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Maintain Your Momentum to Meet Your Benefit Goals

Now is not the time to take your foot off the gas for your employee benefits strategy. Your employee benefits are an essential part of your competitive compensation packages and you need to maintain your momentum to reach your goals.

You need to look at your benefits policy in a strategic way, aligning them with your company’s mission, adapting and adjusting as needed to achieve the best program for your staff and school.

To do this an in-depth review of what happened in 2021 should take place, so you can plan for 2022 to focus on 2023, allowing you to offer a competitive plan that stays within budget.

Slowing down can cause you to deviate, which can be hard to recover from

Setting your plan and putting it on the shelf following renewal season may seem like the easy thing to do, but if you wait six or more months before considering your employee benefits again, you could be missing out on opportunities to enhance your plan and unlock cost-savings advantages.

Continuing to move ahead at full speed takes time and dedication, but we can help.

Our process is unique and thorough. We look at your benefits as a Healthcare spectrum. First, we establish goals that are ideal for our clients. Then we begin the education process for what will come next, which are the highest value items to pursue.

The education process occurs in the first two quarters and is used to establish decisions that will come for Q3 and Q4. We bring in the right partners, we talk about the pros and cons of these decisions and we answer all of the questions our clients have.

Don’t settle for less when your employees are in question

If you are not a client of ours, you should expect this quality of care from your advisor. They should be able to provide you with the visibility you need by highlighting key points to consider so you can make the best decisions for your people and company.

These points will vary from business to business, however you need to keep your foot on the pedal in order to produce the most advantageous outcomes. 

Sometimes an in-depth look into your plan’s administrator is needed. This can reveal how your staff are navigating the healthcare system. How they are selecting high quality providers and if they are getting their prescription needs met.

New technologies, platforms, communication tools and personalized options are made available everyday. Your administrator should be moving forward towards these tools and opportunities to allow your people to get the most out of their benefits.

Remember to think outside of the silo — there’s a lot going on out there

There are several common missteps when employers are considering their employee benefits plan which are:

  • Delaying. Don’t wait too long to begin your benefits strategy, creating an effective benefits plan that supports your people while keeping costs low takes time.
  • Not weighing the pros and cons fully. Cost-savings, tax advantages, legal compliance, affordability are just a few aspects of your plan that need to be examined closely.
  • Being afraid of change. Executing changes can feel overwhelming, but could be crucial in unlocking an efficient benefits program. 
  • Shortcutting the education process. Your people need to know how to navigate their benefits. Implementing benefits training and education sessions throughout the year will work towards a fully utilized plan. 
  • Evaluating benefits decisions in a silo. Your benefits should reflect your holistic business mission. They should adapt with the changing needs of your workforce. If you care about your employees, your benefits program can represent that. 
  • Not involving the whole leadership team in your benefits strategy. Just like other areas of business, team leaders need to be involved in company and project strategy for success, your benefits should be no different.

Continuing to go the distance with your benefits plan during the course of the year will help you achieve the value you need — an effective program that your people can appreciate, while staying on budget. 

To get the most out for your employee benefits plan you need to maintain your momentum and reach your goals. Develop a strategy that evaluates your plan’s effectiveness on a recurring basis.

Now is not the time to take your foot off the gas for your employee benefits strategy. If you need help with this, don’t hesitate to reach out.

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Top 5 Books Every Leader Should Read

The most important element in leading today’s workforce could be to focus on self-improvement. This can seem daunting in a position that comes with a multitude of responsibilities, but it can be difficult to lead an organization without personal growth.

With an ever-changing workforce, focusing on yourself can seem difficult to achieve. Changes internally from new hires and business strategy developments to external factors like political and economic landscapes affect the way you lead your organization and where you concentrate your time. 

So how do you find inspiration to help you grow and develop your personal leadership style? 

Many c-suite leaders gain their knowledge by reading. Reading allows us to absorb different perspectives and experiences, helping us become successful executives.

Books to excel your leadership skills

I have generated a list of the top five books every company leader should read. They are:

1. The Way of the Shepherd: Seven Secrets to Managing Productive People by Dr. Kevin Leman and Bill Pentak

About the book: Meet your people’s needs to be able to draw out their best potential. Leman and Pentak show us the importance of leading our people as individuals, not a crowd.

