As the competitive landscape for benefits brokers gets tougher,effectively communicating benefits strategies with clients—andhelping them better communicate those strategies with theiremployees— becomes even more critical. The ultimate goal ofcommunicating benefits strategies is to increase employeeretention—and a broker's business is on the line if communicationis weak, says Elizabeth Halkos, chief marketing officer ofPurchasing Power, an Atlanta firm that offers employee purchasingprograms through payroll deductions.

“If communication to employees is not strong, there is apotential for brokers to get feedback from their clients that theirbenefits are not as effective as the broker pitched them [to be],”Halkos says. “But the reality is that it could have to do less withthe products themselves and more about whether they are beingcommunicated in the right way.

The broker needs to be getting the client on board.” First onthe agenda should be finding out how each employee likes to receiveinformation – via a website, an email or a text message, throughsocial media, on paper or in person. Studies show that a third ofemployees still prefer to have their benefits explained in person.“It takes a lot of listening and learning, and brokers need toeducate their clients about this issue,” Halkos says. Just ascritical for the broker is learning how employers like to becontacted, as many clients still prefer to spend quality face timewith their brokers, she says.

Even so, brokers would do well to produce collateralmaterials—such as monthly newsletters—that introduce clients to newproducts or ancillary services, such as onsite enrollment, ahead oftime. “The broker landscape is competitive, and clients need toknow that the broker is staying ahead of the curve with the latesttrends in the industry,” Halkos says.

One particularly powerful way to sell clients on new products orservices, she says, is for the broker to present case studies onpast client experiences that demonstrate how well employeesunderstood being offered and how that, in turn, increased retentionfor those particular clients. “The broker could bring those proofpoints in a case study, which comes across as more legitimateinformation,” Halkos says.

Chris Bartnik, a senior vice president in the Washington, D.C.office of Wells Fargo Insurance Services, says his firm's goal isto be strategic advisers to middle-market clients. “For so long itwas about how insurance brokers can get their clients the cheapestrate, but the real differentiator now is intellectual capital,”Bartnik says. “Having uniquely skilled professionals in specialtypractices, such as population health care compliance, helps clientsdevelop an actionable benefit plan strategy.”

Wells' internal compliance team regularly produces legislativeupdates in which Bartnik and his team communicate through monthlynewsletters, webinars and seminars to clients and prospectiveclients. Topics discussed include benchmarking tools so clients canbetter compare their benefits strategies against those of peers andpopulation health management.

“There are only a couple of levers that employers have to managecosts: cost-shifting through plan design and payroll distributions,going into the marketplace and finding cheaper vendor partners andtrying to attack what really is the underlying cost determine –managing claims,” Bartnik says. “The best way to do that is throughemployee education on preventive care, encouraging greaterparticipation in wellness strategies.

We put it upon ourselves to help educate employers on how to getthese programs started, and what resources there are in themarketplace.” For most Wells Fargo clients, Bartnik and his teamalso are in charge of communicating benefits strategies to theiremployees, and that typically is accomplished through webinars andonsite meetings. Bartnik also encourages his clients to developprivate-label employee communication portals on websites such asBenefitfocus.com, abenefits exchange and administration site.

“The portal helps employers develop a year-round communicationstrategy, providing educational tools about such things as breastcancer or diabetes awareness,” Bartnik says. “It helps us providemore value.” As the provisions of the new federal health carereform law are rolled out, brokers can get ahead of theircompetitors if they position themselves as facilitators ofinformation, Bartnik says. “Health care reform is a game changer,”he says.

“Some employers may not want to pay for benefits anymore, sobrokers can help communicate to employees how to shop for healthinsurance on their own.” Jay Marchant, founder and principal ofAbout Your Benefits Inc., also looks at reform as a game changer.His firm is quick to communicate how employees might be personallyaffected by hot button issues, like reform. “Because employees areseeing so much in the news about this issue, there is a little bitof apprehension about what is happening,” Marchant says.

