How to build a trustworthy benefits program

In the US today, six out of ten employees believe their share of medical costs will increase next year, and 54% of employees say they experience anxiety about health care costs that are not covered. In a recent survey, more than half of the American employee population felt they couldn’t pay $1,000 or more for out-of-pocket expenses without relying on debt or credit if a serious illness or accident occurred. When the average individual who gets insurance at work has a deductible of $1664, most people are one health issue away from racking up medical debt.

These factors together create a fundamental problem for employers — employees don’t trust their benefits because they aren’t completely shielded from financial strain and stress with the plans they’re offered today.

Read more: AI may be the mental health solution your employees need

The good news is we have the power to do something about it. Benefits professionals can design a more trustworthy benefits program by evaluating, combining and selecting benefits with an eye toward rebuilding trust. Here are a few strategies to build an employee benefits program that's worthy of their trust.

Build benefits that say yes in the moments that matter
It sounds obvious, but it needs to be said that benefits programs, and the insurance products they contain, earn employee trust when they pay for benefits, especially in the moments that matter. When benefits help with real consumer problems, including mental health care, support for growing families, chronic care management, and limiting employees exposure to sudden expenses from a serious health issue, we reduce uncertainty and add value for employees when they need it most.

We can start prioritizing important moments by listening to our employees first and looking at the numbers to learn where an existing benefits program has gaps. For example, only 23% of those working in private sectors have paid maternity leave, and only about 38% - 50% of companies provide online counseling services for mental health.

Read more: Combatting depression and suicidal thoughts through telehealth

With the Great Resignation in full swing, look for opportunities to add value in key moments where even a small benefit can make a major difference. Those who do will be in the best position to attract and retain talent. When we consider the gaps, and ask questions about when employees truly need benefits most, we can reallocate dollars and resources to the moments that matter.

Use technology to solve real problems
As Steven Brill aptly put it, healthcare is the only industry where technology advances have increased costs instead of lowering them.

Technology has the power to make insurance more accessible and convenient for employees, but we shouldn’t just be layering technology onto old insurance solutions without taking a look at the issues in the underlying insurance product. Adding an app to a cumbersome old insurance product doesn’t make it high tech. The real opportunity to offer trustworthy benefits is when technology and innovative plan design work together to create new solutions to real problems employees face every year.

An example of this is the innovation that’s been happening in virtual-first mental health and chronic condition management. Innovators like Vida, Omada Health, and TalkSpace are using digital technology like mobile apps and telehealth interactions to design new care patterns that connect employees to providers more often. These models actually help people get healthier compared to the old model of in person provider visits. What’s more, it’s eliminating the episodic appointment based format and introducing a platform for chronic conditions that fuels stronger relationships and better care. When you bring technologists, actuaries, and health care providers together to design new solutions that make products fundamentally better, you get more trustworthy benefits that help make people healthier.

Design a better benefits journey
There are a number of bottlenecks in the customer benefits journey, and those bottlenecks weaken employees’ trust in their benefits. We need to think more carefully and design solutions around the pain points that employees experience when engaging with their benefits: from education to enrollment to engagement and renewal.

• Education: Let’s start by addressing what benefit advisors spend a lot of time thinking about — how we can help educate employees on the value of their benefits. A recent survey revealed that only 9% of employees reported that they feel like they have a solid understanding of their health plan. In an ever changing landscape of remote and hybrid work models, this becomes even more complicated. Not every solution will fit all companies — but we have to normalize experimentation and collaboration to help employees grasp how their benefits work in order for them to appreciate their value.

• Enrollment: Enrollment is another bottleneck in building trust. About 157 million Americans rely on employer-sponsored health insurance coverage and yet, before the COVID-19 pandemic, many people spent very little time reviewing their workplace healthcare plan during the open enrollment period. If employees have to wait too long, don’t receive the information they need, or feel the sign-up process is too complicated, they may not opt in or end up with the wrong benefits for their life stage.

  Build an enrollment journey for both remote and in-person employees. Look for tools that offer data-driven enrollment guidance and personalized suggestions. Some members on your team may need to connect with a guide to answer their questions. It also might be as simple as giving people dedicated time, shielded from other work responsibilities, to consider their options and sign up for benefits. Whatever you choose, benefit plans build trust by supporting the enrollment process in ways that all types of employees appreciate.

• Utilization: It’s one thing to have the right benefits; it’s another to know how to use them to get the care you need. Health benefits feel trustworthy when it’s easy for employees to get care and file a claim. New benefits administration platforms and new carriers that use technology to simplify enrollment and claims are worth exploring for some groups. It’s also worth looking for benefits with high utilization rates so that employees can actually grasp the value their employer benefits program delivers. Even setting a regular cadence of checking in with employees about their benefits can remind them to file claims mid-year.

  Innovators like Accolade and Oscar have pioneered new models of benefits navigation and care management, and we’ve begun to see the proliferation of omnichannel and personalized benefits. When employees can access their benefits platform anytime, anywhere, and can get help from a knowledgeable person when they need it, we enrich and simplify utilization, which bolsters trust.

• Customer success: Additionally, dedicated concierge models are taking a more central role in benefits programs. Most employees depend on one realtor, one travel agent, or one wealth manager, and yet they are rarely able to get the same person on the phone twice when they have questions about their insurance, one of the hardest things for consumers to navigate. Trust is built in relationships, and employees who feel supported are much more likely to feel seen and seek to renew their benefits plan.

Building trust is hard. But with innovative products that address real employee pain points with high tech convenience and dedicated support, we can fundamentally shift how employees think about the value of their employer-sponsored benefits. This should help employers toward their talent retention goals, and more importantly, it can relieve very real emotional and financial burdens, making employees’ lives better.