5 things your clients should reevaluate ahead of their renewal

The changes your employer clients make to their benefits plan at the end of the year can have a massive impact on their company. Rather than waiting until the last minute to start thinking about renewal, they should start working with you to reevaluate the plan months ahead of time. By analyzing what’s working in their benefits plan and what could improve, they can use renewal strategically to increase savings and help the business continue to grow.

Here are the five most important questions you and your clients should be asking ahead of renewal:

5. Are employees educated about their benefits?

In order for both the employer and their employees to get the most out of the business’ benefits plan, employees need to understand how to make cost-effective health care choices. Use the upcoming renewal as an opportunity to keep employees up-to-date on the changes that may occur in their plans and inform them about how they can save money while still receiving great benefits.

As the advisor, meeting one-on-one with employees is an effective way to make the benefits experience more personal while also providing workers with the education they need to make the right decisions in their health care process.

4. Is the business’ benefits plan designed in accordance with the employees’ best interests?

While the benefits plan should create savings opportunities for the business, it should never do so at the expense of the employees. Developing a plan that offers better health care at greater convenience and a lower cost should be a priority as you and the employer start thinking about renewal, especially because it can lead to:

• Increased employee morale
• Better recruiting and retention rates
• Fewer employee sick days

Employees are the backbone of a company, and you should take every opportunity to make the benefits plan do more for them.

3. Are they missing valuable savings opportunities in the benefits plan?

Now’s the time to start working with your client to examine potential savings opportunities that might have opened up in the health care supply chain since the last renewal. For example, a new outpatient surgery center in the area could give employees an alternative to the hospital, potentially saving thousands of dollars if a worker needs knee surgery. As the supply chain evolves, the plan should adjust accordingly if you want your client to reap all the savings it has to offer.

2. Are you doing everything possible to save the client money?

Traditionally, benefits brokers work on commission; their focus is to get the employer to renew their plan at the end of the year while convincing them that the advisor has kept the premium increase as low as possible. While this system is great for the brokers, insurance companies, and providers, it’s not great for business owners.

Becoming an advisor who offers a performance guarantee is a far more effective way to ensure that the employer is getting the best benefits for the lowest cost. Because your pay depends on the results you can achieve for your client, you’re incentivized to work harder to create more savings within the plan.

1. Is the benefits plan serving as a tool to help the company grow?

Your clients are doing themselves a disservice if they treat the plan as just another expense to check off at the end of every year. They should approach renewal with the mindset that their benefits plan can be used to give the business a competitive edge in their industry. As the broker, you should work with the company’s C-suite to help them discover how the savings created through the plan can be used to build up other parts of the business. If the benefits plan isn’t serving as a strategic advantage for the company, that needs to change when you renew.

An opportunity for change

Renewal is an opportunity for growth both within a benefits plan and for the business as a whole. Letting your clients’ plans evolve with their company can create bigger savings for them and happier, healthier employees.