Your benefits plan can be a source of funds that can help build your business if you know where to look. No matter what size your company is, you can help it realize its full potential with an adviser who knows how to comb through each step of the healthcare supply chain to create tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings for your business.

Whether your business is small, large, or somewhere in the middle, here’s how managing the supply chain can give it the boost it needs for positive growth:

Big Savings for Larger Companies

Supply chain management in the benefits industry is often used as a savings tactic for small businesses, but even companies with 200 employees or more can use this strategy to decrease their benefits spending. Larger businesses often have access to more data, which can help your adviser pinpoint specific opportunities for savings.

You may be surprised at just how much your adviser can save you through this strategy. After all, the more employees you have switching to more cost-effective healthcare, the greater your savings will be. Imagine the impact of just ten employees with chronic health issues finally getting the care they need with maximized savings from top to bottom. This strategy can create a big positive impact on your business and your workers who rely on high-quality, low-cost care to maintain a good quality of life.

A Healthier Workplace

The savings that come with good supply chain management in your benefits plan can make your business an overall healthier place for your employees to be. Consider the implications of finding every opportunity for savings in your plan and how they could make healthcare more accessible for your employees, especially in workplaces like senior living centers that have recently seen increased costs due to the COVID-19 pandemic:

• Increased retention and easier recruiting – Employees are more likely to be drawn to employers who provide them with affordable, accessible healthcare.
• Quicker recovery – Employees who do get sick may be more inclined to seek early treatment and stay home if they have the tools and financial incentive to do so, reducing absenteeism and reducing the chances of the illness spreading at work.
• Improved mental health – Imagine the amount of stress that your employees would be relieved of if they no longer had to worry about affording their medication or the surgery they’ve been putting off. Physical and mental health go hand in hand, and a great benefits plan can help with both.

Proper supply chain management isn’t just about creating savings – it’s about finding new ways to make your workplace healthier for your employees.

Cost Reduction at Every Level

The healthcare supply chain isn’t optimized for savings by design, but your adviser can work with you to find savings opportunities at every level of the benefits process. By examining the supply chain from bottom to top, they can put control back into your hands, finding ways to reduce your spending without compromising on quality.

Think about the savings that could be created by simply changing the way your company sources medication. Without even changing the medication itself, finding a different source for your employees’ medication can save you tens of thousands of dollars. Your employees won’t have to worry about any changes to their health, and the savings can then go back into your business or your workers’ paychecks. An experienced adviser will know to look for changes like this so that you and your employees can get the most from your plan.

From Bigger to Better

Supply chain management isn’t just a cost-reduction strategy for small businesses. By working with your adviser, you can use your business’ data to save hundreds of thousands of dollars throughout your benefits plan, keeping your employees happy and healthy while finding savings opportunities you may not have otherwise considered. No matter how many people you employ, managing the healthcare supply chain can create new opportunities for your business to grow.

Contact us today to learn more about how your adviser can help you find more savings for your business through supply chain management.

Without employees, you have no business. The people who work for you don’t just bring in money for the company – they’re the faces of your entrepreneurial pursuits. A bad experience with a single employee can drive a customer away forever, but a great customer service experience will keep people coming back again and again. If your employees are helping your business grow, they deserve the best possible treatment in return.

By providing your employees with high-quality benefits they can afford, you expand the purpose of your own mission, creating a happier and healthier world one employee at a time.

The Backbone of Your Business

Many employers see their relationship with their workers as mutually beneficial by default: they provide work for you, and you financially compensate them for that work. The truth, though, is that your employees act as your company’s spine, holding up all the other elements of your business so they don’t fall apart. Think about the steps you take to protect your spine throughout your own life. You may take bone or joint supplements, or maybe you practice yoga or other exercises to keep it strong and flexible. At the very least, you’re probably more worried about injuring your back than bruising your shin.

Your employees deserve this same dedication and protection. If your workforce is weakened by high turnover or absenteeism, or if your company doesn’t offer high-quality benefits plans compared to your competition, the support holding up your business will falter or fail.

