Employee benefits costs keep rising. Health care reform legislation is a snarl. Employees are cranky about changes in their benefits and increases in their deductibles and copayments.

What should employers and their trusted advisors do? Employee

benefits experts say that voluntary benefits—employee-paid life, health and disability insurance and ancillary services—can provide valuable supple­ments to employer-paid benefits and give employers something positive to communicate to their employees at a time when most messages are negative.

"Dare to be different," says David Harvey a former employee benefits consultant and now an instructor for the agents education program at the International Foundation for Employee Benefit Plans in Brookfield, Wisconsin. "Give employees some creative choices."

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Although Bob Risk, vice president of sales for Lincoln Financial Group’s Group Protec­tion Division, has always believed in the importance of disability programs, among many people in the industry, he says, "It has always kind of been the ‘other’ benefit—medical, 401(k), and, ‘oh yeah, we have disability.’" With people losing jobs and income, that’s changing.

Neal Lucchi, senior vice president of worksite products and services for HM Insurance Group, says his firm has seen growth in disability insurance and related products. "A number of products—critical illness, accident and disability—share the same characteristics," he explains. "If someone has a health event and an asset protection issue that arises from it, they all help meet a need."

According to Peggy Hayes, director of marketing at American Public Life Insurance Company, employer interest is up in voluntary group disability. "Employers are stretched with their benefit allocation," she explains. "As health insurance costs increase at three times the rate of inflation, they need ways to provide rich, valuable benefits without increasing the bottom line."

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Children build cool buildings with Legos. Agents and brokers build their employee benefits practice with diverse services and strategic alliances as well as insurance savvy.

Group health plans, self-insurance, claims services and cost data analysis may be the cornerstones of an agency's employee benefits practice; but other value-added services, including wellness and health management, human resource management, legal and regulatory compliance, accounting management and business education, all contribute to the architecture of success, say the executives of Knauff Insurance, Inc., in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Founded in 1969, Knauff Insurance is one of the largest full-service agents and brokers in the Carolinas with a thriving employee benefits practice that contributes about 30% to 35% of the firm's gross revenues annually--and trending upward a little more each year.

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"Present but not accounted for." Every office has them and human resource managers hate them—employees who show up for work but who are generally unproductive because personal issues, family problems or economic concerns distract them.

According to a 2009 study by Mental Health America in Alexandria, Virginia, "presenteeism" accounts for about $200 billion each year, or about 5% to 12% of total annual productivity. Some of the lost productivity is also driven by clinical depression which has been on the rise since the recession, the association says.

Employee benefits producers often get an earful from their clients about productivity management issues but usually have little to offer in support as they grapple with the greater issues of health care costs. But there are employee benefits products that producers can suggest—products that provide some remedies for employers and help for struggling employees.

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