We are part of a collaborative group of people that continue to learn and innovate in our industry. We connect with creative, like minded businesses and people to see what opportunities we can bring back to our clients. The goal is to lower costs and increase quality in benefits programs for employees and their families.
Your broker should be able to recommend the right benefits for your unique workforce. They need to be doing this kind of scouting, staying up to date with rules and regulations and becoming industry leaders by finding innovative ways to better your benefits program.
If not, you could be missing opportunities to offer your employees the most comprehensive plan, while staying on budget.
Some broker’s aren’t investing the time.
A lot of people get into this business because they can set the hard part on autopilot. For these brokers, the work comes at the end of year, during renewal season. Often speaking to clients months, or weeks, before they need a signature, leaving plenty of time to catch up on another game of golf.
People often ask if I golf. I don’t. But if you ask other brokers, I bet eight out of ten are really good golfers. I spend my free time with my family and growing my business to become better at what I do. I’m willing to spend days away, to learn about things that can make a difference in my clients lives and their families lives.
A good year of golf for me is never golfing.
Employers need to know their brokers are putting in the effort. If you’re questioning whether your broker is focused on making sure your benefits plan is the best fit for your business, consider these questions:
- How often is your broker bringing new ideas to you that genuinely help your business?
- Is your broker open to change?
- Does your broker understand your company culture?
- Is your broker pursuing innovation?
During the day to day, it may not be obvious that your broker is not actively improving your benefits program. But ask yourself when the last time you had a conversation with your broker about something new they’ve learnt or when they last offered you a strategy that could reduce costs. Or are they asking you to play golf and have lunch?
You need to know where to look.
Of course, there are a lot of ideas out there and you can chase a lot of shiny objects. But at the same time you need to be open to looking at some of those shiny objects, to really evaluate if they are valid, innovative ideas, or just more tinsel on the tree. This is the hard part about searching for innovation and unfortunately, there are a lot of brokers who won’t put in the effort.
If your broker does find a new idea for your business, be sure the suggestion is driven by the needs of your people, your broker should understand your business. That filter is critical. New ideas don’t have to be a product, but it should be a solution. In our previous article, lack of data was the problem.
Your broker should be putting in this kind of effort and if they aren’t, you should find out why. Ask more questions and get your answers. Your broker should be willing to invest the time in you, your business and your people.
We are always looking for new and innovative strategies and technology to help you build your benefits. We don’t need to play golf, we need to bring our clients the best possible solutions for their company.