A Way to Give Back

Taking care of your employees doesn’t only involve making sure they get paid on time – it means doing your absolute best to make sure they stay healthy and provided for. Your benefits plan can be one of your most powerful tools to protect your employees and preserve their happiness by:

• Offering affordable care and treatment options
• Saving you money, which you can pass down as bonuses and raises
• Educating them on how to get the best quality care at the lowest cost

Your plan can be just another annual expense, but it should be a tool that can improve your employees’ health and sense of security. Providing your workers with low-cost, high-quality benefits is the perfect way to show them that you appreciate everything they do to help your business succeed.

The Ripple Effect

The impact of giving your employees great benefits can extend far beyond the employees themselves. Imagine how their entire family may be affected if they didn’t have to worry about going into debt over their child’s sudden illness or their spouse’s upcoming surgery. Or perhaps the savings that get passed down to them could help them afford a bigger house or pay off overdue bills.

In fact, look beyond your employees’ immediate families. Think about the greater societal impact of a group of 100 employees who can afford to go see a doctor for contagious illnesses. Without a good plan, your employees may dismiss their symptoms as a simple case of the sniffles – something they can push through without needing to visit the doctor. But if your employees can afford to be diagnosed and treated (better yet, if they can do so via telehealth, thus avoiding a trip to the doctor in the first place), they can get better faster while being armed with the information they need to avoid infecting others. As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us, one person can have a big impact on the health of an entire group of people, and you can do your part to help others stay healthy by focusing on the wellness of your own employees.

Looking Beyond the Business

Employees make our mission meaningful, and the ones who support your mission deserve the very best. Your benefits plan can give your workers the same support that they give you, and if you can provide them with benefits that keep them healthy while keeping their bank accounts full, your impact as a business owner will extend beyond the direct reach of your company and affect a wide range of people for the better.

Contact us today to learn more about how to give your employees the benefits experience they deserve.

Many patients are fed up with the healthcare industry, and it’s not hard to see why. The fact that costs for the same medical procedure can vary so wildly is proof enough that people are being betrayed by an industry that should be helping them. This unfortunate pattern also exists among benefits advisers, many of whom swear they can help your company combat high medical costs without being able to deliver on the promises they make.

Thankfully, though, business owners can help themselves and others in the fight against deception in the benefits industry simply by being aware of how to spot an honest and ethical benefits adviser. By asking the right questions and looking for the right answers, you can eliminate deceptive advisers from your pool of options and end up with an adviser that will deliver on the promises they make for your business.

Here’s what a great benefits adviser will do to earn your trust before you’ve even signed a contract:

No Quick Fix

While every adviser and employer hopes to implement fast, effective changes in their benefits plan, the truth is that in the benefits world, what’s fast is rarely effective, and what’s effective is rarely fast. Your adviser should be up-front with you about this from the start, and if they promise big changes in a matter of weeks, consider this a red flag.

A truly effective and sustainable plan will require changes that take place over a long period of time, such as:

• Employee education – As workers learn more about their plan’s tools and strategies, they’ll be able to use them better to make more cost-efficient choices for their care.
• Big and small adjustments – A one-size-fits-all benefits plan will rarely fit your business, especially as it continues to grow. A great adviser will make small (and large) changes to your plan over time as it evolves rather than a few sweeping overnight alterations.
• Employee trust – Even with all the information about their plan at their disposal, your employees will need time to have their concerns eased and questions answered. Once they do buy into your plan, though, the waiting will pay off.

Hearing your adviser tell you that you won’t see major changes by next week is tough for business owners who crave instant results, but it could be the difference between another year with a failed benefits plan and a system that will help your business save thousands over a longer period of time.

Delivering What’s Promised

A common mantra many business owners swear by is to “under-promise and over-deliver.” While this idea of keeping expectations low and significantly exceeding them seems good in theory, a great adviser will simply be honest about what to expect from their services. As an employer, you deserve to know exactly how your plan can affect your business, and an adviser who “under-promises” is just as guilty of deception as one who gets you to sign a contract by offering to work miracles.

Your adviser should present you with a variety of choices and the pros and cons involved with each decision. Most likely, no solution will be flawless, but a great adviser will help you pick the one that will have the best impact on your business. If you can’t take your adviser’s word at face value, then they don’t deserve your trust or your money.

