
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A Plan That Is Easy to Manage
As a business owner, you likely don’t have the time to be managing your employee benefits. You have a lot on your plate, and group benefits are only a fraction of your responsibilities.
Choosing a plan that is easy to manage can reduce the time and stress involved in offering these benefits to your employees. While “easy to manage” may look different for every company, you’ll generally want to look for a plan that:
- Has relatively straightforward benefits that your employees can understand at a glance
- Uses a customer-oriented claims process
- Allows employees to access their benefits directly without needing to go through your company
- Is managed by a TPA (Third Party Administrator) like Advantage Pacific.
Even the most hands-off group benefits plans require some oversight on your part. If you simply don’t have the time or desire to manage your group benefits, consider handing the responsibility off to a third-party administration service instead. This service can handle all of the administrative responsibility for your group benefits while offering professional guidance to tailor your plan to your company’s needs.
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Achieve the Perfect Group Benefits Plan With Third-Party Administration
At Advantage Pacific, we offer third-party administration services that make group benefits administration a breeze to all our benefits partners at no extra cost.
Contact us today at 778-349-8774 to schedule your consultation and learn how we can help you set up the perfect group benefits plan.