"Too many administration headaches"

Human resources departments are overworked and understaffed. There isn't enough time in the day to get done what absolutely has to get done, much less to take on more — the kind of tasks that may arise from offering voluntary benefits.

"When it comes to objections from human resources professionals, administration is a big one," says J.J. Summerell, the managing director of Worksite Insight LLC, in Greensboro, N.C. "They say, 'We don't have time to administer that.'"

Brokers who offer administrative services have a built-in objection beater there. The administration of additional products is handled as part of the benefits package. "If they administer their other core products," Summerell says, "we show them how we can administer those and what we offer."

Plus, he points out, carriers have made administration easier through online tools and telephone services. In-house administration is kept to a minimum or eliminated altogether. The administrative objection is effectively reduced to nil. Anyone who can cut down on the amount of work HR professionals have is likely to be viewed in a positive light, opening the door for future meetings and more work.

"We're already competitive"

Employers want to stay ahead of (or at least on par with) the competition. They know they need to attract and retain the best and brightest employees to prosper and maintain staying power. Benefits packages are part of the allure.

But when it comes to knowing how one package measures up to others, most business owners are just guessing. They want to believe they offer more benefits than others, but other than possibly knowing what a couple other companies offer, they're in the dark. Insurance brokers may be able to help.

Keller Benefit Services Inc. in Bethesda, Md., uses benchmarking numbers to give employers the information they need to measure themselves against their competition. Keller ( www.k-b-s.com ) uses information from its own sizeable database and from national surveys to compile useful, actionable data.

"Our approach has always been consultative," says Margaret Flickinger, Keller's CEO and president, who says her company works to give consulting-type information to smaller firms — 200 employees or fewer. "We never force anything down their throats. We can tell them that X amount of people in their industry provide dental insurance, for example, and they cover this amount. With long-term disability, a lot of clients don't have it when we first get there. We can discuss how many other employers have this. We tell them the downsides of not having it, and we show them how they can afford it."

A benchmarking strategy can be especially effective when narrowed to a state or region within a state. "Our own database applies to local companies in the same industry [as the company we are talking to]," says Linda DeVincent, a consultant at Keller. Summerell likes to use statistical measurements, too.

He says databases that compare and contrast what companies offer what coverage are invaluable. The right ones let viewers see what core and voluntary products are being offered and what companies may be ripe for an expanded package.

"Employees don't appreciate what we offer"

"So many objections from HR relate to a lack of communication with employees," Summerell says. Employees have no idea how much an employer pays for health coverage and other benefits, and HR departments don't know how to communicate that information without looking like they're crying poverty to their workers or saying "look how great we are for providing all of this good stuff to you."

Summerell has a simple and effective solution: benefits statements. Benefits statements work on a couple of different levels. First, it shows an employee what his health coverage looks like and how much of that is covered by his employer — usually an eye-opening amount. Second, the statement shows the employee where he lacks coverage — usually things like life insurance and disability coverage.

Employees

When it comes time to enroll a company's employees in voluntary benefits, brokers and the enrollment company specialists they partner with will be faced with a litany of objections. In reality, all of the objections out there can fit into three or four categories — price (or something to do with money), lack of perceived need, no trust or rapport, and no hurry — or some variation of those. The first two, money and no perceived need, are especially important when it comes to voluntary benefits, and both can be met before an eligible employee even has a chance to utter them.

"I'll just pinch my pennies"

A product like disability insurance, especially on the voluntary side, meets all manner of objection, one of the most interesting and misinformed of which goes something like this: "I'll cut back on spending if I'm sick or hurt and can't work."

That, according to John Brady, regional sales manager for MassMutual (www.massmutual.com ), couldn't be further from the truth, as a Harvard Medical School study found. Spending is merely shifted from life's necessities to unforeseen expenses like physical therapy, prescription drugs, unreimbursed medical costs and more.

The Harvard study found that half of all bankruptcies are caused by illness and medical bills. That statistic alone is probably enough to sway some fence-sitters, but the study went deeper and found what families had to do without before making the wrenching decision to file for bankruptcy. During the two years prior to filing bankruptcy papers:

• 15 percent took out second and third mortgages to pay for medical bills
• 40 percent lost telephone service
• 19 percent went without food
• 54 percent went without needed doctor or dentist visits

Perhaps most convincing for most people is the fact that three-fourths of those who were bankrupted by medical problems had health insurance when the illness struck. Many got too sick to work, lost their jobs, lost their coverage and were on the hook for large medical bills. It's not an isolated incident, and employees should know that. "People need to be educated on what it looks like if they are sick or hurt and can't work," says Brady, who is also the Northeast regional executive of MassMutual's Benefits Office.

"Nothing serious will ever happen to me"

Brady says one common barrier to people purchasing needed disability insurance is not so much an objection as a misperception about what constitutes a disability. They don't perceive the need because they misperceive the chances. "The consumer view of a disability is being injured in a fiery car crash," Brady says. "That rarely happens. Serious accidents are only responsible for about 12 to 15 percent of claims." He says the top four reasons people go on disability claim are:

• Back injuries
• Heart attacks
• Adult-onset diseases such as diabetes and multiple sclerosis
• Mental  problems

"All of those," he points out, "are sickness related." American workers are quick to use their youth and good health as a reason not to buy, but a heart attack or a back injury can happen in an instant, and they don't just happen to "old" people.

According to the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education (LIFE), one in five Americans will be disabled for at least one year before the age of 65. Vital data like this can be included in informational brochures and in workplace presentations, heading off potential objections and putting people in the right frame of mind to protect their families and their financial futures.

Best of all, when it comes from trusted third parties, the information is likely to carry more weight with consumers. It's clear that overcoming objections isn't easy, but it doesn't have to be impossible. Third-party information is invaluable. Benchmarking measurements, the kinds of numbers that let employers see how they rank with the competition, can be a call to action for many.

And what one finds when talking to professionals across the financial services spectrum is that being forceful doesn't work anymore. The soft touch is better. Let people see the facts and come to the right conclusion.