The Power of Performance Guarantees

Getting the most value out of your benefits plan means believing that your adviser is truly looking out for your best interests. Many traditional brokers earn commission, and chances are, they’ll be looking out for their own paychecks when they offer you “the least expensive option” when it comes time to renew your plan.

An easy way to tell if your adviser can be trusted to do their best work in decreasing your benefits spending is by seeing if they offer a performance guarantee. The concept is simple: their pay relies on delivering the results they promise. A performance guarantee helps eliminate the advisers who promise big changes and then deliver more of the same high-cost, low-quality benefits that all business owners are accustomed to and tired of.

An Honest Take on Benefits

By learning the difference between advisers who are trustworthy and advisers who are just out for themselves, you can make better choices for your business’ benefits plan that will pay off long-term. If your prospective benefits adviser gives you a realistic timeline, is up-front with you about the good and bad points of all of your potential options, and offers a performance guarantee, take it as a sign that you’ll be able to trust them throughout the process of building you a new and improved benefits plan.

Contact us today to learn more about how to find an adviser you can trust with your business.

Open, honest communication is a key sign of a healthy workplace, and this particularly applies to your benefits plan. Benefits are often a confusing and even unpleasant topic for employees who are tired of paying too much for low-quality care, but you and your adviser can change the narrative around benefits by encouraging transparency and thoroughness when discussing them with your employees.

As you work to change your benefits plan for the better, you should also be communicating these changes to your employees in a setting that encourages questions and honest opinions. The more you communicate with your employees about their benefits, the more likely they’ll be to do everything in their power to use the tools and strategies built into the plan.

An Atmosphere of Communication

In discussions about benefits or anything else within the workplace, your employees should feel comfortable communicating with you. Verbal praise and tangible rewards (which you can offer through your benefits plan through bonuses or paid deductibles) are crucial to sending a positive message to your workers and reminding them of their value within your business.

This concept of easy discussion particularly applies to conversations about benefits. When it comes to their plan, your employees should always feel like they’re:

• Up to date – Any changes or updates to your plan should be communicated to your employees as soon as possible.
• Well-educated – A continuous, comprehensive employee education plan is crucial for your workers to understand how their benefits plan works and how they can make the most of it.
• Able to ask questions – Your workers should feel comfortable asking about any aspect of their plan, and there should always be someone who can give them the answers they need.

Good communication is crucial for a healthy workplace environment, and you can create it from within your benefits plan.

Back to Reality

Your employees aren’t operating under the delusion that the healthcare industry is inexpensive and easy to navigate. They’ve likely experienced the worst of the benefits industry for themselves, and when you and your adviser introduce how you’re going to make the experience better for them, they may be skeptical.

You and your adviser need to communicate to your employees that, while change is possible, it will require your workers’ efforts in order to take effect. Be honest with your employees, and explain to them why your plan is implementing these new tools and strategies. All of your workers should understand how their actions help them receive better quality care at a lower cost while also saving the company money. Being transparent with the tough realities of the benefits challenges you face won’t make your uphill climb to better care seem insurmountable to your employees – it will simply leave them better prepared to make the most out of their plan for the sake of everyone involved.

Create a Conversation

Education creates conversation, and this is especially true when referring to your benefits plan. Your workers should be a part of the benefits conversation from day one, but they’ll be more empowered to do so one they better understand how their plan works and what they need to do to get the best results from it.

Over time, your employees may understand their plan so well that they begin to look for solutions on their own. They’ll always have you and your adviser to turn to when they have questions, but the more they can do their own research based on what they know about their benefits plan, the easier it will be for them to make choices about their own care. This empowerment, however, comes from a workplace culture that educates employees year-round about their plan. While a great employer will ensure that everyone in the company feels comfortable talking about their plan, educated workers are far more likely to ask constructive questions and make the benefits conversation one that they feel they can be a part of.

Transparent Benefits

Open communication is necessary for your benefits plan to have its maximum intended impact on your employees and your business as a whole. By creating an overall atmosphere that encourages communication, being honest about the solutions and challenges involved with your benefits plan, and educating your employees about their plan, you can build your workers’ trust while helping them get the best value from their plan.

Contact us today to learn more about how great communication can lead to a great benefits plan.

