The past few months have forced changes upon people around the globe as COVID-19 has impacted our health, employment, and general way of life. As a result, many employers who were hoping to make positive changes in their business have experienced “COVID paralysis,” or concern about making additional changes when there’s already so much instability and uncertainty due to the pandemic.

If improving your benefits plan was on your to-do list, though, that shouldn’t change even in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak. Indeed, working with your adviser now can help provide your employees with a sense of stability and comfort that can help make this tough time a bit easier on them.

Avoiding the Inevitable

Whether you were already planning on changing your benefits plan before COVID-19 hit, or you’ve just become more frustrated with paying more for your benefits every year without seeing any improvement in the quality of your plan, waiting to make improvements won’t solve your problems; it merely pushes them farther down the road. In fact, putting off improvements to your plan now could mean waiting even longer to see the impact of those changes.

Some of the ways the pandemic may impact your plan and business include:

• Higher carrier rates – up to 50 or 60 percent – because of a feared increase in cases
• Increased time for important decisions within your plan
• Additional employee absenteeism due to illness or taking care of loved ones

While no maintainable positive changes will take effect immediately, getting started on improving your benefits plan as soon as possible can give your plan the boost it needs to help your employees and your business as a whole.

Putting Savings Where They’re Needed Most

Your employees are the engine within your company, and they may be experiencing anxiety about their employment and financial status as layoffs and pay cuts take place around the country. You can work with your adviser, however, to use the funds saved through your benefits plan to reduce cuts and keep your employees and their families from having to worry about their economic stability at home.

For example, the Journal of the American Medical Association estimates that approximately 25 percent of healthcare spending in the United States is wasteful, with up to $101 billion of that waste going toward “overtreatment or low-value care.” Your adviser can help eliminate this unnecessary spending within your own plan, and you can then reallocate those funds to avoid layoffs or even hiring new employees who may be newly out of work due to the pandemic.

Savings for Safety

Great healthcare is more important than ever in the midst of a global viral outbreak, but your plan can and should do more for your business. Consider how the savings accrued through a more efficient plan could help keep your employees safe. Digital solutions such as telehealth can keep your workers away from a waiting room full of sick patients. If your employees must work closely together, perhaps your savings could be used to invest in equipment and devices that reduce the risk of transmission of the virus.

Whether these investments are permanent or temporary, the impact of having additional protective measures when they’re needed most can keep your employees safe and working. Additionally, this shows that your workers that you value their health, which is an attractive quality in both current and prospective employers.

Stability in a Time of Uncertainty

While changing your benefits plan during constantly changing external circumstances may seem like a big risk, it can actually provide you and your employees with much-needed security. Working with your adviser to make improvements to your plan in the time of COVID-19 can get your business started on developing benefits that will keep your workers employed while also implementing measures that will protect their health, safety, and financial security.

Contact us today to learn more about why fear of change could be holding your benefits plan back from its full potential.

Many companies have relied on various forms of digital communication for years now, and the emergence of COVID-19 has only increased the importance of remote accessibility between employees and employers. Your employees should be able to access their benefits just as easily as they can access a workplace group chat or message board, and implementing the proper tools in your company’s benefits plan can increase your workers’ comfort and understanding when using their plan.

While this transition may seem dramatic, chances are that your employees have already grown accustomed to digital communication platforms. In 2019, the Pew Research Center found that 81 percent of U.S. citizens owned smartphones, and regardless of age, your employees are likely to be comfortable using apps and accessing websites on at least one of their devices. In fact, you’ll likely find that they prefer having more remote ways to use their benefits tools.

Here’s how improved remote communication can increase your employees’ satisfaction with their benefits plan:

Staying in Touch in Real Time

One of the greatest perks of modern technology is how it speeds up communication and response times. Rather than waiting for face-to-face meetings for their questions to be answered or their concerns to be addressed, your employees can have their benefits needs met online, often instantly. Online portals and apps can put expert advice and personalized benefits tools at your workers’ fingertips, allowing them to find what they need no matter where they are, whether they’re at home, at the doctor’s office, or virtually anywhere else.

Accessible for the Whole Family

Your employees may have experienced the frustration of having to relay information from a benefits meeting back to their spouse, relying on their own notes and memories when they themselves don’t have a complete grasp of the content. By making pre-recorded meetings available online, your plan’s digital tools can:

• Ensure that your employees and their families have access to the same expert-delivered information
• Make the meetings available and rewatchable at any time
• Give employees and their families the opportunity to learn about their plan together

Making benefits tools available on digital platforms doesn’t just positively impact employees – it affects everyone on the plan for the better.

Tools for the Future

The number of business owners who are relying on digital benefits tools has increased since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, but the usefulness and practicality of these tools won’t cease once life returns to normal. Many advisers who have broken away from the status quo have been recommending digital tools in benefits plans for quite some time, and it’s only a matter of time until they become standard features of any benefits plan.

You don’t have to stop holding in-person meetings between your employees and advisers. Integrating remote technology into your plan, however, can increase your employees’ ease of access now and beyond the coronavirus outbreak.

Better Benefits From the Comfort of Home

Implementing digital communication tools in your benefits plan may seem like a big change, but your adviser can help facilitate the transition for you and your employees, making this important tool easy to access. By giving your workers easy and quick access to information, including family members in the conversation, and using tools that will be commonplace in the future of the benefits industry, you can use technology to take your business’ benefits plan to the next level.

Contact us today to learn more about how to make the most of digital communication in your benefits plan.