Business is tough. The financial markets are struggling. Layoffs and cost cutting remains the order of the day. Can employee benefit offerings be far behind? At many businesses, obviously not. But does this have to hold true at yours?
Not according to many benefit managers. They say the key to defending - and even expanding -benefit programs is the ability to make the business case for them. It's not enough to argue that these programs improve quality of life or boost morale. Management needs to see the effect on the bottom line. In other words, they want benefit programs held to the same standards as the company's other business processes - what's the return on investment (ROI)?
Our employee benefits professionals can help by providing the bottom-line costs for your programs and the costs of any options you might wish to consider. With this information, you can present hard data to go with your success stories. For example, if you help a significant number of employees to quit smoking, so what? If you can put the answer to our "quit smoking" question in terms of its impact on health costs per employee, annual absenteeism rates, or meeting corporate mission statements about safety and retaining quality employees, now you're talking about ROI: The language that drives the budget.