Technology has made its way into virtually every area of our lives, and it’s only getting more advanced. We can take advantage of it with apps that can control virtually every electronic device in our homes, and now, we can use it to deliver better quality, lower cost benefits to our employees.

These tools are so much more than fancy perks you can add on to your plan – they improve the benefits experience for your employees while driving down costs. By including them in your plan, you’re communicating to your workers that you value their ability to access high-quality, low-cost care, further solidifying your mission to make your employees your number-one priority in your business.

Here’s how technology options in your benefits plan can give your workers a better experience:

A Continuous Effort

I praise the impact of continuous year-long employee benefits education for a reason: it works. While individual and group meetings can be helpful, you can also deliver information to your employees through other means such as:

• Automated text messages
• Regular email blasts
• Online employee portals

Say, for example, that a few of your employees weren’t able to make a meeting outlining new tools and strategies in your benefits plan. Rather than receiving a condensed version of the material covered in the meeting from their employer or a coworker, they could view a video of the meeting in their employee portal. This way, they can access the information at any time straight from the source.

These simple, easy-to-implement strategies can ensure that your employees’ benefits education carries on throughout the year at their fingertips.

Better Access Made Simple

Smartphones, once a tool only for CEOs and tech aficionados, are now a staple in the hands and pockets of people from all social classes. Your employees will likely have a portable computer with them at all times, and you can use that to your advantage in your benefits plan.

Imagine an app that makes your phone vibrate when it places your location at a high-cost medical provider, then gives you nearby alternatives that can offer you a lower copay. Or perhaps a digital assistant asks you, “Are you going to the emergency room?” and gives you suggestions to decrease your costs or find better quality options. This technology is already available, and we can use it to deliver our employees improved care in real time.

Looking Out for the Whole Family

I was able to use technology to improve my own healthcare experience recently thanks to a telehealth app I have on my phone. I felt unwell, so I used to app to connect with someone who scheduled me a remote appointment with a doctor. Within ninety minutes, I was on the phone describing my symptoms to the doctor, who told me which over-the-counter and prescription medications I needed. I called it into the pharmacy and went to pick it up, and that was that – no copay, no needlessly exposing myself to other people (sick or healthy). I had a phenomenal experience that also saved the insurer money in the process.

Imagine the impact of an experience like this on a busy family. If your employee’s child becomes sick at 10 p.m., they might find the local urgent care center closed and feel like they have no choice but to make a hectic and expensive visit to the emergency room. With telehealth options, though, your employee can keep their sick child at home in bed and contact a medical professional who can tell your employee what’s wrong with their child and what steps they should take next. The usefulness of this technology extends beyond one employee’s convenience and reaches their entire family.

Not Sci-Fi, Just High-Quality Care

These tools aren’t wishful thinking inspired by stories about spaceships and robots – they currently exist in our reality, and they can deliver a better, less expensive benefits experience to your employees. Your adviser can implement technological options into your plan that give them accessible and continuous education, real-time provider suggestions, and convenient, low-risk options for their whole family. By implementing this technology into your benefits plan, you can further prove to your employees that their benefits plan is built around the experience that they want and need.

Contact us today to learn more about how to use technology to increase the quality of your benefits plan.

The foundation for any business is its employees. Like wheels on a car, the goods and services your company offers may be the parts of your business that your customers see, but without great employees working as a motor to keep the vehicle running, your company becomes a pile of spare parts.  What many employers fail to recognize, though, is that their employees – like a motor – can’t run without proper fuel and care. Their employees’ needs get lost in the hustle of trying to push their product to the top, and that short-sightedness can cost them revenue or even their entire business.

The reverse, however, is also true. Business owners who appreciate and care for their workers will see big rewards in many areas of their business, including:

• Customer satisfaction
• Productivity
• Retention rates

No matter how many employees you have, their happiness is imperative to the success of your business, and the results can be seen firsthand by your customers.

Steering Toward Better Customer Satisfaction

If there’s one place that many of us have seen the negative impacts of low employee morale, it’s at the DMV. When I recently had to visit my own local DMV to get my Real ID to fly without a passport, I soon realized that I wasn’t the only one who had to complete this task. The center was packed, everyone inside was impatient and miserable, and I had braced myself for the employees to be feeling the same as the customers were.

