Many employer-paid employee benefit plans, where the employer pays 100% of employee benefit premiums, are transitioning to a cost-share arrangement with employees.
Costs are increasing and it’s important that everyone is aware of what factors are driving costs to increase employee awareness and help change behavior. If your plan saw an increase at renewal, effectively commmunicating the news to your employees is critical.
Educated and engaged employees are more committed to doing their part to keep costs down.
For our clients, we often help facilitate this communication to employees. Although the format of communication to employees may differ, typically the message is similar.
What to Tell Employees
- How premium rates are determined (e.g. Group Life Insurance rates are affected by gender, age, geography and the current financial markets).
- Driving factors behind an increase (e.g. industry trends, high claims).
- Inflation – most employees are very surprised to learn that extended health and dental inflation is approx. 13% and 7.5%
- Rate increases are clearly outlined so employees can expect and plan for changes to their pay cheque.
- Cost containment suggestions (many employees don’t know what they can be doing different)
- Action – identify actions underway to contain costs (e.g. generic drugs, combined maximums, etc.) and what is planned (e.g. taking benefits plan to market to solicit new quotes) and working with benefits consultant on other cost containment strategies.
- Collaboration – Encourage employees to get educated and interested in their benefits. It’s helpful to employer’s to understand which benefits are valued most by employees.
Need Help Communicating?
To learn how to better communicate this message to employees, please contact an ENCOMPASS Benefits Consultant. We would love to help.
Latest Client Success Story
Studio 9 says “Though ENCOMPASS has helped us minimize our costs, our service has never suffered.”
