Marketplace gives employers insider information to facilitate benchmarking
This article was produced in partnership with CloudAdvisors.
Employee benefits planning is widely seen as an arduous process that demands hundreds of hours of industry research and tens of thousands of dollars in advisor fees to produce an insurance package that may or may not measure up to market standards.
“When I was an advisor, I was being paid to identify problems, and paid again to provide the solutions,” says benefits expert Matt Lister. “We were always hearing about new benefits options, always trying to understand what was different or better, and always fighting to get accurate quotes to pass along to clients.”
Ten years ago, Lister envisioned a system that would streamline processes, remove operational constraints, and democratize an industry that traditionally favoured the larger companies. He went on to conduct nationwide research that confirmed a gaping need within the industry and then partnered with a tech-savvy team to build what would become the future of benefits brokerage.
Today, Lister is the CEO and co-founder of CloudAdvisors, Canada’s leading online employee benefits marketplace for group insurance brokers, insurers, and employers. Launched in 2015, the AI-powered platform currently serves 100 advisory firms, 15,000 Canadian employers, and 106 benefit providers.
Marked by mergers, acquisitions and new entrants from the US and Canada, today’s employee benefits industry is complex, fluid, and difficult to stay on top of. As a result, many company packages have remained unchanged for years.
“A major carrier conducted a study not long ago which looked at all their clients’ major changes in plans and found that 90 percent hadn’t made a single amendment,” Lister says. “Instead, they were simply renewing the same dated coverage.”
CloudAdvisors simplifies the employee benefits planning and implementation process by giving employers free and instant access to providers, products, industry trends, and an AI-powered advice assistant. HR leaders can conduct research, compare plans, request quotes, upload their own booklet to benchmark against the competition, and customize plans built with a focus on meeting employee needs and expectations.
In August 2022, CloudAdvisors launched Version 3 of their platform to provide a sleeker, more user-friendly interface, and the option for employers to purchase products and coverage directly from the platform.
“Now employers can go online, create a free account, and they can either invite their existing provider or they can match with an advisor who’s already on the platform. We’ve removed the barriers that existed in the supply chain to give HR leaders access to the same products and information expert advisors have always had,” Lister explains.
An all-in-one digital platform, CloudAdvisors offers benchmarking, plans options, instant quotes, solution matches, AI-powered recommendations, and Bar score reports, something that is unique to the service.
“Bar stands for ‘benefits’, ‘attraction’, and ‘retention’,” says Lister. “It allows employers to set the bar for where they want to rank within their sector. This means a tech company that wants to rank in the 99th percentile can find out what kind of coverage they need to secure that position, and companies that believe they have a pretty competitive plan can quickly confirm whether or not that’s true.”
The BAR score goes hand-in-and with benchmarking functionality that compares plans by industry, province, and company size, and generates a full summary report in under a minute. Employers can search and compare competing benefits plans, stay on top of gaps, risks, and opportunities, and can take a deep dive into insurance quotes to ensure they understand exactly what they’re paying for.
While the pandemic caused massive disruptions in the way companies conduct business, it also caused employees to re-evaluate their career choices.
“Now more than ever it’s crucial company leaders understand what the current labour force values, what’s trending in the industry, and what they can do to attract and retain top talent,” explains Lister, who says there’s been a major shift in benefits packages to reflect more diverse coverage requirements that include mental health programs, short and long-term virtual and in-person medical options, prescriptions coverage, pet insurance, and retirement savings plans.
An increase in disability claims is also on the horizon, warns Lister, who says current search criteria shows more and more employers are researching disability claims management. He attributes this trend to increases in mental health challenges exacerbated by the pandemic, but also physical injuries related to ergonomically poor work-from-home conditions.”
CloudAdvisors squares that circle by allowing employers to experiment with plans options based on reliable, up-to-date industry data. “One of the exciting things about Version 3 is that we’ve created a kind of push-pull,” says Lister. “It’s no longer about advisors pushing a new service. Instead, it’s about employers and HR leaders pulling what they need into the equation.”
CloudAdvisors puts employers and advisors on equal footing. It gives companies of any size access to a once restricted marketplace so they can piece together plans regardless of which advisor or which insurer they’re working with. And as employers pick and choose their products and plans, employees can pick and choose among companies demonstrating investment in their top priorities.
“This is something that’s never happened before,” says Lister. “Now the benefits industry benefits everybody.”