Instead, I was helped by an employee who was pleasant, had a smile on his face, and treated me like a person. After he had helped me and I awaited the next step in the process, I watched him greet every other person the same way. Soon enough, the customers’ demeanor changed, and a two-hour experience that could have been miserable became significantly more pleasant. The employee who helped me at the counter was equally kind and cheerful, and I had to ask, “Why are you guys so happy around here?” The response was simple: their management team treated them well.

My experience at the DMV impressed upon me the necessity of treating our employees well, having seen how it impacted not only the workers, but also the customers. If a trip to the DMV could be a positive experience thanks to happy employees, surely any business can achieve the same.

Keeping the Motor Running

The old saying that “Money can’t buy happiness” also applies to business owners and their employees. A great salary and an end-of-the-year bonus will certainly entice employees to start or continue working for you, but big paychecks alone won’t keep them happy if they don’t feel appreciated and valued. Your employees deserve to be treated as people in your company, not objects that can be bought with the right amount of money.

The chain reaction that comes with content employees will be felt throughout your business. Improved customer service in a client-facing role can make customer satisfaction skyrocket. Even in a more behind-the-scenes role, high employee morale can lead to permanent increases in productivity and decreased absenteeism. And of course, employees who already feel valued aren’t likely to leave your business for a competitor who will treat them the way they deserve. All of this can lead to increased profits for your company, and more importantly, it will lead to your employees leading happier, more fulfilling lives.

A Benefits Plan That Fuels Your Workforce

While there are many ways to show your employees how much you appreciate their hard work, one of the most efficient ways you can do so is by building a benefits plan that makes them the priority. Many business owners cut corners on their plan in the name of cost-saving, and while this approach may seem to help their bottom line on the surface, it can cause deep resentment (and poor health) among employees.

Instead, work with your adviser on making your plan more employee-centric. Ask questions such as:

• Does my plan save my employees money?
• Does my plan adequately cover my employees’ health needs?
• Is my plan easily accessible?
• Do my employees understand their plan and how to use it?

A plan that delivers a resounding “yes” to each of those questions can go a long way in communicating to your workers that you care for them and value their place in your company.

On The Road to Happier Employees

Your employees spend a significant portion of their lives with you, and the least you can provide in return for their hard work is an environment that makes them feel proud to work for your business. By remembering that your employees are your greatest assets and treating them as such, you can help both your individual workers and your business as a whole, and reexamining your benefits plan is a great place to start.

Contact us today to learn more about how your benefits plan can help you thank your employees for all their hard work.

When employers talk about benefits programs, the major category that tends to come up is healthcare. Many business owners believe that an all-encompassing healthcare plan can be the key to winning over both new and current employees. The reality, however, is that many outwardly impressive healthcare plans are expensive and even unnecessary, costing you tens of thousands of dollars that could be better spent elsewhere in your company.

A solution that many benefits brokers ignore is to offer your company’s benefits as a customizable option instead of a pre-decided bundle for your employees. This approach can not only improve employee satisfaction with their plan, but also prevent you from wasting valuable funds on benefits your workers don’t even need.

The Problem with Redundant Benefits

There’s a good reason why healthcare is so often at the forefront of people’s minds when they think about benefits. Medical procedures are expensive, and, yes, a solid healthcare plan may be the deciding factor between whether a valuable employee chooses to work for you or go with a competitor instead.

At the same time, though, many employees would choose not to have a healthcare plan if offered one. Reasons for this may include:

• Their spouse already has a great healthcare plan that covers them as well.
• They don’t incur enough medical expenses throughout the year to even meet their deductible.
• They already have healthcare benefits they pay for themselves.

If medical benefits are redundant to one of your employees, they offer little to no value in retaining that worker. Other benefits, however, may have a greater impact on their happiness and decision to stay or go.

The Power of Choice

Imagine how much disability insurance would mean to an employee with a high-risk job. Think of the relief a great life insurance plan would provide to a worker with a growing family at home. While not every worker needs medical benefits, they may need other benefits to live as happily and securely as possible.

