At Alltrust Insurance, we pride ourselves in being a trusted advisor to businesses. As such, we consider our role in providing education of benefits and establishing personal communication to be one of our most important responsibilities. From your initial open enrollment announcement letter to the production of customized benefit guides and enrollment videos, we ensure every step of the process fits your company’s culture and strategic plan. We feel that one of the most important aspects when designing employee communication material is to make sure the benefits are thoroughly explained in an easy to understand fashion. By guiding your employees — and often their spouses — through the entire enrollment process, we can ensure that they fully understand the plan offerings and how to best utilize them.
How Alltrust Educates Employers And Employees
Open Enrollment
Open enrollment is a period of time each year when employers allow new employees to enroll in a health plan. Current employees are also allowed to make changes to their existing medical coverage if needed. During this time period, employees can change plans altogether or add/drop a dependent or optional benefit, such as a dental plan. Employers can help employees during open enrollment by distributing materials that explain new health options and changes to existing plans.
To help employees find a plan that best fits their needs, the following information should be provided:
- A general summary of all the benefits provided by the plan.
- Limits on coverage as well as limits on coverage for specific conditions.
- Coverage for preventive services, procedures and medications.
- Prescription drug coverage detail.
- Consumer directed and high deductible health plans or other non-traditional plan types.
It’s important to frequently communicate with employees about their health coverage options but not to overwhelm them with information. You should always be clear and honest with your employees and use a variety of communication methods such as the internet, printed materials and fact-to-face discussions. Alltrust Insurance can help you in this part of the process by providing valuable enrollment videos and walking your employees through the process.
Educating Your Employees On Benefits
Helping you guide your employees through open enrollment is only the first step. Alltrust goes further by educating employees about all of their benefits. We understand from firsthand experience that employee benefits aren’t always simple. The good news is that we can teach employees how to be wiser benefit consumers and the earlier the training starts, the better. Properly educating employees can help keep costs down for both employer and employee by maximizing the employee benefits package chosen.
Benefits 101
If employees aren’t working in the insurance industry, or are new to the workforce, they likely don’t know the basic terminology. Resources in this area cover the basics of insurance such as common terms, group health coverage, vesting schedules, and enrollment period restrictions. Establishing these basic concepts will help employees grasp a general understanding of health care coverage and allow them to maximize their benefits. However, employees will likely want to know why it’s worth learning insurance basics. In addition to teaching the basics, employers should also provide education on more advanced insurance aspects like provider networks and how a little research can save employees thousands on medical procedures. Emphasize the importance of understanding health benefits to save money, make smarter health care choices and present opportunities for greater investment potential.
Voluntary Benefits
In addition to employer-sponsored benefits, offering voluntary benefits is a great way to enhance your benefits package, differentiate yourself from competitors, and increase employee satisfaction. Even though offering voluntary benefits can be beneficial to employers and employees, many employees do not understand the advantages that come along with it or are unclear about how they work. One perk to voluntary benefits is that purchasing insurance through an employer group is often cheaper than buying individually, reducing expenses for everyone. When promoting voluntary benefits, discuss the benefits of having this coverage, the risks of going without it, and highlight the convenience and value of purchasing through the company and paying through payroll deductions.
It’s important to ensure that employees have a full understanding of their policy to prevent misunderstandings and possible resentment toward the employer. When offering any benefit program, voluntary or employer-paid, make sure employees are sufficiently educated about their benefits:
- Invite current employees to monthly or quarterly benefits meetings.
- Utilize representatives sent by voluntary benefits providers to further explain and educate employees about benefits.
- While most benefit administrators won’t have the time to meet individually with every employee, consider holding small-group meetings for employees with questions or concerns.
- Enhance your current benefit communication through social media. Social media provides an easy and effective way to reach out to your employees with educational information, tips and reminders.
HR Training
Another advantage of choosing Alltrust Insurance as your benefits consulting firm is our spotlight on HR training. We can grant you access to self paced training with over 300 on-demand employee training courses and videos. These courses and videos can be directly downloaded onto clients’ LMS systems. They incorporate valuable information, tests at the end of each video, and certificates evidencing completion of the video for employee personnel files. You can equip your team with health care coverage knowledge and build a strong HR foundation at the same time.
Your Trusted Employee Benefits & HR Consultants
Navigating the world of health care, employee benefits and HR support can be overwhelming to say the least. That’s why our mission at Alltrust is to guide you and your employees through all of the complexities to make it easier on you, your employees and your business. Our Employee Advocacy Specialists can support your company every step off the way to provide the best experience possible and to educate your employees so they can maximize their benefits and feel protected. Contact us today to learn more about your employee benefits package and how we can help.
