Joe Milano, area vice president of Gallagher Benefit Services in Itasca, Ill., spends much of his time creating health management solutions with his clients. As medical care costs continue to climb, many of Milano's clients are looking for ways to better manage their health care plans and encourage a climate of employee engagement.

Creating this type of environment includes many hours of financial modeling, working on plan designs and drawing from analytics, but it goes beyond the technical side.

Effective communication is especially important as a broker when it comes to employee engagement, Milano says. Employees are often hesitant to buy into their employers' benefits strategies, and brokers have to be ready to help those employees better understand their plans in order to find a sustainable solution.