Complete Story
11/19/2023
Affiliate Member, Hylant, provides Well-Being Update
As a valued member of the American Council of Engineering Companies, you have access to a wide variety of resources to drive the success of your business. Mike Storey, a fellow ACEC member, is a trusted partner when it comes to your business’s unique employee benefits needs. Mike can assist members with evaluating solutions to fit their needs, including the ACEC Life/Health Trust. Mike has extensive experience in the employee benefits space and is a great resource for members to leverage when they have questions regarding their benefits programs.
The U.S. inflation rate has increased by 8.3% over the last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This has led to significant price increases across employee benefits such as health insurance. In fact, one-third of U.S. employees have already seen an increase in their health costs in the last year, a survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute reported.
This increase in costs presents challenges for employers facing one of the most difficult hiring markets in recent memory. Below are a few strategies employers can use to mitigate increasing benefits costs without shifting the burden to employees.
Eliminate Underutilized Benefits
One strategy is to eliminate underutilized benefits. Resources from unused benefits can then go towards more expensive benefits. A way to evaluate which benefits best suit a company’s needs is to regularly send out benefits surveys to the company’s employees. These surveys can help employers know which available benefits may not be providing value to the company.
Wellness Programs
While there are skeptics and believers when it comes to actual cost savings provided by wellness programs, they often play an important role in other positive workplace developments. For instance, promoting and achieving a healthy workforce often improves morale and productivity. These programs are also valuable because they can lead to improved employee attraction and retention as well as increased loyalty to the employer.
There are a variety of wellness benefits employers can offer to suit the needs of their company. Potential options include providing in-office perks for nutrition, fitness and stress management, or gym memberships.
Telemedicine
Taking time off to go to the doctor can often be a time-consuming and expensive undertaking. Telemedicine may help lessen these issues by eliminating associated costs, such as transportation, and providing faster and more affordable care to those seeking medical services. By meeting with health care providers over the internet, employees can get the care they need quickly and are likely to be more productive as a result. Additionally, telemedicine allows employees to take less paid time off of work and makes it much easier for them to avoid obstacles that could get in the way of seeking health care, such as child care.
Conclusion
As employers adjust to increasing inflation rates and the rising costs that follow, there are several strategies they can use to help offset the severity of these increases. Hylant is one of the largest privately held insurance brokerages in the United States. Hylant helps clients identify and address risk-related challenges before they become unmanageable and delivers solutions unique to clients’ circumstances. Hylant offers comprehensive risk management consultation, business insurance brokerage, employee benefits brokerage and consultation, small business insurance placement and personal insurance services locally, nationally and internationally.
At Hylant, our targeted expertise, paired with outside-the-box thinking and innovative tools, enables us to design and deliver customized employee benefits programs to meet each unique client’s needs. By building personal and trusting relationships, we can guide and protect clients, so they don’t feel overwhelmed about making insurance and risk management decisions.
To learn more about us, visit our website: hylant.com
Mike Storey
(419) 724-1973
