One way Businessolver helps keep employees happy is through our concierge program. Much like a concierge at a hotel, Businessolver aims to provide five-star service to our employees, clients and potential clients.

Client Delight

Erica Adams runs Businessolver’s concierge program and is committed to client delight.  The concierge services provided by Businessolver ensure that our guests have an enjoyable and productive visit.

This means that travel plans are arranged, meeting preparations are complete, and a smiling face is there to greet visitors at the airport.  “We want to go above and beyond the normal eight to five,” said Adams. Before a visit, Erica checks to see if there’s anything we can do to make their stay more enjoyable.  Whether it be arranging lunches or providing ideas for things to do in Des Moines, Erica makes sure visitors feel at home.

A great example of Erica’s commitment occurred during a recent client visit.  A broken shoe resulted in an uncomfortable situation for one visitor. Rather than going shoeless the rest of her trip, she was rescued by Erica, who brought her a new pair of shoes.

Employee Delight

But Erica’s commitment doesn’t stop there; she knows that employees today wear many hats, and schedules can be demanding both at work and at home. Businessolver created a concierge program to “help employees live the Businessolver values to the fullest,” said Adams.

Many of the concierge services that Businessolver provides allow employees to spend more time focused on our business and our clients. If an employee is worried about everything they need to get done outside of work, they may not be fully engaged in best serving our clients. That’s why Erica arranges a variety services for employees, from dry cleaning pick-up to on-site haircuts to travel accommodations. Erica also coordinates a number of fun activities throughout the year to reward employees for their hard work.

“A lot is expected of employees at Businessolver, we all work very hard. The concierge services are just another way that Businessolver keeps employees engaged and provides a fun work environment,” said Adams.

So what does a typical day look like?

• Drive to the airport and pick up a client. Smile! Give a brief introduction to Des Moines on your way to the office.

• Go to Casey’s and get breakfast pizza for an employee anniversary.

• Deliver Swag tokens (recognition for being awesome) to five employees who have been recognized by their peers.

• Take a manager’s car in for service; stop by the store on the way back to pick up materials for a marketing presentation.

• Send out three employee anniversary emails.

• Order lunch for 170 employees.

• Order client lunch requests.

• Arrange for the dry cleaning to be picked up.

• Coordinate a schedule for employee massages.

• Meet the caterer at the door and help them set up lunch.

So THIS is what a company concierge does all day. And it’s only 11:15!

Success One Happy Employee/Client at a Time

Businessolver has seen the positive impact of the concierge program come to life. Employees have more time to build impactful relationships with our clients, and they feel rewarded and excited to come to work each day. Clients know that when they visit Businessolver, their stay will be enjoyable and their visit will be hassle-free. The concierge program and Erica’s dedication to client and employee delight are just another way Businessolver is creating and building strong relationships throughout our business.

Businessolver has prided itself on innovative technology and service since the doors opened in 1998. We’ve learned the challenge in innovating with the input of team members, clients and consultants isn’t the lack of ideas – it’s formalizing a plan for drawing out relevant ideas, evaluating the details and making a plan for implementing the innovation.

Businessolver formed a plan for intentional innovation more than a year ago. At the center is a tool that allows the Businessolver team to submit, build and vote on ideas, and innovation campaigns that draw out ideas related to specific topics. The results are a plethora of innovative ideas, some simple to implement and others that are larger in scale. “We’ve had almost 150 ideas submitted since December,“ said Shari Naughton, director of Process Excellence at Businessolver. Of those, 10 percent have already been implemented.

Ideas are submitted and reviewed by a cross-functional innovation team to understand the impact of each idea. “The team evaluates, scopes and prioritizes each project,” Naughton said. “From there, we begin implementation on the ‘Just Do It’ ideas that are fast, easy and inexpensive, and kick off project plans for the more intensive ideas.”

What makes Businessolver’s innovation plans especially relevant is the development cycle. “We push new updates to Benefitsolver every week,” said Naughton. That allows clients to reap the benefits of technology innovations immediately, not months or years later.

“We develop innovations that make a difference,” said Naughton. “Our intentional innovation plans are helping us be more strategic for the sake of clients – which aligns with our ultimate goal of delight.”

If you’re looking for a benefits partner focused on consistent innovation, talk to your Businessolver representative.

Businessolver follows “The Businessolver Way” as a guiding set of principles to help us reach our mission: Grow our business, Delight our customers. One way Businessolver is making our mission come to life is through our daily Stand Up meetings. The goal of each meeting is to make sure we are driving our business forward and sending a consistent message across the organization.

