A benefit or a file to close? An HR professional’s dilemma.
There comes a time when every HR professional must decide on a medical insurance company. The lens through which this task is viewed has a profound impact on a company’s staff for a full year.
You are planning to do medical insurance for the first time, or it is that time of year when you have the daunting task of renewing your medical insurance. The phone is ringing nonstop, insurance companies, HMOs* and brokers, and you have no idea how they got your number… Ohh god have mercy!
You have payroll coming up, or a stack of other urgent things to do. So you do it the easy way by collecting proposals picking the lowest, or a random one that is in between which you think offers good benefits and price. Who cares! Its only medical insurance. If this sounds like you, consider reviewing your approach.
Your most important employee benefit
Medical insurance is the single benefit that your employees will interact with the most; doctor visit, pharmacy, hospital, lab, radiology, physiotherapy, dental.
Medical is a high frequency business, meaning that those employees who use medical insurance do not use it once, it’s more like 100s of times each year for some employees. At each interaction it forms an impression, which they subconsciously link to their employer, yes you.
The collection of these employee experiences translate into 3 main impressions:
- My company cares and values me as an employee
- My company doesn’t give a s**t about me as an employee
- They don’t have the budget
Your primary goal
Your main goal should always strive for the 1st impression. It is better not to do medical insurance at all in any other case. You either give medical insurance from the lens of an employee benefit or exclude it all together because it will do more harm than good.
Your best option is to go to an insurance professional who can assess your company’s needs and budget, and what your employees really need.
The tedious task of comparing prices, benefits, providers is always best left in the hands of independent insurance professionals so you can get on with that stack of urgent things on your desk!