“As these provisions roll out, we can quantify how they wouldaffect employees personally, and they'll find that the provisionsare a lot less onerous on an individualized basis.” As therecession hit, Marchant saw a drop in contracts by employers whopaid for this type of communication themselves because their HRbudgets were squeezed.

“Brokers have the technical knowledge of the nuances of themarkets and the ability to find the best markets for particularplans that an employee would want, and they know how to look outfor the financial interests of their employer clients, butoftentimes they just want to outsource the communication piece,”Marchant says. But outsourcing crucial communication can be aproblem. “Employers can have the greatest benefits plan, but ifit's poorly communicated, then their people feel they have a poorplan,” Bartnik says.

“The greater you consider communication as part of yourstrategy, the better the employee satisfaction.” Marchant says hisfirm's niche is delivering personalized messages to employees abouttheir specific benefit packages, including the cost of each benefitthey receive and how much their employer is contributing. “It's allabout communicating total compensation and total rewards, soemployees will be more aware of what they're getting and thereforemore appreciative of the company,” Marchant says.

“The employer is paying the carrier and the broker a lot ofmoney to provide this information, and if they don't help theemployer in the recruitment and retention of employees, what's thevalue of having them?”  “On the other hand, when a brokerprovides them, it's paid for out of their commissions,” he says.“It's one additional service they provide rather than just beingthe marketers of the benefits and insurance, and their clientsreally appreciate the value-added service.”

Brokers who manage a suite of products for employers would bebetter suited to handle such communications, versus a broker whoonly handles a small piece, such as workers compensation orlong-term disability, Marchant says. Warren Rosaluk producesmarketing brochures for benefits brokers and other professionalsunder the name, The Brochure Guy. “Our brochures are a statementabout the person or their business, that they are professionals,which it helps build credibility and trust,” Rosaluk says.

“Research into human behavior and decision-making has found thatmost customers — both retail and wholesale — base their decisionsin large part on the person. Information on their firm, theirproducts and the price, are important, but in 70 percent of thecases, it's the person with whom they are dealing that is the mostcritical factor.” Rosaluk gives brokers two questionnaires – onefor them to personally complete about themselves and theirbusiness, and one for them to distribute to their clients, togather opinions about them.

In cases where permitted by regulators, Resoluk includes clienttestimonials in the brochures; in other cases, he incorporatestheir thoughts in his overall description of the broker. He alsoincludes black-and-white sketches of the brokers, similar to thestyle of The Wall Street Journal, because while not everyonephotographs well, “everyone sketches well” and it distinguishesbrokers' marketing materials, he says.

Finally, Rosaluk asks brokers' clients to rate them on a scaleof 1 to 10 on professional knowledge, product selection, service,amount of money that the broker has saved or earned for the client,affordability of their fees and/or commissions, and overallsatisfaction. Rosaluk then measures the clients' responses againstthose of his firm's other clients across the country. If the brokeris rated strongly, say in the top 15 percent of their industry,then Rosaluk will include that point in the brochure. 

No matter the rating, Rosaluk will review the ratings with thebroker after the brochure is completed. He suggests that brokersfirst send the brochures to each of their current clients, placingthem in an envelope with a cover letter that states something like,“This is my new brochure, if you participated in putting ittogether, please accept my thanks. If you're pleased with myservice, then please send this brochure to a colleague, friend orcoworker.”

“This encourages the brokers' clients to become referralgenerators,” Rosaluk says. “Nobody likes a stranger— everybodylikes to deal with someone they know and trust. So if they get areferral, that's really good, because there's an implied trustfactor.” Rosaluk also encourages brokers to leave the brochure withprospective clients after presentations or sales pitches.

“Whenever a broker tells someone or the benefit adviser tellspotential clients about their service, half of that will beforgotten or misunderstood,” he says. “The advantage of thebrochure is to make it easier for brokers to explain their serviceto others, particularly to decision-makers who didn't developrapport with them. And it will be much more effective if some oftheir personality shows through.”

Katie Kuehner-Hebert can be reached at [email protected].