Sorry, we’re not actively hiring (but if you’re super-awesome get in touch and tell us why you want to be a Blendarino).
Did the headline catch your attention?
We’ve all seen this message before. It pops up in online ads and on roadside signs.
At first glance it sounds great. Here’s an organization who wants to invest in the health of their team. Surely that will pay off for them, right?
Not if what they’re offering is a traditional, insured health and dental plan.
Why your insured health and dental plan is a bad idea
You’re paying an annual salary from day one
Imagine hiring someone and giving them their annual salary in one lump sum. “Here’s your briefcase of cash, don’t spend it all in one place!”
That would be crazy, right?
So why are you providing benefits that employees can use (and will cost you) from day one? There’s no incentive for employees to stay with the company and earn benefits the way they do with the rest of their compensation.
You’re handing employees a blank cheque
In an insured plan, benefits are seen as “use it or lose it.” If someone doesn’t max out what they can claim in a year, they feel like they’ve missed out on part of their compensation.
This leads to over-use of benefits (particularly at the end of the year).
Unfortunately, when plan members over-use their benefits this way, your organization ends up paying more. Insurance companies guess what utilization will be and charge premiums to ensure they make a profit. If use is higher than expected, they’ll hike your premiums next year (and there’s nothing you can do about it).
What happens when an employee leaves after using up their benefits? They’ve taken the money and run. Meanwhile, you’re still on the hook for rising premiums.
You aren’t treating everyone fairly
Repeat after us, “Benefits are part of compensation.”
When you hire someone, you set their salary accordingly. But are you considering what they’ll be receiving (and costing you) in benefits?
Say you hire someone with an annual salary of $50,000. Then they maximize their claims under your benefits plan. They could be receiving $90,000 in compensation! Is that what you planned? Is that fair to the rest of the team?
You risk attracting high-cost employees
Let’s get back to the roadside sign promoting your benefits plan. While you think it’s encouraging the best and brightest to apply, it may be attracting someone with major medical expenses.
Like the compensation discussion above, instead of supporting a healthy team, you’ve just effectively agreed to pay someone’s medical bills. That’s a business risk because you can be sure your premiums will go up once the insurance company sees the increased usage.
So, what’s an employer to do?
When it comes to group benefits insurance isn’t the only option. You have other choices. Imagine a benefits plan that:
- Treats all members fairly and equally;
- Provides benefits in a measurable way, similar to compensation;
- Controls your costs; and
- Eliminates your risk of rising health and dental premiums.
That’s Blended Benefits in a nutshell! We provide options for organizations that recognize the problems with traditional insured health and dental benefits. Organizations that want to support the health of their team in an equitable way without breaking the bank.
Get in touch to learn more, or just have a chat.
And by the way, when we’re hiring, we definitely provide benefits the right way!
