A good benefits broker acts as a close partner to their clients year-round. Companies' benefits needs will fluctuate throughout the year and so will what they expect from their benefits broker. To help their clients plan for the year ahead, benefits brokers can take the following steps to ensure benefits administration goes as smoothly as possible. Having an annual plan can also ensure that companies, and their employees, are getting the most out of their benefits and are able to implement solutions that meet their changing needs.

Ask your clients about their support needs

Benefits administration, data tracking, and plan optimization are year-round responsibilities for human resource departments. The support that each company needs will depend on where the gaps are in their teams, which teams are overloaded, and any changes that come up due to company structure, policy, or budgets. 

At the beginning of the year reach out to your clients and ask about any company changes that might be occurring in the next year and any support needs they anticipate. The type of support clients need can also change mid-year with the gain or loss of talent, so benefits brokers should make sure they periodically touch base with their contacts to ensure they’re providing the help their clients need. 

Develop a support plan

A well-crafted and communicated support plan can help benefits brokers give their clients a clear roadmap for the year ahead. One effective way to construct the plan is to separate the action items into the seasons in which they should occur and call out  important compliance dates. 

Here is an example of what a support plan could look like:

Q1: Gather information for the year ahead, analyze on open enrollment, and focus on support

Open enrollment and employee benefits election analysis

Once open enrollment season has come to a close, benefits brokers should host a post-mortem with their clients to discuss what went well and what needed improvement. They should review employee benefits election data to see how many employees made changes, which plans were the most popular, and if there were communication challenges around new offerings. 

Additional support could include: Answering any client employee questions, ensuring employees are getting the guidance, education, and support they need, ensuring cards are delivered, onboarding help with new plans and new employees, and setting clients up with any new data tracking or compliance technology. 

Understand their goals for the year ahead and research new solutions

Brokers should also work with clients to understand company goals around employee engagement and benefits utilization. Brokers can help their clients craft a year-long benefits engagement communication campaign during this time to ensure employees utilize their benefits. Brokers can also begin to research potential new vendors or solutions if clients anticipate big company changes or dissatisfaction with a current solution.

Q2: Analyze initial data and introduce new options and opportunities 

As your clients and their employees settle into the year, benefits brokers should make it clear that they are available to help resolve any claims issues, where employees can go with billing questions, and help clients analyze plan utilization and engagement data. Benefits brokers should also make it clear that they will be checking in to ensure clients have what they need to meet compliance requirements.

At the end of Q2 benefits brokers should begin helping clients to develop their benefits strategy based on plan utilization and employee engagement data. They should revisit the feedback from the previous open enrollment season to plan for how to improve upon that experience and help clients analyze their data and optimize their benefit plans for cost-effectiveness and value and introduce new options for clients to consider that can better meet their needs and goals. This is also when you want to begin to meet with benefits providers to understand their offerings, what may have changed, and how they could help your clients better meet their needs.

Q3: Finalize next year’s offerings and prepare for open enrollment

As you begin to look towards open enrollment and the following year, gather the research and feedback you and your clients have gathered on benefits enrollment, adoption, and satisfaction from employees. Meet with your clients to discuss how your clients’ budgets and goals may have evolved. Assess whether you want to renew with current providers, or explore other benefits options and providers. Once you decide on those options, present them to your clients, and finalize what you will be offering during open enrollment. 

Then begin laying out a plan for open enrollment communications and timing and ensure providers have educational resources ready to go. To help support your clients before, during, and after open enrollment, Lively put together an open enrollment survival guide with helpful timelines and checklists for each phase.

Q4: Support open enrollment communications and needs

Work with your clients to implement and execute their open enrollment plan. Provide clients with  tactical and practical support including a communication plan and corresponding materials, Q&A’s both virtual and in-person, ensure clients’ open enrollment technology is working, and work with clients to resolve any issues that might arise with their providers. 

Year round benefits brokers should plan to field employee and client questions year-round, solving claims issues if they come up and help clients analyze benefits usage data on an ongoing basis to keep tabs on workforce trends. 

Help clients develop a year-long benefits employee benefits engagement campaign

In addition to a support plan for your clients, work with them to help their employees keep benefits top of mind year round. Focus on developing a communication campaign with timely content that is distributed via different channels: email, landing page, text, and chat. The current workforce is made up of four different generations (Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z) and they all have their preferred way to communicate and a tone that resonates with them. To learn more about the different generations in the workforce and how they approach benefits and communication, read our post, Four Generations in the Workplace: What You Need to Know.

Ensure clients’ technology supports their goals

Consider during a regular client check in auditing the different software and systems they are using to ensure it’s successfully integrated with any benefits providers and ensure that the data that’s being collected is actionable and accurate. This will also help benefits brokers understand clients’ tech stack and comfort with technology when recommending new products, platforms, or services.

Types of software to ask about:

• Software that tracks benefit usage data. These programs collect data on claims and reimbursements, employee engagement with, and adoption of, benefits, voluntary contributions to fringe benefits and more. This information is vital to helping clients provide valuable benefits to their employees and will help get a higher ROI on the cost of their benefits package.

• Compliance software. These programs include digital filing calendars and auto-filing systems that help clients stay on top of important compliance dates and requirements.

• Ensuring benefits systems have been integrated. For example, if clients have chosen a benefits administrator like Lively, that offers seamless integration into their existing benefits administration system, benefits brokers will want to manage that process and ensure everything is working and running smoothly.

Help clients stay on top of key compliance dates

Brokers should ensure clients are meeting their compliance dates and requirements, keep their clients abreast of any new laws or regulations and give instructions on how to comply. Even if clients are using auto-filing systems and digital compliance calendars, it’s still a good idea for benefits brokers to call out these important dates separately. Then as these dates approach, benefits brokers should make sure they touch base with clients to make sure they’re on track to file on time. 

Get Started with Lively!

If you’re looking for a benefits administrator that provides popular benefit plans and also makes benefits administration easy for your clients, reach out today. We have a suite of flexible benefits that can be bundled for easy plan administration, we offer mobile app access, a clear and informative dashboard, data tracking and reports, and in-product employee education to drive engagement. Our industry-leading customer service ensures that most problems are resolved in one-contact so that clients and plan participants stay happy. Lively is your partner in providing your clients with the best benefits experience possible - reach out today.