STARTING SMALL CAN YIELD GREAT RESULTS IN EMPLOYEE HEALTH BENEFITS

If you’re a small business, your first foray into the world of employee health benefits may seem intimidating. You know you don’t have the budget that the big employers have, but you do have the desire to support your employees. The good news is, starting out small when it comes to employee health benefits can yield some powerful results over the long term.

Benefits Matter

Employee health benefits are likely on your radar for a number of reasons. They should matter to you, because they DO matter to employees and also to prospective employees.

Recruitment and retention

First off, you want to attract and retain the best employees to help your business grow. Employee health benefits are a great tool to support these efforts. Research shows that the presence and quality of an employee health benefits plan is often a consideration when a candidate is choosing to accept or decline a job offer. Also, employees who have a good plan are less likely to seek employment elsewhere. As a small business, a well-designed employee benefits plan can help level the playing field when competing against larger organizations.

Employee Moral

A health benefits plan sends the message to your employees that you care about their well-being. It means you’re looking out for their health and their lifestyle. Often, small businesses have a family atmosphere and providing support for something like a serious medical issue (as an example) can really reinforce that family vibe. With an insured employee health benefits plan, the premiums you pay are small compared to the potentially large loss that employees could face while dealing with a serious health issue. This support can positively impact morale at your organization.

Productivity

Healthy employees are more productive. They have fewer absences, lower instances of presenteeism and a greater capacity for going above and beyond. These are all good things for a small business in pursuit of success. The right plan should be focused on providing incentives and opportunities for employees to get and stay healthy in order to impact productivity.

Starting Small

When first exploring employee health benefits, the important thing to remember is to start small. You need to look at your goals for the plan, and equally important, your budget. You don’t want to over-promise and then have to scale back benefits that go over budget. This could have a very negative impact on morale and engagement.

Choose a plan that is scalable, so you can start small and then adjust the benefits and coverages as your company grows and changes. Being prudent and sensible with your initial plan is a good strategy, if you “go big” and then have to remove benefits it will be very hard on employees. Wait until you are comfortable with the budget before growing or changing the plan and its coverages. If you stick to a slow and steady approach to growing your plan you’ll see great results over the long term.

Smart Plan for Small Business

The Smart Plan for Small Business was created because GroupHEALTH recognized that sometimes small businesses feel at a disadvantage when competing for talent. It is a way that small businesses can balance excellent benefits coverage with cost containment.

We started off by packaging up the key features of a modern, comprehensive and competitive employee benefits plan. The base plan includes elements such as:

• Employee health treatment
• Dental treatment
• Disruptive health events
• Employee wellness and lifestyle
• Employee Support
• Employer services

This encompasses many of the benefits employees need and want. The great thing is, the Smart Plan for Small Business is configurable and flexible. It means that you can choose the base plan then add on additional coverages that make sense for your employee base. This way you don’t pay for coverage that you don’t need or don’t want.

For example, if disability coverage is important to your company, it is available as a “Smart Upgrade” in addition to the base plan. If it isn’t a priority for you, you can choose not to include it.

The best part about the plan is cost transparency. This is especially meaningful to small business, because there is often not a lot of extra room in the budget, so knowing how much the plan will cost can really help with managing finances.

The right fit for…..

The Smart Plan for Small Business is a great first step into the world of employee benefits. It’s a way to start out small, which positions you for great results in the future. The plan was specifically designed for:

• • Companies with 3 or more employees
  • Companies that don’t currently have an employee health benefits plan
  • Companies who are concerned about containing costs and would like cost transparency
  • Companies who want a plan that is customizable and configurable

Good advice is key

Are you a small business that is ready to support your employees with health benefits? Are you looking for a comprehensive plan that is cost transparent, so you know what you’re in for? The Smart Plan for Small Business could be the answer. The ultimate way to start small so you can see great results when it comes to employee health benefits. Review your options with one of our licensed advisors on the phone or in-person or contact us for a comparison quote.

Whether you’re looking for extended health and dental coverage, disability coverage, or life and critical illness coverage, GroupHEALTH has affordable benefit packages that work as hard as you do.