When team members hear Bob Marley’s “Get Up, Stand Up” every morning at 8:25 they know it’s time to do just that.  Teams head to their meeting rooms to begin discussing the day’s activities, challenges they face, and successes they are experiencing.

Any onlooker will quickly notice, these are not your typical meetings. Employees are engaged and the energy in the room is contagious. Each team receives an agenda each morning, following a similar agenda each day.

First up, team members share one success from the previous day. This can be something positive that happened at work or in their personal life.

Next, team members discuss any events happening in the company such as client visits, events within the company, etc.

The third agenda item is called Raving Fans. A testimonial or piece of client feedback is shared. Hearing this positive feedback is highly motivating.  It congratulates the teams for going above and beyond for our clients.

Next up is Feature Flash.  This is where one piece of functionality in the system is discussed.  System knowledge is incredibly important to providing superior levels of service to our clients. This agenda item allows team members to learn something new or interesting that our system provides and how it can help our clients.

Each day a principle from The Businessolver Way is selected for a discussion or activity.  The next agenda item focuses on an activity or discussion around this principle. For example, active listening was chosen at a recent meeting. Team members watched a quick video and completed an interactive exercise to work on their own active listening skills.

The last agenda item focuses on the team and individual operational metrics.  Teams are given an update on their metrics, such as how many outstanding projects they have, what the call volume is, and client satisfaction levels.  Next each team member gives their own personal metrics. This is a great example of the teamwork that takes in Businessolver. As members share their personal metrics, they are given the opportunity to ask for feedback, solicit help on a difficult project, or offer support to other team members who may need it.

As the meeting finishes and team members head out to tackle the challenges of the day, a real sense of accomplishment has already been established. These meetings further our culture and our common language. Team members have their goals aligned, they are motivated by successes that are occurring across the organization, they have built a camaraderie and trust with one another, and they have new knowledge that will allow them to better assist their clients.

A lot of powerful and useful information is shared during these 30 minute meetings, and they happen every day at Businessolver. Contact your Businessolver representative to talk about putting our culture to work for you.

Businessolver’s online enrollment platform, Benefitsolver, can automatically calculate retros and apply the necessary adjustments to your payroll file. Or, if you’d rather, we can track the differences without adjusting them and let you determine whether or not to alter the deduction amounts. “Many of our clients would be surprised at how much they can recoup,” says Businessolver payroll expert Lisa Curtis.

Another system feature that has helped clients recoup costs is the Payroll Comparison tool. “Whaaaat?!!!” you may be thinking. “But how does it work?!” Businessolver can import your payroll file containing actual deductions taken, and run a quick comparison against the deduction file generated in our system. Any discrepancies identified are reviewed and brought to your attention for correction.

The Payroll Comparison feature is really crucial during implementation, Curtis said. Data discrepancies are identified right away and corrected before the system goes live. Having a clean file at go live helps keep discrepancies to a minimum down the road. Like our retro calculation feature, Payroll Compare can help you save money due to errors that might not be caught elsewhere.

Retro Adjustments and Payroll Compare: just two of the features that help Businessolver stand out from the crowd.

“Michael Jordan was an example of determination and dedication,” Eagle told Team 4 one day during March Madness.  “He lived those values every day. On the court there was nobody better, nobody who made their team better, than MJ,” Eagle said. “He pushed himself to the limit and always made his team better.”

Eagle’s strategy was this: each day a different team member wears the jersey. It’s presented in the morning standup. “When you have this jersey,” Eagle told the team, “you are to be the best you can be. Push yourself to learn more, and do everything you can to make your team better that day.”

Has it worked?

“It’s been brilliant,” Eagle said.

For example, one team member, Larry Kalvig, got the jersey on his first day back from vacation–a cruise, no less. “I could see the look on his face that morning when he got it. He knew what it meant,” Eagle said. “But it gave him an extra boost that day.”

“I was hoping it wouldn’t be me that day,” Larry admitted. “I was tired, I was missing being on the cruise, I knew I had thousands of emails and lots of work waiting for me. But when it was me, I graciously accepted and it gave me a better perspective of the day,” he explained. “It gave me an energy. Rather than dreading the rest of the day, I ended up performing better than I probably would have.”  Larry says the jersey idea really helps solidify the team concept at Businessolver.

The jersey is presented toward the end of each morning’s standup, after each team member has given a rundown on the upcoming day.