Why you should read it: The Way of the Shepherd will teach you how to lead the people around you so they will view their work as a calling rather than merely a job, a place to belong, rather than a place to work. It shows you how to infuse work with meaning and how to engage and energize your workforce.

2. The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek 

About the book: Take an infinite view of your work. Players may get traded and the stadium may change, but the game is always on. Have a long term perspective on strategy and decision making versus short term wins and loses, which are mile markers, in an infinite game.

Why you should read it: Simon Sinek shows us a different perspective on the thrills of promotion — there are no winners and there is no time limit. The goal is to stay in the game. An insightful book that encourages a mindshift change. Don’t just live by quarters and annual budgets.

3. Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

About the book: Learn how to lead your people with habits instead of outcomes. Coach and develop strategies that create good habits and eliminate the bad ones. 

Why you should read it: You know what you have to do, but do you know how to do it? Clear shows us how to consistently and successfully develop habits that we can implement into our lives and business. We can use this knowledge and strategy when leading our people.

4. A CEO Only Does Three Things: Finding Your Focus in the C-Suite by Trey Taylor

About the book: Keep your focus as a CEO and stick to high value activities. Stay attached to the things that matter most.

Why you should read it: Taylor shares inspiring insights and practical applications that help leaders avoid burnout. Learn how to manage your attention and cut the clutter from a challenging c-suite position.

5. Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World by Bob Goff

About the book: Lighthearted and inspiring, Goff shares thought-provoking stories that show us ways to care for people in a radical way. Care by being available. Care with your actions. 

Why you should read it: A lot of times we care for people within our own convenience, but we should look at what it looks like to do that differently and apply that practice to our business and in our lives.

*bonus* book recommendation for c-suite leaders:

6. Life & Death Decisions in the C-Suite contributing author: Ben Conner

About the book: Life & Death Decisions in the C-Suite reveals the truth behind the private healthcare and health insurance industry that has plagued businesses and organizations across the US. 

Why you should read it: Leaders and executives will discover the hard truth about the current healthcare system and how to leverage specific strategies and solutions to substantially lower costs while enhancing the quality of life for their employees and their families. 

Lead with skill, confidence, and ease

Some of the best leadership skills we see from C-suite leaders are simpler than we expect and we can uncover these skills by reading these and many other books meant to help leaders excel. 

Your school can benefit from a confident leader who is always learning, adapting, and striving for the best, personally and professionally.

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Broker Relationships — Where is the Trust?

You’ve got to be able to trust your broker. In today’s business world if you want to do something different with your benefits program, you need to trust that your broker knows what they’re doing. If not, your school board could unknowingly end up on the losing side.

In 2013, University of Louisville fans, coaches, and players believed they played a flawless game, winning them the NCAA championship. But it turns out they didn’t. Some of the team members were exhibiting dishonest behavior and as a result, the title was vacated. 

A title that could have been advantageous to the lives of each player, coach and the University as a whole. Don’t let this happen to your school, to your staff. If you can’t trust your broker to make beneficial suggestions, based on your unique workforce, you can’t trust your benefits program is ideal for your school.

Trust is a delicate balance. 

Knowing if your broker is truthful can be difficult to assess. The relationship between you and your broker should be transparent with strong, consistent communication. Be wary of people who stretch the truth or give immediate answers to all of your questions. 

We have been talking to a CFO who is facing this challenge. He knows there is a problem, but without a trusted advisor to help, he is attempting to navigate the healthcare industry largely on his own. This has introduced complications and friction in the renewal process, because healthcare is not the CFO’s expertise. 

Managing your benefits program alone is not a feasible option for many employers, as benefits can be extremely difficult and time-consuming. That’s why having a trusted broker on your side to help you make decisions for your school and your people is important. You need someone who takes pride in providing the best for their clients.

Where to begin.

To determine the culture of your broker, you need to set expectations, ask questions, initiate conversations and consider answers carefully. A request for proposal (RFP) process is a tool some employers utilize because it will allow you to examine prospective insurance brokers. However, this process should not be used alone because it doesn’t give you enough insight into how your potential broker operates and you could fall short of your goals. 

