Category Archives: Employee Health

When’s the Best Time to Choose an Employee Benefits Broker?

Open enrollment is now over and we hope you’ve chosen a benefits package that works well for your team. However, if you found the process of choosing the right benefits tedious, you’re not alone. With so many options in the market, you might be looking for an Employee Benefits Broker to guide you through and help you make smarter decisions. You might be thinking “I’ll just wait until the next open enrollment to choose a great Employee Benefits Broker”. Here are a few reasons why we’d advise against that:

Don’t wait until the last minute and scramble ahead of Open Enrollment.

Before you know it, Open Enrollment is just around the corner. Waiting until the last minute can really cost you because you may not have time to carefully compare and contrast plans. Or worse, you opt to renew what you already have without taking a hard look at your other options. Choosing a broker to partner with well ahead of enrollment cuts down on your stress and allows you to build a benefits package that works best for your team. Plus, you’ll rest easy knowing they’ve found you the lowest cost plan in the market.

You want to save money and choose the best possible plan for your team.

If you don’t have a Benefits Broker, you may completely miss out on cost-saving opportunities, new plan updates, or simple ways to make your benefits package more appealing to your employees. Having an ongoing advisory relationship with your broker means they can give you a better evaluation of your current plan and help you eliminate plans that aren’t as effective.

Every broker gets paid the same 5%.

Now that you’ve decided on working with a great broker, be aware that not every broker is created equal BUT all brokers cost you the same amount. You should shop for a broker just like you shop for anything else—when you buy a TV, you shop around for the best quality at the best value. Ask yourself: Am I getting the best value for my money when it comes to my Employee Benefits Broker? The best and worst health brokers get paid exactly the same percentage so make sure you’re getting one who gives you the best value: high advisory support and data driven tools to help you with your business.

You’re not just choosing a Broker. You’re choosing an advisor.

In looking for the right Employee Benefits Broker, remember you’re not just choosing someone to manage your benefits, you’re choosing a long term advisor. When you work with CorpStrat, you get a number of value added services—we essentially become an extension of your HR team. We also have a bevy of tools that can help you choose the right plan, save money, communicate and deliver the plans to your employees, and remain compliant. A good Broker has your back, you don’t just hear from us when it’s time for enrollment, we’ll reach out to you with answers before you even think to ask the question. You’ll never have to call the carrier, we’ll solve any claim issues and billing issues. We’re always looking for how to better manage these plans and better serve you.

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Looking for an Employee Benefits Broker? We can help with that. Schedule a FREE 30 minute consultation with us today.

8 Things You May Have Missed In Your Benefits Plan

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Open enrollment is over, are you confident in your benefit planning for the year? At CorpStrat, we’re not just experts in Human Capital Management, we’re actually health insurance brokers first. Many employers or individuals shop for health care plans on their own, which is fine but can quickly become overwhelming. What we want to do is understand your exact situation so we can help you choose a benefit plan that aligns with your medical and financial needs.

As health insurance brokers, we’ll aid you in the selection process from start to finish. On top of that, you won’t only hear from us during Enrollment Season, we’re here to advise you all year round. We can also help you find coverage and hidden benefits that will keep you and your team healthy and happy. As brokers, we’re able to freely shop plans in the market, we’re not tied to any one insurer, meaning you can rest assured you have the right coverage for your team at the most affordable price.

Here are a few things you may have missed when benefits planning for 2021:

1. Talking to an actual human

After page 7 of browsing healthcare plan options, you may feel overwhelmed and nowhere closer to choosing the right plan for your team. This is where we as health insurance brokers can really step in and take that stress off your plate. You’ll have quick access to support, personalized recommendations, and our specialized health insurance knowledge.

2. LifeBridge

LifeBridge is an affordable, basic term life insurance policy with guaranteed acceptance. To learn more about LIfeBridge plans, please email us at marketing@www.corpstrat.com.

3. Paperless enrollment

If you haven’t gone paperless yet, 2021 is the time to make that change. Using an online enrollment system streamlines your processes, ensures nothing falls through the cracks, and makes it easier for your employees to make an informed choice.

4. Flexible Spending Account (FSA)

FSAs are a pre-tax benefit account used to pay for eligible medical, dental, and vision care expenses that aren’t covered by your insurance plan. With an FSA, as long as you have relatively predictable medical expenses each year, you can expect to save around 20-25% in taxes on every dollar you put in.

5. Extra Plan Benefits

There are often extras that carriers provide that your team may not be be taking advantage of. We can help make sure you’re not missing anything.

6. ERISA Plan Document Updates

There are various reasons why keeping your ERISA Plan Documents updated is so important. Check out our full blog post on why.

7. Open Enrollment Support

We want you to have a health insurance broker during Open Enrollment that can answer any questions you can have, help you choose the right plan, and make sure the plan you land on is executed properly. From being available by phone or email at all times to providing you side-by-side comparisons so you can evaluate different plan options, we make choosing a plan painless and easy.

8. Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

EAP is a voluntary, work-based program that provides benefits for people with real problems and no one to turn to. If an employee is undergoing personal or work-related problems that might impact their job performance, mental health, or emotional well-being, an EAP can offer confidential assessments, short-term counseling, and more.

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To learn more about these things you may have missed in your benefits plan and how CorpStrat can help, schedule a call with us today.

8 Things to Include in Your Work From Home Benefits Plan

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If your team has gone remote due to COVID-19, you already know how difficult it can be to make sure employees are feeling valued and appreciated. Even though employees are saving time on their commute, studies have shown that, on average, the lockdown workday is 48.5 minutes longer. Which means it’s more important than ever for employers to get creative when it comes to commending their team’s hard work. Including a Work From Home Plan as part of your benefits package can help you make sure your remote employees are being rewarded for their efforts.

Here are 8 things to include in your Work From Home Benefits Plan:

1. Monthly Lunch Stipend for Managers

Pre-COVID, many companies would have perks like free lunches a few times a month. Company-wide lunches aren’t feasible in the current climate however, giving managers a monthly lunch stipend to treat their team to take-out or delivery meals is a great way to ensure team members feel appreciated.

2. Delivery Lunch for Employee of the Month

In the same vein, you may not be able to take your star employees out for a one-on-one meal but you could surprise them with a Postmates or UberEats gift card so they can treat themselves.

3. Monthly Coffee & Tea Stipend

Gearing up for the day by sipping on coffee with your co-workers is a delightful aspect of working in an office. Keep the caffeinated delight going by sending employees monthly credit to a coffee shop or coffee bean subscription service.

4. Virtual Gym Membership

It’s easy to get so overloaded when working from home that employees aren’t incentivized to move, which can be detrimental to their overall health. Since most gyms are currently closed or limited, offering a virtual gym membership can help keep your team healthy and happy. Hosting a group Zoom class with a certified instructor could be a fun way to keep each other motivated and give employees permission to step away from their emails in order to work out.

5. Mental Health App Subscription

Lockdown can be especially difficult for people who are living alone—people across the country are struggling with feeling isolated and depressed. Long-term, this can mean employees feel unmotivated, listless, and less productive. Including a mental health app like TalkSpace for therapy or Headspace for meditation in your Work From Home plan will help employees stay on top of their mental health.

6. Telemedicine and Wellness Checks

Telemedicine has been growing in popularity the past few years, for good reason—it can reduce medical costs and save patients a trip to the clinic or hospital. Now with the pandemic in full swing in the US, telemedicine has exploded in popularity and it’s helping people across the country keep hospital waiting rooms clear for COVID-19 patients while limiting their own exposure to the virus.

7. Wifi or Cell Phone Bill Reimbursement

Instead of using a company phone line or logging onto office internet, employees are taking on the burden of these expenses themselves. Consider offering reimbursement for a percentage of their home internet or cell phone bill to offset the expenditure.

8. Send a Care Package

When it comes to care packages, a little bit of thought goes a long way. Whether you’re sending special company swag or a customized basket of their favorite snacks, getting a little something at their door can help employees feel connected to company culture even when they’re working from home.

BONUS

If your employees live locally, take a few hours to show up (masked-up, of course) to their door with a thoughtful physical gift or care package. The personal touch of seeing their boss in person, even from a distance, can be incredibly meaningful.

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Need help doing an Employee Benefits Audit? Email us at marketing@www.corpstrat.com.

Effective Ways to Manage Employees in a Remote Environment: Company Culture

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In order to create and maintain great company culture, employers are focused on ensuring their staff is motivated, team-oriented, and happy to stay with the company for the long haul. A mere six months ago, this meant company culture was all about happy hours, off-site team outings, and in-office communication and rapport. Essentially, creating ways for employees to interact with one another in positive ways, both within and outside of a work context. Cut to today: employees are no longer in shared spaces, teams can’t gather for meetings or activities, and all communication occurs virtually. Read on as we discuss how to maintain company culture when the workplace landscape has transformed so drastically.

The Danger

Zoom meeting fatigue. Lowered productivity. Ineffective communication. Unmotivated team members. These are all the dangers that occur when teams go remote. Underlying all these symptoms is the larger problem: company culture may be at risk of dying. As teams around the world are planning to stay remote for the foreseeable future, the question on everyone’s mind is: how can you maintain company culture in a remote environment?

How to Avoid

Everything we’ve mentioned so far may sound dire, but we promise there are ways to adapt your company culture so it can thrive even in a remote environment. Some of these tweaks may not alter things overnight, we all have to work together to gradually adapt to our changing world. However, our aim is to help you develop a mindset so you can find creative solutions to kickstart your company culture in these uncertain times.

Our first suggestion is to have meetings with meaning. It makes sense why many people find giant, 20+ person Zoom meetings exhausting—it’s hard to focus, they have to constantly fight to be heard, and technical errors can make meetings run long. Our solution is to get creative, perhaps you can break your team into smaller pods. Then you can keep larger team meetings succinct and smaller pods can break out into separate meetings in which they can feel seen and heard and be given clear instructions. This way, employees can feel more comfortable asking questions and continue building rapport.

