Employee benefits brokers provide a valuable service to organizations, but choosing the right one is essential. The wrong choice could cost a business a significant amount of money in healthcare expenses and may even affect employees’ health. Therefore, organizations need to ensure they are working with the right partner as they grow and evolve. The end of annual open enrollment is a good moment for HR benefit managers to review their relationship with their benefits broker.
What Is An Employee Benefits Broker?
Employee benefits brokers can be thought of as middlemen who negotiate benefits plans between companies and insurance carriers. They work to ensure that the company gets the greatest value possible, and create communication strategies to guide employees in making the most of their benefits.
10 Questions Organizations Should Ask Employee Benefits Brokers
Here are 10 questions organizations should ask brokers to determine if they are a good match.
1. What Services Can I Expect?
Different benefits brokers offer different services, so it is important to ask for clarification on the scope of services the organization can expect. Management should outline the company’s most pressing needs and let them guide discussions with the broker about how they can achieve their goals.
2. What Kind of Support Do You Offer?
On a similar note, it is important to ensure that a prospective employee benefits broker offers ongoing employee support for questions and issues related to benefits, and this should extend beyond the initial enrollment. For example, some employee benefits brokers host informational sessions and employee meetings to ensure everyone understands the benefits that are available. The ideal employee benefits broker will provide a direct line of communication for employees to get solutions to whatever issues arise throughout the year.
3. What Is Your Industry Experience?
A good benefits broker should be able to supply organizations with references to current or past clients with similar demographics and industries. Previous experience with similar clients is a strong indicator of a broker’s ability to support the types of products and strategies the organization needs.
4. How Can You Help Me Streamline Open Enrollment?
One of the main responsibilities of benefits brokers is helping employees choose the best benefits. A broker should have the proper tools, practices and resources to help organizations save time and money during open enrollment.
An effective enrollment process will include enrollment tracking and compliance record-keeping. The ideal broker will prepare employees for enrollment with educational resources that explain plan structures and enrollment processes.
5. How Can You Help My Organization Reduce Healthcare Costs?
With healthcare costs in the nation constantly on the rise, it is important to seek a benefits broker who can keep them under control. This may entail helping employees make smarter decisions, finding new ways to save money on payroll taxes or selecting more affordable healthcare plans. A good benefits broker will have a range of strategies for reducing healthcare spending.
They should also guide management and HR teams in creating strategies that will serve them well for several years. In addition, they should be able to use benchmarking and data analytics to indicate how the company’s premium compares to those of similar companies and negotiate with carriers to ensure that an organization is getting the best rates possible.
6. How Do You Recommend Attracting And Retaining Employees In The Current Business Environment?
There is a strong connection between the benefits the company offers and its ability to attract and retain top talent in the field. Therefore, a good employee benefits broker will have insight into what other businesses in the market are doing in terms of hiring and retention and how an organization can use its benefits package to enhance its recruitment efforts.
7. What Commissions Do You Receive?
It is important to ensure that benefits brokers place the organization’s interests first. Many insurance companies pay commissions or bonuses to these brokers, when evaluating different brokers it is helpful to dig deeper by asking some questions to identify potential conflicts of interest. For example, businesses can ask prospective employee benefits brokers what commissions and bonuses they receive from carriers and whether more than half of their compensation comes from a single carrier. In addition, it is a good idea to ask a broker how they shop the market to find the best available offers.
8. Do You Offer Online Health Benefits Administration?
In the modern working environment, administering benefits via online platforms is quickly becoming the norm. In addition to saving money and making claims easier for employees, it can also reduce errors and improve efficiencies. Companies will want to work with a broker who incorporates software into their offering, but it is equally important to ensure that they can help an organization’s employees understand how to use the platforms that they offer.
Effective brokers stay on top of the latest technology and help their clients sort through the buzz and determine what is genuinely useful. They will also leverage their relationships with companies that develop benefits technology to provide organizations with access to innovative solutions. Some of the benefits technology to ask about include telemedicine options, benefits and HR automation platforms and enrollment software.
9. Do You Offer Support For Wellness Programs?
Wellness programs play a vital role in enhancing employees’ fitness as well as their health awareness. They encourage employees to adopt a healthier lifestyle and can also help reduce overall claims. A good benefits consultant will offer expertise and resources in the wellness sphere to support employees.
10. Can You Ensure Our Organization Is Compliant With IRS Guidelines?
The answer to this question should always be “yes”, but it is a good idea to ask the employee benefits broker to provide an example of how they accomplish this with other clients to ensure they have a comprehensive and effective approach in place.
Contact The Employee Benefits Professionals
Choosing the right employee benefits broker is one of the most important decisions an organization can make. Contact the client-focused benefits consultants at Business Benefits Group (BBG) for assistance navigating the complicated world of employee benefits.