Key benefits questions to consider for the New Year (and beyond)

January is the best time of year to think about our business and how our organizations can improve. There is a temptation to write down a list of things to do in the coming months; however, answers are attempts at closure, while questions remain open. Answers change but questions persist.

This month, we will avoid trying to think of solutions. Instead, we will consider questions about the employee benefits business as we face yet another year of evolving answers. Here is a partial list of questions to think about before establishing our project list for the year.

How is your organization moving toward improved service, communications, and user experience, while still pursuing better pricing and a broader product portfolio for your customers?

Is your organization helping employers find the most effective and efficient product designs, especially in their medical benefits, which represent the greatest area of expense for both employers and employees?

Are you assisting employers in broadening their employee benefit offerings by introducing valuable new voluntary plans to satisfy unmet employee needs?

Are you building benefits administration relationships, directly or via partnerships, to improve user experience for employer plan administrators? …for their employees?

Are your organization’s services in customer experience and communications meeting customer expectations?

How is your organization modernizing benefit communications to employees, and why is this important?

Do you conduct research to obtain feedback about your products and services from both employers and employees? If you do, how do you use your findings to improve? If you do not, should this be made part of your service?

As you introduce new capabilities for employers, how are you communicating and managing the improvements? Are you helping your customers understand the changes? Are you helping them maximize value by reducing their work effort and expense?

Many studies have pointed out the need to improve employee engagement in employee benefits – what is your organization doing in this area?

How is your organization helping employers use employee benefit programs to show measurable gains in employee retention and satisfaction?

Are you helping employers maintain benefit program compliance as states and the federal government continue to enact complicating regulations in areas such as paid family leave, long-term care benefits, supplemental health product design, etc.?

Are you helping employers improve their mental health services for employees, thereby helping to promote mental wellness by reducing employee anxiety and stress?

Are your support processes helping employers do a more effective job of engaging new hires during the employee onboarding process (including initial enrollment)?

Are there changes your organization needs to make to address unmet needs of employers and/or their employees? Have you offered new products or services that have not worked as effectively as planned? Have you explored why this happened? Have you considered whether to update them or drop them? Today’s employees have very diverse backgrounds and needs – resulting in broader product offerings, yet employees seem to have shorter attention spans; they want to know more about more products, but in less time. How can you help your employer customers face this dilemma? Employers want their benefit communication and enrollment plan to reinforce the value of employee benefits to their employees – is your organization doing enough to support this?

What is your organization doing to help employees better understand their own needs, so, if they spend only a few minutes making decisions, they make better ones?

In summary, both employers and employees want benefits that are affordable, relevant, easy to understand, and supported by a simple, intuitive process. Is your organization meeting these standards, or are there gaps to be addressed? Yes, there are many questions to think about – but how about answers? My next column will provide some context around answering these questions.

Marty Traynor is an Omaha based consultant in the benefits field. He may be reached at currentbenefits@gmail.com.