As health-care and insurance costs continue to rise every year, companies must perform a careful balancing act.

On one hand, they need to control costs to remain profitable or achieve profitability. On the other hand, they need to keep their employees happy by offering a solid benefits package that is attractive and not too expensive.

Doing so today requires some creative design and possibly a shift away from traditional employer-sponsored group health plans.

Below, we’ll explain how to use benefits design to balance cost shifting and employee satisfaction.

Prioritize Benefits That Matter Most

The best place to start in benefits design is with the benefits that matter most. These are the core benefits that every employee wants and needs, including health insurance, paid time off and retirement plans.

You should fully flesh out these aspects of your benefits plan before you start to integrate additional options and programs. By taking this approach, you will be ensuring that you are meeting the basic needs of your employees first and foremost.

This approach will also allow you to shop around for the most cost-effective and attractive benefits plan options. For instance, you can get quotes on traditional group health insurance plans and compare that to the cost of an Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangement (ICHRA).

Offer Multiple Options

An effective way to balance cost shifting and employee satisfaction is to offer multiple options to your employees. By providing them with different tiers of benefits, you will be giving them the power of choice.

In this scenario, your “core package” would include all of the essential benefits listed above. Employees could choose that if those are the only benefits they want and/or if they want to keep their costs low.

Above that, you could offer two additional tiers of benefits that might include things such as lower deductibles or additional services. Employees would have to pay more to select these tiers, but they’d be getting more in return.

If you go this route, it’s important to not think of it as an “up-sell.” You’re not trying to entice employees to purchase one of the higher tiers; you’re only making those available to those who need or want them, and providing a budget-level plan for those who don’t.

Focus on Wellness

A great way to control costs and keep employees satisfied is to focus on overall wellness. Encouraging your employees to attend preventative care appointments and live a healthy lifestyle can actually lead to lower healthcare costs over time — for both the company and the employees.

During the benefits design process, you can build in communication and education plans so employees know what preventative care is available to them, as well as other benefits they can use to stay healthy.

You can even incentivize some of these things by hosting healthy eating challenges, or rewarding employees for completing certain items on a “preventative care checklist.”

Use Technology

Investing in modern technology can actually be very cost-effective in the long run. There are digital platforms for benefits administration today that can actually reduce your administrative overhead.

In addition to streamlining processes and automating certain manual tasks, this technology can also reduce human error, which saves time and money that’s needed to correct issues.

Platforms and apps also make benefits more accessible to employees, which increases their satisfaction. Employees are able to view and take advantage of benefits that are offered to them without the need to contact someone for help.

While there are upfront costs associated with setting up this technology, the investment pays off in the long term.

Constantly Review Benefits Utilization

To effectively assess whether your benefits package is working, you need to constantly review utilization. This is something that should be built into your benefits design process.

Polls and employee feedback are great for helping you create benefits packages that your employees want. But, the data will actually tell you whether your employees are taking advantage of what’s being offered to them.

This exercise will help you eliminate any benefits that are redundant and/or unused, which can lead to immediate cost savings. That money can then be redirected to other areas where there are high utilization rates and a demand for more services.

Design the Best Benefits for Your Employees with Beckham Ellis Insurance Group

Carefully designing a benefits package for your employees can balance cost-shifting and employee satisfaction. Following some of the tips we have provided above will find you well on your way to achieving this.

When you work with Beckham Ellis Insurance Group, the process of designing an attractive and cost-effective benefits package your employees actually want is made easier. Our expert professionals can help assess your employee base and design a benefits package that works best for you and your employees.

If you’re located in the Georgia or South Carolina region, contact us today to learn more.