Providing customized benefits options can give your employees just that at a fraction of the cost. Many employers fear not being able to afford medical benefits for every worker, and offering your employees the option to choose which benefits they’d prefer can help put them in control of their plan while also saving you thousands. An employee who already gets medical benefits through their spouse’s job can opt to have great dental and life insurance instead, for example. Providing an option like this demonstrates that you care about your employees as individuals rather than throwing a blanket plan over them all, and in the process, your company’s benefits costs become far more affordable for you.

A Benefits Gift Card
One of the keys to making your plan affordable, effective, and easy is by treating it like a gift card. Each employee gets a set amount of money to spend on benefits, and they can “shop” for the ones they want to receive. If they want additional benefits beyond what the limit affords them, they’re welcome to get them, but at their own expense. And, of course, if they choose not to use their allotted funds on benefits, they don’t receive the remaining amount as cash – the money is to be used strictly for its intended purpose.

This approach puts both you and your employees in control of benefits spending. You don’t have to worry about spending more than you planned on benefits, and your employees can spend as much or as little on benefits as they desire to create a plan that serves them perfectly.

You Can Afford to Pick and Choose

In the quest for a benefits plan that is both affordable and satisfying to employees, customization can be the best option for you and your workers. The potential redundancy in medical benefits can make them unnecessary for some employees who might prefer other benefits instead, and crafting a plan that caters to their needs within a predetermined limit can provide a cost-effective plan for everyone involved.

Contact us today to learn more about how a customized benefits plan can be the most affordable option for your business.

2019 was a year of change, and one of the largest changes my own business underwent was the shift from being known as The Benefits Group to rebranding as Dynamic Benefit Solutions. The difference between the two entities isn’t in name only – we’ve doubled down on our efforts to be the change we want to see in the benefits industry. Our mission, however, remains the same, and we strive to continue to build benefits plans that improves employees’ healthcare quality while creating savings from the ground up.

Here are some of the core components of what we believe a benefits plan should be:

A Custom-Made Plan

Many modern benefits plans are designed in a way that helps everyone but employers and employees. Brokers push one-size-fits-all plans onto employers and encourage them to renew each year, even though the plan may not be a good fit for the company. While many business owners value their brokers and all the hard work they’ve done over the years, most brokers only meet with employers when it’s time to renew their benefits plan. Even if they’ve been working with the company for a decade, they likely haven’t spent enough time getting to know your business to develop a plan that best suits its needs.

Your broker doesn’t have to build your plan alone, though. A benefits adviser can work with your business throughout the year, getting to know its strengths and challenges as it evolves. They can then serve as your new broker or work with your existing broker to deliver a plan that is perfectly suited for your business. This approach can save you money and provide better care for your employees, and you don’t have to say goodbye to your broker to achieve your desired results.

Making People The Priority

Your employees power your business, and they deserve a benefits plan that reflects that. Many modern benefits plans try to help companies save money at the employees’ expense, but these plans often backfire, decreasing recruiting and retention rates and lowering employee morale. A truly valuable plan will put your employees first by providing:

• Accessible, high-quality healthcare
• Affordable plans with opportunities to create additional savings
• Education to utilize the tools in their plan and make informed choices about their healthcare

My mission has always been to provide high-quality, low-cost healthcare to employees, and we reject the notion that the best way for business owners to save on benefits plans is to shift costs to their workers. By developing plans that create savings from the inside out, we hope to contribute to a change in the benefits industry that positively impacts everyone in your company.

The Power Of Teamwork

One person alone can’t create a massive shift in the way your benefits plan affects your business. Just as your plan should be comprised of a variety of tools and strategies that work together to create savings, you and your employees won’t achieve the results you desire if you rely on your broker to do all the work in developing your plan.

By acting as a consultant, your adviser can meet with your broker to help them build a plan that best suits your business. Additionally, however, your adviser should also meet with you and your employees to help everyone impacted by your benefits plan as they learn how to use the tools provided to them. In time, your plan will cease to be just another annual expense and transform into a living machine that produces both savings and great healthcare.

A Commitment To Next-Generation Healthcare

We know that one group of passionate advisers isn’t going to single-handedly fix our nation’s healthcare system. But by building plans that are tailored to business’ individual needs, put employees first, and utilize everyone’s strengths to maximize its impact, we strive to change the benefits world one business at a time.

Contact us today to learn more about how Dynamic Benefit Solutions can make your benefits plan do more for you.