The most important thing to remember when creating an employee group benefits plan is that benefits are a long-term investment in your employees and your business. Your health benefits plan can ensure talent retention, keep employees healthy and motivated, and it ultimately increases your company’s bottom line.

Here are a few recommended best practices when creating, or reviewing, your employee benefits plan.

5 ways to improve employee group benefits

1. Communication

Before establishing an employee group benefit plan, you should involve managers, employees, and other principal parties in the discussion. Get insight and see what people would like to have offered to them. Communicating with all stakeholders ensures that everyone has the chance to share his or her opinion on the benefits currently offered, or those that should be added.

2. Ensure benefits are relevant

To keep your employees happy, your benefits program should aim to deliver benefits your employees will find valuable. While you cannot satisfy everyone, Benefits Canada points out that meeting the needs of the largest portion of your workforce will ensure retention.

If you are not addressing the needs of most of your employees, it will be difficult to maximize the return on investment that benefits can bring.

3. Look for improvements

You should avoid the “set it and forget it” mentality for your employee group benefits plan. Instead, choose to work with an experienced Advisor that can ensure your plan is constantly evolving to the changing needs of your employees and your business objectives. Partnering with a Third-Party Administrator to run your benefits plan can also help to alleviate some of the additional workload for your group’s Plan Administrator(s).

4. Make it easy to understand

Your employees need to understand their benefits in order to take advantage of them effectively. It’s important to communicate with your staff and ensure that all employees eligible for benefits receive clear, up-to-date information. They should know what is included in their benefits package, how to submit claims and where to find more information.

5. Stay Competitive

The majority of employees prioritize the benefits offered when considering job opportunities, according to Kristin Baker Spohn at Forbes. It’s important to look critically at the benefits your company offers to ensure it’s aligned with your competition.

Polling your current workforce can provide you with insight into how to keep your company competitive in the job market.

If you have questions about your group’s health plan, our experienced Benefits Consultants are available to help. Contact your Advisor or call us at 1-866-361-2998.