Given the strain that health care costs can put on your employees, doing your best as their employer to keep that money in your workers' pockets can have an enormous positive impact on their lives. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Your employees are a huge part of what drives your company's success, and they deserve a benefits plan that reflects the time and effort they give to you and your business. This was the overarching concept that pushed me to stop being a traditional broker and become a business- and employee-focused benefits adviser instead, and it hit me when my own employees stepped up in a way I never anticipated.

On February 26, 2013, I got the news that my son had passed away unexpectedly at the age of 22. Over the next two years, my loss left little room for anything else in my mind, and I was mentally, physically and emotionally unable to run my business as I had been before the tragedy. Were it not for the efforts of my employees, my business may very well have gone under, but instead, they helped carry both me and the company through a very difficult time.

Related: How to retain good employees? Make them feel valued.