“Today it was me,” said Mark Schultz of a recent experience. “I kind of thought I had a shot at it because I have a lot going on today and I have an all-day training tomorrow so I’ve had to work extra hard all week to be prepared to be away from it for the day.”

Mark said he arrived at work with a “minor panic situation,” and rather than waste time worrying about it, he attacked the problem head on immediately after the standup meeting where he was presented with the jersey.

Megan Riedel got the shirt on a day that she was working on three implementations. “I got a lot done,” she said. “It definitely helped.”

When you partner with Businessolver, whether or not Team 4 is your team, you get motivated and creative leaders like Ryan Eagle. Every day. You get top performance. Every day.  You get individuals contributing to strong teams. Every day.

According to MetLife’s 10^th annual Employee Benefits Trends report, 41 percent of surveyed employers say voluntary benefits are a significant benefits strategy – up from 32 percent last year. And young talent is asking for voluntary options. The MetLife study found that 56 percent of Gen Y and 58 percent of Gen X, compared to 44 percent of Younger Boomers and 41 percent of Older Boomers, were interested in a wider array of voluntary benefits they can choose to purchase on their own..

Offering voluntary can also be directly tied to employee loyalty. According to the 2012 Aflac WorkForces Report, “workers who are extremely or very satisfied with their benefits program are nine times more likely to stay with their employer, compared to those workers who are dissatisfied with their benefits program.”

So how are you addressing voluntary options? Businessolver is focused on a comprehensive voluntary strategy that can deliver results for brokers, employers and employees.

A Different Perspective on Voluntary

Unlike the old standard of high-pressure, face-to-face enrollers, Businessolver’s voluntary approach is to consider a holistic and educational approach to benefits.

“We focus on the Total Benefits Dollar,” said Businessolver Director of Benefit Advisory Services Jen Daniel. “It is important that employees understand all of their options and make selections that meet their individual needs.” Employees are supported by our guided enrollment through Benefitsolver – our single source benefits technology – or by our one-on-one phone enrollment.” Daniel points out that service representatives are licensed, carrier appointed and salaried, not commissioned.

Brokers and employers also have the advantage of working with Daniel, a Businessolver resource who consults on voluntary strategies including enrollment, carrier and group product selection, and more.

Carrier Neutral

Benefitsolver’s advanced connectivity via single sign on and web services with (20 and counting) carriers streamlines underwriting and evidence of insurability (EOI) processes by opening live communication between systems. “We’ve seen participation rates climb with groups because it is a seamless online process,” Daniel said. And it happens with a wide variety of carriers. The current list includes the ABCs of carriers from Aetna and Allstate to The Standard and Unum. “We pride ourselves on being carrier agnostic,” Daniel said. “This allows us to provide a variety of options because we’re not tied to one or a few carriers.”

Why Does it Matter?

Businessolver’s comprehensive voluntary enrollment structure benefits everyone involved: employees, employers, brokers, consultants and carriers. Employees are able to enroll with a variety of tools and spend a Total Benefit Dollar on the solutions that fit their needs – including core and voluntary benefit choices. Employers are able to offer a voluntary lineup that creates stickiness for top talent with a technology partner that makes enrollment and billing easier all year round. Brokers and consultants are able to choose from a large selection of voluntary options from nearly any carrier, and can enjoy higher participation due to seamless web service integration. Finally, carriers can realize increased participation that can be otherwise affected by manual underwriting and EOI processes.

Rachel Wegmann joined Businessolver as a Training Specialist on April 9th. Rachel holds a BA in marketing from UNI. She comes to Businessolver from Liberty Bank where she was Operations Training Manager; she has also been in corporate training at Nationwide. Rachel is thrilled to be at Businessolver where she can “fully embrace the creative chaos going on all around.”

Cheryl Wiese

Cheryl Wiese joined Businessolver as a National Accounts Executive March 26. Cheryl most recently worked as a Senior Account Manager at Principal Financial Group managing large client relationships as well as relationships with carriers and brokers. Cheryl has also been employed by Marsh, CIGNA and Coventry Health Care. “I have so much respect for an organization that really lives their values – and I’ve been around long enough to know it’s very rare,” Cheryl said.

