SOLUTIONS PROFILE: BUILDING A PROGRESSIVE EMPLOYEE HEALTH BENEFITS PLAN FOR A HIGH-GROWTH TECH START-UP

Solutions Profile: Building a progressive employee health benefits plan for a high-growth, tech start-up

Sector: High Tech

The Challenge

Design an employee health benefits plan to help Komodo Software*, a rapidly growing IT firm, attract and retain talent in a hyper-competitive employment marketplace. The firm also needs a strong cultural fit: they don’t want their digital-first team to have to navigate antiquated paper forms and dated communications tools.

Company Profile

Komodo Software is a privately-owned software development firm based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It has thirty five employees, including five managers, twenty five full time employees and five part time employees. Most employees are based in the firm’s state-of-the-art offices in Yaletown, one of Vancouver’s high-tech hubs, but a small portion of employees work remotely from home offices – some as far away as Toronto. The company is in a high-growth phase and are competing for skilled software engineers, graphic designers, I.T. technicians and support teams.

The current benefits plan was bought when Komodo Software had just 4 employees (including the two founders). It is a cookie-cutter plan bought from a local all-purpose insurance broker, primarily at the firm’s investor’s insistence that the two founders have basic health coverage. The plan components haven’t changed significantly since it was originally purchased, despite the firm’s growth. The firm’s claims experience is driven primarily by health, drugs and dental usage.

Recognizing that the firm needs to consider its entire employee experience if it is going to attract the talent it needs to grow, Komodo Software’s objective is to offer an employee health benefits plan that, along with other compensation elements and employee engagement perks, will help it attract and retain talent.

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The Solution

Komodo Software is building something new, and they want a benefits plan that moves with them into the future. In designing a plan GroupHEALTH’s plan and pricing teams focus on four key concepts:

Give employees options

The youth, mobility and diversity of the plan members means that they feel constricted by the firm’s current cookie-cutter benefits plan. By providing features like Health Spending accounts and Flex plan options, GroupHEALTH’s platform allows employees to allocate their benefits dollars where they need it, and to grow with them as they start families and progress in their careers.

Anytime, anywhere access

The myGroupHEALTH app, Pay Direct billing options, and digital-with-delivery prescription drug options ensures that Komodo Software’s employees can run their benefits plan from their phones, anywhere in Canada. The firm’s only HR employee needs to focus on recruitment and engagement, and can’t afford to get bogged down in plan administration paperwork. GroupHEALTH’s mobile-friendly plan management tools like Enrol-Me Online and WEBS help keep things running efficiently.

Encourage wellness

Komodo Software’s leadership want to signal that they are a progressive employer – and they want to make an investment in their employee’s total well-being. Alongside a market-leading Employee and Family Assistance Program and wellness communications built directly into their benefit program, employees also use their Health Wellness Account, an innovative benefit which reimburses plan members for wellness activities, driving engagement and wellness (and keeping plan costs down).

Keep it affordable

As a high-growth organization Komodo Software needs to focus on its sales, development and cash flow. It doesn’t need financial drama at renewal time. GroupHEALTH’s proprietary cost containment tools like DMI Assist, Hybrid ASO, Smart Rx solutions and Release of Reserve ensures that the firm’s investors are as happy with their health benefits plan as their employees.

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Key Plan Feature

Komodo Software employees like perks. They want to stretch their purchasing power and get access to unique items and experiences. GroupHEALTH’s plan comes with access to fitness and wellness activities, as well as a “concierge” service that provides discounts on travel and destination locations.

The Results

GroupHEALTH solutions don’t just match a rapidly growing high-tech company’s strategic needs, it matches its culture, too. Komodo Software’s employee health benefit plan, designed and powered by GroupHEALTH, ensures that the firm’s leadership can focus on growing their business while strategically integrating their plan into the overall compensation program.

*This case study is for example purposes only. The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed are simulated.