Second, never underestimate the power of employee feedback. We know employers are doing everything in their power to maintain culture but blindspots occur despite the best intentions. It may be scary but don’t hesitate to ask your employees about what’s working and what’s not. Their honest feedback can illuminate seemingly small issues, which you can address before they become problematic.

Opportunity

Just because you’re not in the office anymore, doesn’t mean the old office shenanigans can’t still be in play. Some of the goofy and fun things you used to do can be translated into a virtual environment. For example, if you used to buy the employee of the month lunch, send them a meal via a delivery service like GrubHub or Postmates. If managers used to grab coffee with their team members, give them a monthly coffee stipend from Starbucks that they can use to send drinks to their team. When we’re all apart, small acts of care can go a long way. Also, keep having fun! During team meetings, play a game like “Two Truths and a Lie” so you can continue getting to know each other and not have every interaction be solely about work.

Tip

Have fun with it and be easy on yourself. We all have enough going on, especially right now. Bring some good positive energy to the group and take care of your employees. In turn, you’ll continue to have a motivated, hard-working team that enjoys working with one another.

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See how CorpStrat can help you transform your Company Culture. Contact us at marketing@www.corpstrat.com.

Effective Ways to Manage Employees in a Remote Environment: The Benefit Package

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It’s hard to believe that just a few short months ago, our country’s unemployment rate was at an all time low. Pre-pandemic, keeping employees happy often involved pricey company perks like free gourmet lunches, massages, and elite gym memberships. Now because of COVID-19, our entire world has changed: unemployment is soaring and non-essential teams have gone remote (and may remain remote). The entire US workforce and workplace has dramatically changed, which means what we offer our employees in terms of benefits has to undergo a dramatic change as well. Today we’ll go over creative solutions to help shift your benefits package to suit the new economic environment.

The Danger

For employers, it’s absolutely vital to alter your current benefits package in order to adapt to the current economic climate. Choosing not to do so could leave your company in the dust. In the coming months, as companies begin cautiously opening up offices and rehiring, they’ll face the challenge of potential employees viewing these slimmed down benefit packages as weak. It’s important to strike the right balance of not overspending in this new normal, while maintaining an attractive benefits package. We’ve also found that many employers cut spending in the wrong places because they aren’t aware of important tax opportunities and fail to take advantage of them.

How to Avoid

A lot of employers have been spending over 80% of the employees’ health insurance premiums on expensive plans. You can still offer full health coverage but switching down to silver plans in lieu of gold can cut costs by as much as 20%. Health insurance is a big line item on most employer’s profit and losses statements. It’s typically in the top three, right behind rent and salaries. Being able to change employer contributions and trim 20% out of employer costs is a huge opportunity right now.

At the same time inexpensive benefit plans can be added with minimal to no cost. Employees value plans like dental, vision, life insurance, and employer sponsored disability insurance. Plans that feature these can help employers round out their offerings without being a high cost item.

At the end of the day, don’t sell your benefits package short. Sometimes offering an appealing benefits package is all about how it’s presented. Creating a benefits brochure that points out both the obvious and hidden benefits offered can help current and potential employees understand the full scope of their benefits package.

There is also another great tool called a hidden paycheck. What a hidden paycheck statement does is give the employee an overview of all the money that the employer is spending on them—like taxes, health insurance, retirement plans, and other fringe benefits. For example, if an employee makes $60,000 a year, there’s a good probability they are only pocketing $3,500 a month. On this employee’s hidden paycheck statement, they would see everything the employer is spending on them, often totaling up to as much as $80,000 a year. Employees can then gain a greater sense of their value to the company rather than looking at their $3,500 take home pay.

Opportunity

The opportunity here is to modify plans and contributions based on the current economic environment. Get creative in building your benefit package, use voluntary plans, use ancillary plans, and lastly, shift employee perks to support work from home needs.

You’ll find that many of the traditional perks like company lunches, free snacks in the office, or commuter stipends, are no longer useful, and won’t be viewed favorably. Shifting perks to include things like virtual fitness memberships, mental health and telemedicine, wellness checks, childcare options, are what employees will value going forward.

Finally and maybe most importantly is adding a work from home policy in your benefits package. Many teams have gone remote without a noticeable drop in productivity. This means employees both know it’s possible to work efficiently from home and want to continue working from home. Including a work from home policy in the benefit package is going to be vital for most employers going forward to continue to attract top talent.

Tip

As we mentioned at the beginning, this is not a one size fits all. There’s no cookie cutter or plug and play approach, every industry and every situation is going to be unique. It’s important for employers to work with someone who can bring fresh ideas, understand the market, understand the industry and can bring real solutions.

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See how CorpStrat can help you transform your Employee Benefits Package. Contact us at marketing@www.corpstrat.com.