Some key considerations and questions that you should focus on when assessing the relationship between you and your broker are:

  • Consider your business’s process and what you expect from your broker. How do they impact the bottomline? How do they build a strategy?
  • Talk about where you’re uncomfortable or where you are confused in your plan. A good broker can propose new, bold and exciting options, so be sure you fully understand the mechanics, not just the salesmanship.
  • Ask for clarity on both sides. Where do they contradict? Where are they similar? Don’t immediately agree with what the salesperson promises in a single meeting.
  • Accountability and transparency should be tied to everyone involved, including your broker. How are they compensated? How are they held accountable for their promises? How is their performance measured? What happens when they succeed? What if they fail?
  • Start this process, and examine these matters a year or more ahead if you can.

New transparency rules will help you trust your broker is doing what is best for your school. The rules require brokers to disclose compensations they receive, which will give you a better idea about where recommendations are coming from. 

The rules also come with an additional set of rules for employers, rules that make you responsible, emphasizing the need for a trusting relationship with your broker.  Learn more about these regulations here.

Something to keep in mind.

A great broker should be an asset to your school. You should be able to rely on them to keep your plan updated with new regulations and rules. They should be able to introduce new options and have recommendations about ways to engage and educate your staff about your benefits program.

But, be wary if your broker has all the right answers right away. A lot has changed over the past eighteen months, so someone who has all the right answers could be stretching truths. 

University of Louisville may have won the 2013 NCAA, but the success was short lived. The team has been left with only a memory of a tremendous title due to dishonesty and poor decisions. You need to have a trusting relationship with your broker or you could be left with benefits that don’t represent your school.

You deserve to have a broker that is open and honest with you. Ask the right questions and don’t settle for all the right answers.

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Do You Want What’s Best for Your Employees?

Your staff is one of the most important aspects of your school. For this reason alone, when it comes to your employee benefits, you need to make the right choices and decisions for them. 

Often, we choose to make quick, easy decisions in our daily lives and if we apply this technique to our employee benefits we could be doing our staff a major injustice. Yes, the healthcare industry is confusing and complicated but if you don’t focus and prioritize the benefits you offer, you cannot say with confidence that you’re providing the benefits your staff actually requires.

You need to start asking yourself if you really want what is best for your employees. In modern business, there is no acceptable way to answer this question with a simple “No”. However, there is room for uncertainty.  If your answer is yes, but you’re unsure how to proceed, you are still headed in the right direction. 

Health insurance can be difficult, but your people deserve the effort.

Knowing what’s best.

Currently, employees are bankrupted by health insurance costs. Some are receiving low quality care, they are being sent to collections, and they are confused. All of these concerns equate to a workforce that may have a difficult time focusing on what matters most, the students. 

If you really want what’s best for your people, you need to actively try to solve these issues. There’s a call for us to try. Although making changes to your benefits plan is not always easy, you don’t want your people in medical debt. With a poor surgeon or a bad health outcome.

Some key areas to begin your focus are:

  • Education. Your employees might not understand how your benefits work, what they are eligible for, or even how to apply. By educating employees about their benefits — new hires and continuously throughout their employment — they will have a better understanding of what’s being offered to them.
  • Plan ahead. Set a schedule and assess your timing. Know when to address your benefits plan and address it regularly, especially before renewal season begins. Don’t avoid or delay this process.
  • Revenue options. Your spend can do more than you think. By analyzing your data you can gain insight about where your money is going and if you are getting a return on your investment. 
  • Communicate with your leadership team. They may have concerns that need to be addressed such as employee engagement, retention or absenteeism.
  • Communication with your people. Your employees are a reliable source of knowledge, only they can tell you what they need and if the benefits are working for them.

We can argue that some of the best things in life are difficult to achieve. We can also argue that some of the best places to work are those who fight for their employees. We need to support our people, now more than ever. Medical debt is a growing concern in America and your teachers and staff are not immune.

Doing what’s best.

Employee benefits are there to protect your people. They are also a big part of your business’s costs, which should make them a priority to the school. If your plan is not set up to provide the best for your employees, there could be hidden revenue that could be put back into the school in a more meaningful way. 

Your staff are crucial to the success of your school board, you need to make sure they are taken care of to the best of your ability. If you need help, or have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out.

