Worksite Smarter.
Do you have what it takes to make Worksite Better?

Posted on Jan 24, 2024

In the dynamic landscape of employee benefits, I believe the role of benefits producers has never been more critical as we start the new year. It’s also a competitive market out there for companies seeking qualified and loyal employees — driving the need to enhance the value they provide to their workforce. Combined, this creates a unique and exciting opportunity to transform today’s workplace benefits for working Americans.

This statement may parallel your own business strategies, but you might be asking how exactly can we make that happen? And that’s a great question, but just a quick note and emphasis on the word “we,” because you shouldn’t have to go it alone. It’s important to choose a carrier (or carriers) that is aligned to helping you connect with your clients.

I’d like to delve into three principles — making voluntary benefits stronger, easier, and smarter. Together these key pillars are designed to empower benefits producers with the foundation needed to offer compelling benefits packages and servicing that resonates effectively with your clients in 2024 and beyond.

1) Making it Stronger: Help build financial well-being
It’s about unlocking the power of voluntary benefits for working Americans through access to affordable products that include the opportunity to choose the coverage and features they want.

What you can do:

• Collaborate with your clients to uncover financial wellness gaps that their current benefits offering may not address given the demographics and life stages of their workforce.
• Evaluate current benefits portfolio mix for opportunities to include voluntary products that help give employees access to more individualized plans with features and flexible coverage levels for life, income, or asset protection, as well as help protect savings from potential unexpected events.
• Don’t make this a once and done activity. Working with your carrier partner, periodically assess the effectiveness of benefits offerings throughout the year with data analysis on plan performance vs. expectations.

2) Making it Easier: Deliver a benefits experience that makes sense
Simplicity is paramount in the busy world of benefits election and administration. As a benefits producer, you can add tremendous value to clients with a seamless implementation process that streamlines onboarding and enrollment — and then provides ongoing proactive case stewardship with an experienced account management team.

What you can do:

• Partner with benefits carriers that offer flexible technology solutions and online portals to help ensure a user-friendly, more integrated enrollment and benefits management experience — paving the way to greater plan participation and plan satisfaction.
• Take advantage of resources that can help shore up your success. For example, at MassMutual, each case is assigned a designated Implementation Manager who will work with you to create a case-specific strategy to maximize participation and can help facilitate a smooth onboarding and enrollment.
• Leverage simplified and engaging employee communications that use plain language to explain complex concepts and offer multi-channel communications in various media formats to help reach audiences with different content preferences.

3) Making it Smarter: Sharpen your edge and stay ahead of the curve
Your clients are counting on you for guidance and recommendations. In our data-driven world, knowledge and insights can give you a competitive advantage and help you present yourself as an informed thought leader, enhancing your personal value proposition.

What you can do:

• Work with employers to collect data on employee preferences and feedback to identify trends and areas of opportunity, such as conducting off-cycle enrollments and focused re-enrollments offering guarantee issue or simplified underwriting.
• Research emerging benefits trends and identify innovative product and coverage options that go beyond traditional benefits offerings and provide unique and flexible features that meet the needs of today’s diverse workforce.
• Understand your ultimate customer: working Americans. We can help. MassMutual Worksite releases a monthly Workforce Financial Stability Score^SM (WFSS) that helps gauge their level of financial confidence. You can also check out our Annual Assessment of Financial Well-Being report, and upcoming quarterly updates for even deeper dives into our WFSS survey findings.

By implementing these principles and actions, benefits producers can start to take their business to the next level — and truly deliver on the promise of making Worksite Better for them, their clients and the working Americans that count on voluntary benefits to support their financial well-being.

If you’re curious to see how we define Worksite Better at MassMutual, and you have two minutes to spare, watch our video and discover first-hand how making voluntary benefits stronger, easier, and smarter is possible today and you can get started now.

Wishing you a joyous and prosperous 2024! May it be filled with new opportunities, success, and continued commitment to support the financial well-being of working Americans.