Designing A Competitive And Scalable Benefits Program For A Growing Company

The customer chose to execute Brown & Brown’s data-driven strategy and, over three years, achieved results in key areas, including benefits, employee experience, the HR team experience and COVID-19 support. 

Benefits Highlights: 

Brown & Brown assisted in delivering financial savings without sacrificing coverage. With the help of Brown & Brown, the customer saved $919,750 in benefits savings during year one. In addition, it normalized employee contributions for medical, dental and vision, resulting in a $97,750 reduction in employee costs. 

The customer continued to improve the plan by increasing coverage, upgrading life and disability benefits for consistency across all employees, launching a global EAP to provide the same level of support to all employees, adding in a high deductible health plan with Health Savings Account (HSA) to support employee choice and adding an employee discount program.  

Employee Experience: 

The benefits changes helped enhance the overall employee experience by lowering insurance costs and creating a more valuable benefit offering.  

An open enrollment (OE) communication strategy was developed to help announce these advantageous changes, which involved email, a benefits guide, on-site OE meetings and enrollment forms. This cohesive strategy helped employees understand the changes and how they benefited from them. 

Employees also gained more visibility into their plan through a: 

• Digital benefits guidebook  
• Benefits portal available 24/7 that provided employees with plan documents, ID cards, contact information and resources 
• Mental health resource guide that detailed all tools and services available to employees 

HR/Benefit Team Experience: 

Brown & Brown worked closely with the HR and Benefits Team to provide a comprehensive and proactive support model, including: 

• Full claims and health plan intelligence data to support HR and finance teams in making data-driven decisions 
• Leveraged Brown & Brown’s internal Regulatory and Legislative Strategy Group to help support regulatory changes and administrative Q&A 
• A holistic approach to well-being management and population health that included a spectrum of solutions across physical, emotional, care and advocacy, engagement and financial well-being verticals 
• Outsourced FMLA/ADA due to growing compliance and financial concerns surrounding these administrative tasks 
• Secured PFL/State disability insurance in other states to support remote workforce development 
• Evaluated, matched and launched an HCM solution that met the customer’s evolving needs 
• Full international support and capabilities to assess current and future requirements 

COVID-19 Support: 

As the COVID-19 pandemic began hitting international headlines, Brown & Brown delivered an initial COVID-19 customer alert on February 28, 2020. In the following weeks and months, bulletins and weekly webinars went out as legislative updates emerged.  

Brown & Brown added a COVID-19 alert to the customer’s Digital Benefits Guide so that employees would know: 

• The medical carrier’s cost-sharing stance on COVID-19 testing and treatment 
• How to access telehealth 
• How to mail-order prescriptions 
• Additional support was available 

Brown & Brown also worked collaboratively to certify the customer received its Medical Premium Rebate since access to most care was unavailable at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. This rebate provided the company with an estimated $300,000 in savings.  

Delivering Savings and Growth Support 

As this customer went through tremendous growth, Brown & Brown supported its financial, cultural and benefits goals. The customer saved more than a million dollars through benefit plan changes and the medical premium rebate. Employees received more robust benefits without facing increases in premiums. Finally, these comprehensive and affordable benefits helped the company retain talent through its 440%+ growth in the employee population.