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When Health Insurance Companies Merge

As an employer, you should be aware of changes occurring in your health insurance policies. This is especially true following an acquisition because when a large health insurance company steps in, your policies could be adjusted, which can affect your school in a significant way.

By definition, an acquisition is the act of gaining a possession, or in other words, an acquisition is when one company takes over another. When an acquisition occurs between health insurance companies one will receive the clientele along with the company and when that occurs, modifications to the policies can be made. 

Although these changes may not be obvious at first, slowly over time your policy can shift in a direction that benefits the insurance company and not necessarily your school.

Large companies can be wrapped in bureaucracy 

True story — a school that we work for purchased insurance from a small health insurance agency and was happy with the service they received for a number of years. Eventually, the owner of that company decided to retire and sold the business to a larger health insurance company. Over time, the school’s insurance policy slowly became more about driving efficiencies toward the insurance company’s revenue and not the schools.

At a certain size, health insurance agencies can become less personal and direct because of the bureaucracy involved. Incentives are easily misaligned and policies and procedures become layered, preventing creativity and flexibility for brokers and agents. These situations are unfortunately more common than you might think. 

Know what information is important, and who to get it from

If your school’s health insurance company is considering an acquisition there are several key points to keep in mind, such as:

  • Request your policies data and be sure you receive it in a timely manner.
  • If your policy has changed over time and no longer fits your company culture, discuss your options with your provider to make necessary adjustments.
  • If a broker is suggesting a specific plan or carrier, ask if there is a different commission or monthly fee for that particular plan compared to others that are not being recommended. It is your right to know if incentives are being offered.
  • Maintain communication with your employees during renewal time as well as periodically throughout the year, to be sure your benefits align with their needs. If there are employee complaints or desires, be sure to bring them up with your provider.
  • Customer service can suffer after a merger or acquisition. If you find you are not getting the help you need, you may need to consider another carrier.
  • Stay on top of your health insurance policies, or bring in the help of an advisor who can help. Remember that maintaining a good health insurance policy needs attention throughout the year, not just at renewal time.

By staying informed with the correct data and asking the right questions you can help keep your health insurance policy working to its full potential. Remember to include opinions and information from your employees as well as your broker or agent.

Your employees can give valuable feedback

Cara Silletto, a workforce thought leader from Magnet Culture recommended in a recent Conner Chat webinar that companies should “…conduct pulse surveys, not just annual one-time surveys but regular one or two questions out to different pockets of the employees to collect more valid data.” 

By collecting this data and information you can get a better understanding of what is happening with your policy and remain mindful of any changes that are occurring throughout the year. Then, you can take this knowledge to the insurance provider to keep your policy moving in the right direction, which is a quality, cost-effective benefits program for your staff and school.

When health insurance companies merge, or an acquisition takes place, the immediate effects to your company’s policy aren’t always obvious. Know what questions to ask, what your plan options are and where the recommendations are coming from. 

If you need help with your health insurance policy don’t hesitate to reach out. 

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Leading Your Post-Pandemic Workforce

With new rules and regulations, the post-pandemic Olympic Games has been a different experience for athletes and coaches alike. But perhaps one of the most talked about events of the Summer 2021 Olympics has been Simon Biles’ surprise withdrawal from the games. And her reasons are honorable. 

The Olympic gymnast, who is considered to be one of the top gymnasts of her time, withdrew from the summer games to protect her mental and physical well-being. Her coaches and teammates are all in support of her decision because they know the consequences of continuing to compete in the Olympics could have been disastrous.

The strength in admitting this to the entire world is admirable, a lesson our teachers should be sharing with all of our students. 

Closer to home than we think

The pandemic has affected all of us in different ways and as we head toward a post-pandemic way of doing business, we can look at Simon Biles decision to protect her mental health and apply it to the inner workings of our schools. 

To do this, we need to take a step back and look at the way we are leading our people. We need to support them on an individual level, representing any concerns or needs they may have. If we take care of our people on an individual basis we can make our teams, and our schools stronger.

Dig in and talk to your employees

Taking care of our employees is more than ensuring we have the proper protocols in place, we need to dig in and reach out to each employee to confirm we are taking care of everyone.

