Topic: HR & BENEFITS

In your group health sales cycle, time is of the essence. Shorter sales cycles generally lead to larger volumes, higher revenues, more satisfied account execs, and repeat customers, especially for an annual purchase like group health insurance. You can shrink the time you turn a lead into a customer by adding a speedy new member to your sales team: artificial intelligence. AI can help you close deals faster than your competitors can get their boots on.

In the last few years, more than 2 million women have left the workforce, taking valuable skills and their expertise with them. The balancing act many employees, especially women, face in managing their caregiving responsibilities and jobs can be unsustainable at times, and it can feel easier to choose one or the other. Unfortunately, this is detrimental to these individuals and their families who rely on that income, and it is a significant loss to employers and the economy.

In a previous article, I encouraged PEO operators to take another look at group insurance brokers and even see some PEO brokers as channel partners. In this article I’m going to share with you another secret: How to protect yourself from us brokers. Remember, if you manage this channel correctly, brokers will be your lowest cost of new client acquisition, create longer retention, and create an endless and consistent flow of beautiful new deals. However, if handled poorly, your master plan medical loss ratios (MLR) could be very RED.

Rewards and benefits are a core part of the HR and People functions at any organization. As the Senior Director of People Experience at Oyster HR, a global employment platform with employees in 70+ countries, my team and I are responsible for the experience of our employees from the day they sign their offer letter to their last day with the company. That includes managing performance, progression, and total rewards.

For companies and employees around the world, the last few years have created opportunities to go beyond traditional ideas of where and how work happens. But, with these new opportunities comes risk. Staying compliant in a world of work that is changing daily requires businesses to be vigilant and proactive.

Employers are recognizing that virtual care has not fully eliminated barriers to access, and that an exclusively virtual strategy can fragment the care experience and lead to wasteful spending. In articulating priorities for 2023 during the Fall 2022 roundtable session with One Medical, organized by the Employer Health Innovation Roundtable, more than 1 in 4 employers cited lack of access to care as a primary concern, and 1 in 4 employers expressed concern over fragmented care.

n today’s post-COVID workforce filled with Millennial and Gen Z workers, mental wellness and mental health no longer carry the stigma of the past and have now become top of mind for employers and employees. No longer can we “rub some dirt in it” to get a fix when one in five adults each year is affected by a mental health condition and 55% of them go untreated1. The PEO industry has an amazing opportunity to further bring big business benefits to small businesses across the country by adding mental health solutions to product and service portfolios.

The pandemic was a wake-up call for many of the largest U.S. companies who have since implemented a wide range of initiatives to address mental health concerns among their employees. PEOs have a role to play in addressing the issue of stress in the workplace and the social stigma surrounding mental health, for our internal employees, for our clients, and for our communities.

PEOs are often on the forefront of new and innovative ideas to help employers and employees grow their enrollment. One idea that has recently gained traction in the health insurance market is the Individual Coverage HRA, or ICHRA1. ICHRAs are a new type of group health insurance that can provide significantly lower premiums and offer another avenue to win or retain business.