3 key elements for small business benefits plans

When putting together a benefits package for your small business clients, make sure it has these three essential qualities:

1) Easy to use

Since many small businesses are offering benefits for the first time, they may not have the expertise and resources to properly educate employees on how to choose coverage and make elections. It’s important to design solutions that are understandable to most people with technology that’s simple to access.

2) Cost effective

Given that most small businesses are under a constant cost crunch, encourage them to select packaged discounts and other lower-cost options to meet employee needs in the most inexpensive way.

3) Customizable solutions

Since many employees will not get benefits anywhere else, it’s important to try to cover as many of their basic needs as possible. 

The cost of providing an employee benefits program may deter some small business owners. But that's why the need for brokers to also be benefits advisors has increased so greatly. There are many different types of products and plans to offer, as well as packages and discounts.

Selling to small businesses help you grow your own business

By working with Guardian, you’ll be able to create custom, cost-effective benefits solutions that help to fulfill a variety of needs for your small business clients. Plus, our small business packages can help you qualify for Special Producer Compensation (SPC) that includes multiple commission schedule options, convenient direct deposit of commissions, and a Special Producer Compensation (SPC) Bonus Program:

• Up to 7% payout on new business and renewal case paid premium and fees
• Additional 2% payout on new business cases with 1,000 or more insured lives
• Dental and Vision paid premium valued at 100% when calculating a plan’s bonus

The advantages of non-medical insurance coverages:

Employee protection

• Good dental care can keep employees healthy and productive which helps to control costs. Guardian’s innovative offerings encourage preventive care supported by one of the nation’s strongest networks.
• Since many small businesses have fewer employees to share the workload while a colleague is out on disability, offering disability insurance can help employees get back to work on time.
• Life insurance is a product many employees need to purchase to protect their families. Offering a competitively-priced plan with innovative options can be a real plus for a small business employee.
• Regular eye exams can detect diseases like glaucoma, diabetes, and blindness, so providing vision insurance helps employee’s overall health as well as their eyesight.
• Given the amount of non-medical expenses that can arise during a critical illness, supplemental health coverage helps employees by paying benefits that can be used to cover any kind of expense.
• Innovative value-added products and services are available: Employee Assistance Programs (provides members and their families with counseling for stress management, dependent/elder care, nutrition, fitness, and legal/financial issues), Travel-Related Insurance Protection, flexible spending accounts, and Will Preparation services.

While offering these plans to their employees, companies need to know there are options that both support their program’s effectiveness as well as help protect the bottom line.

Business protection

• Absence Management services that support/further extend the effectiveness of your disability program to get employees back to work.
• Guardian delivers flexible implementation and service options to streamline processes and reduce administration burdens. 

Design your small business benefits plans with Guardian

Why should you entrust Guardian with your benefits plans for small employers? Because we’ve been an industry leader in small group benefits for over 60 years. Instead of focusing exclusively on the dollars from larger corporate clients, we’ve remained true to the spirit of American entrepreneurism and continued to serve small businesses.

• Today, we’re as committed as ever to providing coverages that give your clients an advantage in the marketplace.
• Our Dental, Vision, Life, Disability and Supplemental Health plans, flexible services, and multi-product discounts give you options for crafting the right employee benefits plans for each of your small business clients.
• We even have a dedicated sales force that is exclusively focused on serving small employers with 2-24 lives. These sales representatives specialize in identifying and meeting the nuanced needs of this segment, and are supported by a service team that answers questions on in-force business, makes amendments, and helps with renewals.
• Our online enrollment tools that help employees of sign up for coverages, which raises participation levels. GuardianAnytime, our secure website, gives you 24/7 access to benefits information and transactions, such as clients’ eligibility and payment history, forms, benefits summaries, and commissions.

We’ll be with you every step of the way, helping you sort through challenges, define strategies, and implement tactics to get results. And, we’re good at it. Your clients consistently rank Guardian 9 out of 10 on responsiveness, knowledge and courtesy⁴.

Employee benefits aren’t just for large companies

Small businesses are the fastest growing employer segment in America. Each year, over 600,000 small businesses are launched¹, bringing new products and services to the marketplace and creating more jobs for working Americans.

Running a small business, however, is filled with challenges – saving time, making money, and managing people. On top of all that, small businesses must compete with other companies for talent and customers. Given that most small businesses fail within 10 years², driving profitability every day is critical to survival.

Only 3 in 10 small business workers are highly satisfied with their employee benefits package.³

Offering an employee benefits program is a great way for owners to invest in their business. Employees are looking for employers who provide coverage – it’s a reason to join a company – so small businesses that have an employee benefits program can attract more productive employees. And, since no one wants to leave a company with good benefits, it improves retention and decreases the cost of turnover and training new employees.

Over 100,000 small businesses rely on Guardian for employee benefits coverage, that’s 90% of our clients. We’re proud to say small employers are a big part of our business!

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