For example, a friend of mine works for colleges by participating in an extensive mental health awareness program. He is always on scene to talk with high-risk individuals, helping them through their crisis. While it is an excellent way to support staff and students, no one took the lead in caring for my friend, to help him deal with his own trauma of absorbing everyone else’s. He is trained to deal with suicidal people, but nobody looked at what he would need to decompress after those experiences. 

A missing step in a protocol designed to help employees. How can we protect our own people from situations like this? We need to take it back to the benefits. We need to look at how employees respond to us as an organization. In a recent Conner Chat webinar, Ben Conner talks about mission-driven benefits, which can help us be more efficient with our insurance benefits. 

By considering our employees individually in our benefits strategy we can create a better deliverable for our schools and allow our staff to feel a part of our culture and by doing so we can unlock revenues that we can put back into the business, to take care of our people.

We can also open the doors of communication to allow our staff to feel comfortable telling us when something is affecting them on a personal level.

Support your company culture

Simon Biles felt comfortable making a tremendous decision at this year’s summer games perhaps because she knew she had the support of her coach and team behind her. By taking care of her mental health and by giving her the tools she needs to repair, her team becomes stronger.

We cannot neglect the importance of mental health recognition within our schools. By listening to what they need and adjusting our benefits program accordingly we can support our people and grow a stronger team. This is especially important heading into the post-pandemic workforce.

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Save Your People from the Complexity of Medicare

Understanding Medicare is difficult for many staff members within your school board. In fact, for some employees reaching sixty five, the challenges that Medicare enrollment presents may cause them to avoid the program even when they qualify. 

When employees avoid enrollment into Medicare, they could miss deadlines, choose the wrong plan or delay enrollment, which can cost teachers and staff considerably, due to penalties and late fees. 

When considering the federal health care program, there are some unique aspects that teachers need to take into account such as additional investments, 403b plans, pension and social security, all of which can further complicate Medicare and the retirement process. 

Proactive education.

Addressing these concerns with your employees should occur early and often. Resources, such as consultations with advisors, informational emails or workshops, should be available throughout the school board to help answer difficult questions that come when considering Medicare enrollment. 

Part of the reason Medicare is so complicated is because it comes with multiple options. Some aspects of Medicare that employees need to consider are:

  • Part A – Hospital insurance, which covers in-hospital and patient care.
  • Part B – Medical insurance, which covers outpatient and medical care.
  • Part D – Prescription drug coverage, covers most self-administered prescription drugs.
  • Medicare – includes Part A, Part B and the option of adding Part D
  • Medicare Advantage – considered an “all in one” alternative to Medicare, and includes Part A, Part B and sometimes Part D as well as other benefits such as vision/dental etc.
  • There are also premiums, deductibles and copays to consider. 

Many employees need and welcome the opportunity to to learn more about Medicare insurance, everything from options to eligibility as well as the relationship between their traditional health insurance plan and Medicare benefits. The more information and resources that are supplied, the better choices your people can make.

Discussing these choices with a professional who knows the answers to their specific questions can be beneficial. For example, some teachers pay into a Teacher Retirement System within their state, these teachers will need to know how Medicare enrollment affects this account.

Practical concern. 

About 25% of people are unsure about what a traditional health plan covers and the fact that Medicare is even more complex, some teachers may find Medicare simply too difficult to navigate or may even avoid it entirely.

By educating staff and spreading awareness to the possibilities medicare offers, an employee could find medicare is in fact a better option for them, helping them to enroll into Medicare at the right time. 

Understanding Medicare can be difficult for your employees, but by setting up consultations with an expert to talk about their individual health insurance needs, you can help employees who are considering Medicare enrollment make positive, smart decisions.

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Solving New Retirement Challenges with Your Benefits Plan

Teachers make up a large portion of the American workforce and with 18% of the teaching population over fifty five, many are approaching the age of retirement, an age that comes with a variety of emotions and concerns.

A large portion of those over fifty five may also have elderly parents to care for. The balancing act of teaching, preparing for retirement and caring for a loved one can carry a significant impact on work performance, causing stress and a disconnect from the workplace. 

The emotional and financial stress caused by these significant life stages can affect not only the teachers, but students, support staff and the school board. Taking a proactive approach to manage the stress your teachers experience is essential. 

By viewing your benefits plan as more than an insurance policy and using it to educate and protect your employees, you can work towards relieving stress to a large degree.  

