Author: Briana Scafidi, Team Lead - Employee Benefits
Employer groups of all sizes allocate a substantial amount of funds each year towards their employee benefit programs. In today’s tight labor market, employers are looking to enhance their benefit offerings in order to increase employee satisfaction and overall morale, while also using their benefits package as a tool to attract and retain top talent. After working with hundreds of employer groups over the years, it has become increasing evident that even the most robust benefit programs fall short of accomplishing their intended goals when two key services are not being provided: Education and Advocacy.
Benefits Education
Benefit plans are complicated. Most participants don’t know what they have or how their plans will respond to a given situation until it comes time to pay a medical bill or file a claim and even then, costly errors can occur without proper guidance. Your employees shouldn’t have to navigate these waters alone. By proactively integrating an education plan into new hire and annual enrollment meetings, organizations can help their employees and their families maximize the value of the benefits plans in which they are enrolled. In the absence of education, all too often we come across employees who are not only wasting their time and money, but also underappreciating the investment being made by their employer.
For these reasons, our Capstone service model maintains a dedicated focus on employee education throughout all stages of the benefits administration process. Group open enrollment meetings are a necessary forum for higher-level updates and questions, but we feel that is just the beginning of our responsibility. We have found that the most productive conversations are had with plan participants outside of the group meetings, in a one-on-one setting; discussing each person’s individual and family needs and helping to provide guidance on their unique situations. It’s one thing to explain the difference between a deductible, copayment, and coinsurance, but the conversation becomes much more powerful and productive when you apply it to a person’s chronic illness or a surgery they will likely need to plan for their spouse or child.
In addition to educating employees on the specific plan details, it’s also essential that they be educated on the value-added benefits that are now embedded in certain policies and therefore often overlooked. Some of the value-adds include coverage for preventive care visits, free nutrition counseling visits, fitness reimbursement programs, and Employee Assistance Programs, to name a few. It’s not uncommon for employees to have never been informed that they had access to some of these resources by virtue of being enrolled in certain plans. Providing education on the value-adds that are no additional cost to the employees boosts morale and provides reassurance that there is a robust benefits program in place.
We understand that every organization’s needs may differ when it comes to the frequency and delivery methods of education, that may be necessary, but firmly believe that a comprehensive education plan sets the tone for the employee experience and how they perceive their benefits.
Benefits Advocacy
Employee education should be an on-going, proactive commitment that is integrated into each group’s benefits administration process. Employee Advocacy, on the other hand, is more reactive in nature, but equally as essential.
To us, Advocacy is being there for your employees when they need us most. Many times, this occurs during some of the most difficult times of their lives. Whether they have recently been diagnosed with a life-altering illness or a loved one was badly injured in an accident, members of our Benefits Team are often among the first people to be contacted in those situations - we don’t take that responsibility lightly. We want your employees to know their Capstone Team and know how to get in touch with us. No 1-800 numbers. No waiting for hours wondering if they’d ever receive a call back.
There is a level of compassion that is required to be a member of the Capstone service team as we strive to treat every interaction with one of our client’s employees as if they were working to help one of their own family members. People are at the heart of who we are and everything we do. There is no issue too big or too small where we can’t make a difference in the lives of the employees we help. This approach has enabled Capstone to be more than traditional benefit brokers and has resulted in countless case studies that we share within our walls as examples of the impact we can have on people’s lives, such as this paraphrased email recently received by a member of our service team:
“I wanted to express my appreciation for all of your efforts on my behalf in getting me approved for surgery. My quality of life has increased substantially and feel that thanks to all your efforts and compassion I now have the chance for better health and a new lease on life. You have forever changed my life. I am truly blessed.”
It’s words such as these that have become our “Why?” in continuing to be advocates every single day for our clients and their employees
Contact Us:
Briana Scafidi
Team Lead - Employee Benefits
bscafidi@capstonegrp.com
Office: 215-542-8030