You\u2019ve just learned that you can get an employee benefits management platform with onboarding and compliance tools from someone other than your current employee benefits broker.\u00a0 And, this other employee benefits broker can also advise you about process and compliance issues without referring you to someone else.\u00a0 In other words, this other employee benefits broker can put it all together for you without you having to do the leg work to figure everything out.\u00a0 But you\u2019ve got a great relationship with your current broker, so now what do you do?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Not Personal.\u00a0 It\u2019s About Your Business<\/strong><\/p>\n This isn\u2019t just about a relationship.\u00a0 It\u2019s about the value to your business.\u00a0 There is no doubt that it\u2019s important to have good relationships with those who advise you and your business but it can\u2019t just be about the relationship, and it can run counter to your best interests to make it so.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve lost track of the number of times that I\u2019ve been the bearer of bad news for a business owner or executive whose employee benefits broker did something or omitted to do something that cost the company money.\u00a0 In one such encounter the business owner asked, \u201cWhat do I do?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cChange your broker.\u00a0 He gave you bad advice,\u201d I replied.\u00a0 \u201cI can\u2019t do that.\u00a0 I have a relationship with him!\u201d he yelled at me before stomping out of his conference room.\u00a0 He left it up to me to find my own way out.<\/p>\n That owner clearly wasn\u2019t in an emotional place to make the change.\u00a0 You may not be ready to make the change either.\u00a0 I get it.\u00a0 Your current employee benefits broker may be a relative or a friend and your reticence may be tied to the possible fallout or the damage to a relationship from any change.\u00a0 This is understandable.\u00a0 Even if your employee benefits broker is a relative or a friend you need to quantify their financial value to your business.<\/p>\n Make a List<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s time to make a list.\u00a0 That is a list of capabilities of your current and potentially new employee benefits broker.\u00a0 The new employee benefits broker should be able to provide you with a detailed list of the tools and services they will be providing you.\u00a0 If you need reinforcement, compare that list side by side with what your current employee benefits broker is providing you today.<\/p>\n Make note of the cost to you for any tools and services your current employee benefits broker is not providing but for which you must pay a third party to provide you.\u00a0 Most employee benefits brokers leave it up to you to arrange and pay for things like benefits enrollment and management technology, human resources and compliance tools, and ACA reporting.\u00a0 We provide our clients with a worksheet they can use to compare our list of capabilities with those of their current employee benefits broker: Capabilities Comparison<\/a><\/p>\n Going through this exercise will give you a quantifiable and unemotional view of what your current employee benefits broker currently offers you and what you may be missing.<\/p>\n You Know Him and You Don\u2019t Know Me<\/strong><\/p>\n Perhaps the greatest impediment to making the change is that you know your current employee benefits broker but you don\u2019t know the new one.\u00a0 It\u2019s about sticking with the familiar, a known commodity, though flawed, versus going with something new and unknown.\u00a0 You\u2019re not alone.\u00a0 Studies have shown that for most of us change can be a scary thing.<\/p>\n So, here\u2019s how you overcome your concerns about making a change.\u00a0 Have your new employee benefits broker list their services in a service agreement which should include a specific plan for the transition.\u00a0 The plan should detail the steps, timing and responsibilities for everyone involved.\u00a0 Here is a link to example of one of our service agreements: Sample Service Level Agreement<\/a><\/p>\n Get familiar with it.\u00a0 Have your staff get familiar with it.\u00a0 Comment on it and suggest changes if need be.\u00a0 We do this with all our new clients to ensure they have a full understanding of what we will be doing for them and to ensure that nothing gets dropped or overlooked during the transition.<\/p>\n The World Has Changed<\/strong><\/p>\n Another impediment to making the change is the belief that it will mean admitting making a mistake.\u00a0 You made the decision to commit to your employee benefits broker based on the information that was available to you at the time, but things change.\u00a0 The thing to remember is that you didn\u2019t make a mistake when you hired him but keeping him is not in the best interests of your business.<\/p>\n The world has changed.\u00a0 We\u2019re well into a new century and yet most insurance companies and brokers are still operating as if it was the last.\u00a0 The world is more complex.\u00a0 Compliance is more complicated and the stakes are higher.\u00a0 Technology is helping to streamline your processes; for onboarding, benefits enrollment and management, employee communications, and for compliance and reporting.\u00a0 The employee benefits broker you choose should understand this and be prepared to offer you the advice, tools and services to meet these challenges.<\/p>\n Carpe Diem<\/strong><\/p>\n Why wait?\u00a0 Your relationship with your employee benefits broker doesn\u2019t have to be dysfunctional.\u00a0 You can get more.\u00a0 The world has changed and this is the opportunity for you to take advantage of those changes. Think of it as a wakeup call.\u00a0 If you\u2019re looking to transition and would like to learn more about how we deliver change in a changing world, email me at mdmowski@comprehensivebenefitservices.com<\/a> or call me at (952) 237-6956.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You\u2019ve just learned that you can get an employee benefits management platform with onboarding and compliance tools from someone other than your current employee benefits broker.\u00a0 And, this other employee benefits broker can also advise you about process and compliance issues without referring you to someone else.\u00a0 In other words, this other employee benefits broker\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.comprehensivebenefitservices.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.comprehensivebenefitservices.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.comprehensivebenefitservices.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.comprehensivebenefitservices.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.comprehensivebenefitservices.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.comprehensivebenefitservices.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.comprehensivebenefitservices.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.comprehensivebenefitservices.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.comprehensivebenefitservices.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}