A majority of programs are likely in the clear. Programs that are educational in nature and have voluntary participation are the safest, legally speaking. Yet those programs don’t always yield the ultimate outcomes employers want. So some employers are pushing the limits of their wellness programs to achieve planned results. Before an employer takes steps toward stiffening a wellness program, they should consider the laws that govern them (from Business Insurance):

• HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) restricts incentives or penalties to 20% of an employee’s total health care premium. In addition, it requires options to outcome-based incentive requirements for disabled employees or those unable to meet the requirement.
• ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act) requires plan documentation for all wellness programs and could require benefits and incentives to be extended under COBRA continuing coverage provisions.
• ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) limits employer-required medical exams for employees. It also blocks discrimination and/or retaliation against disabled employees.
• GINA (Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act) prohibits employer discrimination against employees based on genetic information, including family or medical history.

Employers should also be aware of state laws that may have an impact wellness plans. Want to play it safe and effect change? Limit access to employee medical information to what only is necessary to apply incentives or penalties so you avoid the appearance of making an employment decision based on health information.

Have you developed a comprehensive wellness program? Is it integrated with your health enrollment? How are you communicating program details? If you don’t have solid answers for those questions, contact your Businessolver representative to discuss how you can deliver an integrated communication and enrollment platform that drives accountability for employees.

Matt Bower says he has never worked for a company that values its employees as highly as Businessolver does. Joining in March as a Client Services Manager, Matt graduated from the University of Dubuque with a degree in flight operations and spent the early part of his career as the primary flight instructor at Exec 1 Aviation in Ankeny. He has also been employed by Holmes Murphy and Marsh. Matt is especially impressed by the Businessolver concept that “delighted employees delight clients.”

Doug Hibbs joined Businessolver March 12 as an Anaylyst. Doug most recently worked at Fiserv as a conversion coordinator. He has also been with Boatmen’s Bank in the roles of merchant processing and credit card representative. “I’m very excited about joining Businessolver and this ‘Client Centric Team’ environment,” Matt said. “I’m anxious to help delight our clients!”

“The genuinely open and honest environment” was what attracted Jeremy Lind to Businessolver, “along with the focus and core value of ‘delighting the client’ rather than just focusing solely on quantity metrics.” Jeremy joined Businessolver in March as an Analyst. Jeremy was the creator and developer of CycloneFanatic.com which became one of the top five most visited websites in the state of Iowa at the time of its sale. He spent eight years at Marsh where he was most recently a senior business analyst on strategic initiatives.

Stacie Mosely, who joined us March 12 as a Client Services Manager, most recently was youth program coordinator for the Waukee YMCA. She holds a BA from Iowa State University in sociology and psychology.  Stacie has also been employed by Great-West Healthcare and Lutheran Social Services.  “I love Businessolver because of the outstanding people and the focused culture and work they produce,” Stacie said during her third week on the job.

Jason Monroe, whose first day at Businessolver was March 12, came from Allscripts, where he was an interfaces project manager. He has also been employed by MediNotes and Mediacom. “The people at Businessolver are genuine and open,” he said, “a true credit to the organization and the culture that has been established.”

Businessolver’s “family” feeling is what Melissa Noble likes about her experience so far. She came to Businessolver as a Client Services Manager in March with six years of experience; the past four years she was with Marsh in the roles of program specialist, account manager and service account manager. She holds a BA in criminology from the University of Northern Iowa. “I’m excited to be here with Businessolver to be a part of an innovative, growing company!”

Diane Pohlmeier, Director of Client Operations, came to Businessolver in March from Marsh where she was VP of Premium Accounting. Diane has earned numerous designations throughout her career and has a passion for personal development and continued learning. Diane is thrilled with the warm welcome she received at Businessolver and looks forward to expanding her knowledge and building relationships with her new colleagues.

“Every day brings new and different challenges,” to new RFP Manager Sarah Sinclair, who joined Businessolver in February. “There are so many opportunities to become more involved in the company.” Sarah graduated from Iowa State University with a BA in advertising and speech communication. She spent three years at Aviva Investors as RFP coordinator. Sarah has also been employed by GeoLearning (now Sum Total); Sunbelt Business Advisors and The Des Moines Register.

The family atmosphere is what attracted Client Services Manager Cheryl White, whose first day was March 12. Cheryl graduated from Drake University with a BS in business administration/ marketing, and most recently worked at Commercial Resources Inc in Centerville. “I am looking forward to the opportunity to get to know employees on both a personal and professional level,” she said.

What makes those numbers more interesting is the fact that employers’ confidence that health care benefits will be offered at their organization a decade from now continues to decline. According to the 17th Annual Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health Employer Survey on Purchasing Value in Health Care, only 23 percent of employers feel confident they will be offering health benefits in 2021. Juxtapose that nugget against 66 percent of employees saying health benefits are important to employee loyalty and it looks like we have quite the conundrum on our hands.