Local Success Stories
Employee Benefits Success Stories From Our Clients
The most successful employee insurance benefits plans solve problems and benefit both the employer and the employees. A few of our recent success stories:
A Local Employer with 10 Employees Successfully Implements an Employee Benefits Plan
The Employer’s Needs (A Local Auto Body Shop):
A popular Triangle body shop was growing, and could not keep up in hiring experienced employees. The body shop needed to compete in the local job market.
And the owners, a husband and wife, were tired of watching their individual health insurance plan rise in costs each year.
The Employee’s Needs (Low Cost for Sound Benefits):
The employees of the shop wanted a health insurance option. Not everyone had an option to join their spouse’s health insurance plan.
But the most important request from the employees was to keep their share of the cost affordable.
The Employee Benefits Solution
The employer needed to an employee insurance benefits package that was “above average” when compared to what other competing shops in the area were offering. And the focus did not need to be on how benefit-rich the health insurance plan design was.
We recommended a Silver level copay health insurance plan, with copays that were affordable, but not the lowest. The plan is benefit-rich, but costs much less than Gold and Platinum level plans.
We also worked with the employer to analyze the numbers, to see how to best utilize what the employer could afford to allocate per employee each month. The employer decided to offer a health, dental and vision insurance plan, and pay 60% of the employee only cost of all three.
The current employees were very impressed in the benefits presentation, and 100% of the employees chose all three coverages. Over the past year we have heard multiple times from employees how appreciative they are of the employee insurance benefits.
The employer reports they are competing well in hiring, and that a first lead with prospective employees is explaining the benefits offering.
A Scientific Non-Profit Simplifies its Benefits Into a Stronger Offering to Compete for the Best Employees
The Problems: Confusing benefits and a mundane offering
The non-profit employer with 40 employees in Chapel Hill does amazing research work in medical and scientific fields. The HR department struggled to find the strongest candidates for open positions, as these occupations are also hired in Federal and State settings. Federal and State offered health insurance plan benefits are average, but the employer-paid premium cost for employees is usually 100% in Federal settings, and 80-90% in State settings.
The current employee benefits package offered health insurance (a weird offering of 3 plans, each of which were almost identical in benefit), and also dental and vision. That was it.
The Solution: For the health insurance offering
We needed to offer benefit-rich plans while getting the employee’s share of the premium cost down. We chose two plan options, a Silver level copay plan and a Gold level copay plan. And the employer agreed to paying for 80% of the monthly premium cost for employees.
This brought the monthly cost of the Silver level plan for an employee down to the $25 range. This is in line with the employee share cost for state employees. Any employee can choose this plan, or, if they think they could benefit from lower copays and deductible with medical services they utilize, they can pay more, approximately $60 monthly, or the Gold level plan.
Two distinct plans offer a better, simpler choice. And employees do like being given a choice of plan designs.
The Solution: For an increased benefits offering
To continue to strengthen the benefits offering, for the employer to compare well to other offers for prospective employees, we also added 3 more employee benefits (though the employer only committed to pay for one of those).
Building on offering health, dental and vision insurance, we added life insurance, and also short-term and long-term disability insurance.
The life insurance benefit was very inexpensive, only a few dollars monthly per month, but added a fully-paid employee insurance benefit that employees really appreciate (especially employees who have no other life insurance coverage).
We also added short-term and long-term disability insurance benefits, but on a voluntary basis (meaning the employee who chooses this coverage pays for the premium cost). We chose voluntary for two great reasons:
-The tax treatment of disability insurance benefits received, as mandated by the IRS, stipulates that if you pay your own disability insurance premium costs, if you are ever disabled, the benefits are received tax-free. If there is ever an employee benefit for an employee to pay 100% of the cost of, it is disability insurance.
-The employer’s main competitors for prospective employees, Federal and State agencies, offer disability insurance as an employee benefit, but also offer it on a voluntary basis.
Some of the Insurers We Partner With in Offering Benefit Plan Designs
Free Quotes for Your Group and Info on What is Working Now
Many employers who contact us for the first time have more questions than ideas about what they would like to see in benefits. If that is where you are give us a call, (919) 357-6637. Or if you would like to see some of our ideas complete the form below and Chip will send you an email with recommended quotes of insurance (including examples of what is working with local businesses like yours). All in a conversational, easy to understand explanation of the details Chip is known for. You can review the information, then follow up with your questions via email, phone call, text, Zoom / Facetime or an in person meeting.
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