Benefits

Retirement is something that will occur for all teachers and staff within the school board, one of the rare circumstances in business that can be said with certainty. Everyone will eventually reach an age where they start to consider retiring and some may have the additional responsibility of caring for aging family members. 

The importance of creating a stress free environment within your organization is essential, as there could be implications for students within the school board. Providing a benefits plan designed with your people in mind can alleviate the stress that comes with the transition to retirement, allowing teachers to focus on the classroom. 

Supporting the aging population with a benefits plan designed for your people shows you care about them and promotes a positive work environment. 

Education 

Variables such as a 403b plan, social security, pensions and Medicare coverage make retirement for teachers a unique challenge. There are many decisions that need to be made and if you can help your staff navigate those choices, the entire school board can benefit. 

By providing educational material, training and workshops to highlight the resources available for retirement preparation, you can not only help employees navigate retirement and long term care plans, but also ensure the plan is being fully utilized. After all, no one benefits from an unused plan, especially your people.

In addition to programs and material presented within the school, extending the opportunity for education and guidance about benefits plans to outside sources can be very helpful.

Experts

A gym teacher who coaches football players may need the advice, expertise and knowledge from outside specialists and educators. If students seem disconnected or unfocused, consultations with these professionals are usually set up and after speaking to the right advisor, students can return to the team and are able to better focus on the game.

The same metaphor can be applied to the inner workings of the school board. Teachers and staff who are worried about approaching retirement or distracted by caring for a loved one can experience more absenteeism and decreased productivity, which can affect the students and the school. Employees who receive guidance from professionals can empower them to make smart decisions and eliminate stress and distractions.

That’s where we come in. As experts in health insurance and with partners in benefit plans, we position ourselves as advisors that can offer professional guidance. We teach, train, and problem solve alongside your teachers, so you and your teachers can continue to focus on what matters most, our future citizens. 

Culture

Providing guidance for your employees about their benefits plans, with a focus on the aging demographic, is a valuable strategy for your school. Bringing ease from the difficulties of navigating retirement and long term care options for loved ones can change the dynamic of your school board and create a culture that your employees value.

When you begin conversations about navigating health insurance, benefits, Medicare and retirement you begin to enhance employee experience by showing your people you truly want the best for them.

The decisions and choices your staff face can be confusing and overwhelming and with almost a quarter of your school board reaching the age of retirement, the importance of a well structured benefits plan to support them is essential.

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Mindset: Benefits vs. Insurance

Reframe the potential of your benefits plan by changing the mindset of the insurance transaction. In other words, designing a benefits program is more than signing a yearly contract renewal, paying for an insurance plan, and hoping for the best.

Educators know that being well prepared is key to the success of the students. Lessons are carefully planned with consideration given for each student’s individual needs. Students would be lost if a teacher assigned a project without reviewing the material beforehand. However, when it comes to employee benefits, most schools set it and forget it. No one does their homework or even has the education they need to do the homework.

Most organizations genuinely want the best for their employees and offering a strategically planned benefits program can be a way to translate this. A benefits program tailored to your faculty’s needs can improve recruitment and retention while potentially freeing money for other programs.  

Meeting Your Unique Needs. 

Many employers have key objectives for their insurance plan and use the renewal period as a time to check these boxes. Due to the cost of investment and the importance a benefits program carries, a thorough design using research and new tools that can address the changing nature of employee needs and includes the growth of the business is critical. 

Educational institutions present a unique set of needs to keep in mind when developing a benefits program for its people, including tight budget constraints, compliance with government regulations, and designing communications to enhance the understanding of the programs within the day to day procedures of a school environment. If these requirements are met, your school board may see a significant return on investment. 

Integrating the help of an insurance advisor or expert in benefits for educational institutions can be a useful asset. 

Designing Your Unique Plan.

Beyond cost-savings, offering benefits designed for your staff is a way of letting your people know you see them as more than their profession. For example, younger employees may value paid time off, older employees may value a retirement plan, whereas employees with families may place more value in paid sick days or family plans.  

