Building a high-quality, cost-effective benefits plan requires putting a lot of pieces together in exactly the right way, and when you're searching for an advisor, you should look for someone who knows how those pieces fit best for your business. A great advisor won't assume that they know everything about every aspect of the health care industry, but they will know how to find the right industry experts and bring them together to build unique solutions for your company.

Here's why you should always work with an advisor who wants to build the perfect benefits team:

The missing ingredients

The health care industry is a massive, complex machine with countless moving parts. A great advisor will know how all those parts work together to help the machine function properly, but they're unlikely to know everything about the parts themselves.

This concept is the same in virtually any other field as well. A bakery manager, for example, knows how to make customers happy by combining great food with great service. In the kitchen, though, the bakers are the ones mixing the right ingredients together and heating them at the perfect temperature for the perfect amount of time. And of course, the bakers' success relies on the skills and knowledge of the people growing the ingredients and manufacturing the ovens.

Just like customers at a bakery, your job as an employer isn't to worry about all the smaller processes going on in the background of your benefits plan. If you have a great advisor, they'll put the perfect team together so you can relax and enjoy the final product.

Connecting the connections

Your advisor doesn't need to know how to perform surgery in order to be great at their job. Instead, they should be experts in connecting the health care specialists who can optimize the quality of your plan. This means that your advisor should be able to:

Be aware of the areas in which they need specialists' advice
Know where to look for subject matter experts
Understand how to apply the specialists' advice to reduce costs and improve the quality of your plan

This is why finding an advisor who understands the health care supply chain is crucial to the success of your own plan. By seeking out the right experts and being willing to team up with them, your advisor can create a team of specialists who can maximize the positive impact of your plan at every point, from pharmaceuticals to benefits administration to primary care.

No more know-it-alls

Don't be fooled by brokers who claim to be experts in every area of the benefits industry. In fact, being unwilling to ask questions or seek outside help should be a major red flag in your search for an advisor. Can you imagine the chaos if the aforementioned bakery manager tried to fix a faulty oven instead of calling in a trained repairman? A broker who makes decisions about your plan without consulting specialists could have the same effect on your plan, burning up your savings opportunities and charring the quality of your employees' care.

Advisors who search for specialists to partner with are simply ensuring that you get the very best from your plan. The health care supply chain is long and complicated, and your advisor will have more success managing it effectively if they can consult with the experts within it.

A recipe for success & savings

Being willing to admit when expert advice is needed can be one of the most important qualities your advisor can have. By identifying how specialists could help your plan and making the right connections, your advisor avoids the toxic trap of assuming that their existing knowledge is all that's needed to optimize your plan. The end result is likely to be a pretty sweet plan for both your business and your employees.

Jim Blachek is co-founder of The Benefits Group.

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Instant Insights /

How a specialist can help you cook up the perfect benefits plan

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