As one of the largest line items on the P&L these days, employee benefit discussions in many organizations have transitioned from the breakroom to the boardroom, with increased scrutiny from several in the C-Suite and beyond.

If your organization’s finance department isn’t already deeply involved in the discussion, it’s time for them to engage. Although many finance departments lack employee benefits experience, there are many financial components within a corporate benefits plan that need to be scrutinized in order to maximize the benefits provided.

Bringing in an independent advisory group that combines financial acumen with benefits experience can help your finance department align with human resources. Ariston’s primary objective is to analyze your plan and identify the best strategies available to your organization. We are confident that, given the opportunity, we will identify numerous cost saving strategies and value added services, and do so with absolutely no downside for your organization.

There are several reasons to bring Ariston Advisory Group into the corporate health benefits process by allowing us to conduct a review of your plan:

Employee benefits are consuming a larger portion of your company’s budget

Healthcare is a crucial part of any company’s employee benefits package. In order to recruit and retain the best and brightest employees, your healthcare offerings need to be competitive, yet not excessive. Annual year-over-year increases in the cost of healthcare, no doubt outpacing your revenue and profit growth, have made this extremely challenging.

No organization can afford to ignore an expense that big, and often times that out-of-control. You need to understand what’s driving these increases, be they external factors, internal factors, or both. Understanding what’s controllable and what’s not can also help bring focus to an already complex conversation.

Ariston is more than your typical benefits broker

The field of employee benefits technically straddles both the financial services and human resources industries. With issues to tackle as complex as risk mitigation strategies, claims reserves and budget-based benefit design, providing too much autonomy to your HR department may prove to be detrimental to your short and long-term financial plans.

As a result, many organizations rely heavily on their benefits broker to identify the best strategies, which can work against the organization. It is unreasonable to expect that a broker will continuously look to reduce costs for its clients especially considering most are compensated as a percentage of the overall benefit spend.

Since we are an independent advisory group, our success relies on continuously identifying such cost savings strategies as well as the brokers who successfully work on their client’s behalf.

Ariston recognizes the value of productivity

As counter-intuitive as it may seem, designing a benefits plan which promotes healthcare utilization across a wider pool of your workforce can actually save you money. Lost time at work inevitably results in lost productivity.

Healthy employees who regularly visit the doctor tend to be more productive employees. They’re not distracted by pain or illness, their minds are able to function with better clarity, and they can focus on the task at hand. Their access to decent medical care means they’re healthier, they take fewer sick days, and they’re less mentally taxed as a result. So while it’s sometimes easy to view healthcare spending purely as a cost, it’s worthwhile to look at it as an investment in worker productivity, not to mention risk avoidance.

Ariston appreciates the hidden costs of a sub-par employee benefits package

Companies who skimp on benefits often times don’t bother to understand the hidden costs of a sub-par employee benefits program. While we’ve already discussed the hidden costs of lost worker productivity, employee turnover, coupled with the challenges in recruiting talent also carry real costs to your company.

Many employers are surprised to learn that employees aren’t just looking for a competitive salary. In fact, according to a survey by Glassdoor, 4 out of 5 employees would rather see an improvement to their employee benefits package than an increase in their salary. If you want the best and the brightest in your industry to come to work for you and stay, you need to offer them a competitive employee benefits package.

Ariston can help assess the ROI of your Employee Benefits Program

According to a survey of CFOs by the Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI), a San Francisco-based nonprofit research and educational organization, only 6 percent of CFOs reported that their companies assess the ROI of their health programs.

Nevertheless, it’s virtually impossible to get a handle on your return on investment if you aren’t actively engaged in the benefits planning process. First and foremost, if you are planning to measure ROI, those constructing the plan need to know by what metrics the plan will be deemed successful. Putting together a plan to achieve retention and recruitment objectives can sometimes be quite different than a plan put together to promote engagement, wellness and worker productivity.

Ariston provides insight into alternative funding mechanisms and strategies

Funding mechanisms for employee benefits programs have dramatically altered the employee benefits landscape. Self-funding once relegated to only the largest of companies is now obtainable and appropriate for many small businesses. Ariston can serve as a valuable resource that your organization can access while considering such a change.

Ariston is an effective resource for organizations looking to manage healthcare costs

Although your HR team might be quite excellent at what they do, they may not be in the best position to analyze such complex and far-reaching financial decisions for your organization. It might behoove your organization to bring in our advisory group to function as another internal resource whose main function is to identify and present innovative strategies and services that will help ensure that your plan is the most efficient one available.

As an independent advisory group working for your organization, we can help keep your benefits broker honest and ensure continuous alignment between your HR and Finance teams which often times can yield a strategic advantage for your company.

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