There is more than asking your employees what they need, of course. Other aspects of a comprehensive benefits plan are:

  • Careful financial planning – fixed premiums, routine costs of care, and the unexpected costs such as growth of the organization and the changing needs of benefits.
  • Benchmarking – comparing your benefits plan metrics to other institutions to stay ahead of the competition.
  • Data analysis – knowing the numbers and predictions to enable beneficial outcomes, both financially and structurally.
  • Maintaining clarity with employees – hearing feedback, gathering ideas, and knowing what works for them and what doesn’t
  • Offering training and Q&A’s – continuous availability to programs that can help in choosing care, understanding procedures, and bringing awareness to the available programs. 

The more information your business and your employees have, the more impact your employee benefits plan will have. For example, the program has more potential to be fully utilized if the benefits have been requested directly from staff. Furthermore, awareness of the programs available can lead to fewer sick days due to preventative and diagnostic care, which leads to a more sustainable program for all. 

Delivering Your Unique Benefits.

Finally, with a well-thought out plan, your institution could become unequalled, attracting top talent. Happy employees who care about their work are more likely to exceed expectations and produce higher productivity. Which in an academic world, positively impacts the students they are teaching. Investing the time and energy into a well designed benefits plan can seem challenging, but the rewards are too great to ignore.

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Benefits Are More Than Insurance

Insurance plans are a way to manage risk and protect from loss. Your benefits plan on the other hand is a potential tool for growth and gain. In other words, when we look at insurance as a transaction we are missing the opportunity to see our benefits plan as a strategy for improving our organization.

When deciding on a benefits plan, choosing the most expensive plan feels like the path of least resistance, because in theory a costly plan is more comprehensive. However, a standard plan is not developed with your people in mind, and in any other area of business, we would not consider the risk of implementing a procedure that is not designed for our organization. 

With the diverse nature in schools today one of the most important tasks in taking care of your employees is listening to them. 

The Problems with Some Benefits Plans

Flexibility and choice is key to providing a benefits plan that is focused on the health, wellness and future of your people. By listening to what your employees need, your benefits plan becomes more likely to be fully utilized which can introduce cost-saving capabilities leaving more money in the budget.

Quality of care will look different for different school boards. However, we find there are common areas of concern in many benefits. They are:  

  • Employees are almost always overpaying for prescription drugs. With greater control, you can source the exact same prescriptions for significantly lower rates in nearly all cases.
  • Plan perks may not match the needs of the population. Different types of workforces often benefit from different kinds of benefits, so a generic benefits plan often ends up having large chunks of programs that are underutilized.
  • Quality of care is not a priority in the current plan. Traditional benefits programs push patients to certain networks with no insight into the actual quality of the care they receive, which can mean more pain and suffering from employees as well as more downtime. With a more thorough approach, your people can see higher-rated professionals–often for a lower cost.
  • Communication and support are lacking. Navigating a benefits plan is typically a major frustration for employees, especially if they need to talk to an insurance company. This leads to a poor experience and underutilized benefits, but with a concierge or dedicated support person available, experience and care can actually improve.

Keep in mind, even a great benefits plan can fall short if you aren’t properly equipping your people to use it. 

Addressing the Delivery and Ongoing Benefits Education

Providing a written handbook, no matter how comprehensive and discussing the package in detail during the onboarding process (a time that is usually hectic for a new employee) is often not enough. Benefits training and ongoing support for all employees should be addressed often, for all staff, all year. 

The use of technology in the form of apps or an employee website can give employees the ability to view their benefits at all times. Some employers are even looking to utilize decision-support tools to support their employees, which can make the decision process faster and easier. 

Engaging team leaders, who are often the first to know about personal challenges an employee faces, is also a great way to support employees which can improve employee morale and overall culture of the school. Designating dedicated support people, within the school board or an expert in benefits for educational institutions can further support these tools for success.

Adapting Your Plan to the Needs of Your People 

Adapting your benefits plan to the changing needs of the population and growth of the organization can continue to improve employee recruitment and retention, while maximizing your cost-savings. What was a well utilized benefit last year, could become under utilized next year. For example, paid parking expenses for teachers may be less valuable in a world of online schooling.

Encouraging a happy and healthy workforce is a primary concern for most employers and perhaps most important in a school setting, where your employees have a direct impact on the next generation. A benefits plan based on what your employees need is not only protecting your school but creating an environment for nurturing education.

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