Like the rest of the country, Hoosier businesses are struggling to balance the increased costs of providing employee health benefits with maintaining a strong bottom line. One Indiana small business looked to another Indiana business, WorkSmart Systems, for a cost-effective and streamlined solution and found what they were looking for.
A manufacturing and installation organization with 15 employees, this company has been committed to attracting and maintaining its workforce by providing employee benefits. However, with the double-digit premium rate increases, they were becoming worried about their ability to stick to that promise. As a Professional Employer Organization, or PEO, WorkSmart was able to offer access to a better plan at a price they could support.
The key behind WorkSmart’s cost-effective health insurance program is the power of pooling. Their co-employment model allows them to place each client’s employees into one large group, thereby spreading the risks and costs. WorkSmart does their own underwriting, and so is able to manage the age risk and demographics of the pool. By partnering with businesses with well-rated employee bases, WorkSmart protects everyone in the plan from skyrocketing costs. While other group health insurance plans have seen double-digit rate increases in the past few years, WorkSmart has been able to keep theirs in the single digits year after year.
Another advantage to WorkSmart’s group health benefits is employees have access to 4 plan options, allowing them to choose a plan that suits their own situations.
Discussions with this small business about health insurance also uncovered other human resource issues they were experiencing. The transactional functions of managing HR in-house were proving unwieldly, taking up too much time and effort by their HR specialist. WorkSmart’s pooling model allows them to offer small businesses Fortune 500-level HR admin services from one place. Payroll, benefits management, employment processes, worker’s comp, compliance reporting and employee benefits are all under the same umbrella, saving businesses the cost of the admin fees from multiple vendors. For one per-employee fee, companies have access to a state-of-the-art HRIS, HR and legal experts, and a dedicated account manager who serves as a resource and advocate for their needs. This level of service was music to the ears of this Hoosier business!
WorkSmart is able to offer Indiana businesses cost-effective yet high-quality employee health benefits, allowing employers dedicated to caring for their employees a viable option. However, WorkSmart is more than a health insurance provider. Their full array of HR services streamlines and centralizes the internal processes, avoiding the headaches inherent in having employees. Employees have 24-hour access to their records, and all communications and paperwork are managed in one place. WorkSmart does not believe in nickel and diming their co-employment partners, charging fee after fee for small things like re-printing a W-2 or answering employee questions. Once a business becomes a partner, WorkSmart is there for all of their HR management needs.
Is your business struggling with the rising cost of employee health benefits and the headaches of managing HR admin? WorkSmart may be able to help. Send me an email, or give me a call at 317-663-4138 to set up an informational meeting to learn more.
