Voluntary Benefits FAQs
What is voluntary insurance coverage?
Voluntary insurance coverage (also called voluntary benefits) is optional insurance offered in addition to medical coverage. Employees can choose from a number of insurance products to complement their coverage and to help achieve a greater degree of financial stability. The plans may be 100% paid for by employees or their cost can be shared with the employer.
How can offering voluntary benefits to my clients help me grow my business?
More and more employees seek and even expect worksite benefits from their employers. Introducing or improving benefits offerings with voluntary products can help your clients attract and retain talent, without straining benefits budgets. That’s especially valuable to your small business clients. In addition, insurance plans such as dental encourage employees to have regular checkups and reward their efforts to maintain a healthy lifestyle. When employees are healthy, they are happier and more productive. And that’s good for every company’s bottom line.
Why should my clients offer voluntary benefits to their employees?
Many employers are shifting more of the cost of medical insurance to employees and encouraging them to decide for themselves which additional benefits to get. Voluntary benefits can help fill the gaps in employees’ insurance, giving greater protection to their health and income.
Employees feel very positive about voluntary benefits chosen by their employers. They see it as an endorsement, believe they’re getting affordable group rates, and appreciate the convenience of being able to enroll at work and pay through payroll deductions. Employers appreciate that this makes for happier, more loyal employees and that these benefits can be offered with little or no impact to their benefits budget.
Why do employees need voluntary benefits?
Medical insurance may no longer be an adequate safety net. As a result, more financial responsibility is falling on employees. But many employees don’t have enough savings to pay the hospital bills if they have a medical emergency or to cover their basic expenses if an accident or illness prevents them from working. Voluntary benefits can help protect the savings they do have and help them maintain their lifestyle.
What are the key elements of a voluntary benefits offering?
A strong voluntary insurance program includes product offering, benefits communications (focusing on education and engagement), enrollment, and administration. This includes the support of knowledgeable and responsive insurance carrier representatives. But since every company is different and the needs of both employers and employees vary greatly, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Technology is playing an increasingly bigger role to help meet those varied challenges and customize communications, as well as the enrollment experience. Insurance companies that offer technology with comprehensive and flexible capabilities are a valued resource to both brokers and their clients.
What voluntary benefits does Guardian offer?
Guardian has a robust, flexible portfolio that includes both traditional benefits and supplemental health insurance products. Traditional insurance includes Dental, Vision, Life, and Disability. Supplemental Health Insurance includes Accident, Cancer, Critical Illness, and Hospital Indemnity. Participation requirements are minimal. Guardian can provide voluntary employee benefits for small businesses with as few as two employees. And Guardian offers competitive guaranteed issue amounts.
How will Guardian support me and my clients?
Guardian’s local sales resources help create a comprehensive and customizable voluntary benefits program. A dedicated enrollment team combines a data-driven and qualitative approach to develop enrollment and communication strategies. Account management for cases down to 100 lives provides ongoing support to brokers and their clients.
We offer extensive online resources that include Guardian Anytime. This proprietary, easy-to-use online enrollment and account management platform is available at no cost to companies. In addition, flexible insurance billing solutions help clients manage their worksite insurance costs, reconcile their bills, and process employee payroll deductions.
How does Guardian support benefits communication?
Guardian provides a wide array of tools online, onsite, on paper, and on the phone. We ensure employees receive the information they need, when they need it most to effectively guide them to the right benefits decisions. We support this approach with:
- Guardian Anytime, which can increase participation with a simple, robust, and educational user experience
- Onsite Guardian-appointed enrollers and Employee Benefits Hotline representatives, who complement benefits communications and further inform employees to help them select their benefits
How does Guardian leverage technology to make implementation and administration easier?
We offer full online enrollment capabilities for Guardian-only or multi-carrier products, including medical. Enrollment options include:
- GuardianAnytime.com for Guardian-only product enrollment
- Common Census and BenAdmin Alliance partners for multi-carrier product enrollments
We also provide:
- Online Evidence of Insurability (EOI) to enable fast decision turnaround in real time
- Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) to transmit member data quickly via a secured transfer protocol
- Flexible billing capabilities that make it easier to reconcile bills and process employee payroll deductions
With GuardianAnytime.com’s 24/7, easy online self-service portal, you can combine all non-medical products on one platform, with one group plan number and one bill.
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