- What makes enrollment with Steele a first-rate service?
- How does Steele ensure its benefit counselors are fully trained on each of its customers and their offerings?
- What kind of value does the Steele benefit counselor bring to the employee-employer relationship?
These questions and more are ones our team is periodically asked by clients that are new to Steele enrollment services. To help answer these, we spoke with Enrollment Specialists Joe Lilley and Johana Losoya. As our resident benefit counselors, both Joe and Johana help drive the frontlines of Steele enrollments to further shorten the gap between employees and their benefits.
Joe, Johana — thanks for joining us! To start off, would you mind explaining to us what a business gains from using Steele’s enrollment services?
Joe: Well, when an employer brings on Steele, they’re not just getting an enrollment service provider. They are receiving a team that is going to study their business and their benefit offerings, and then that team is going to convey that information as directly and as clearly as possible to their benefit eligible employees.
Johana: Most of the time, both companies and their employees are just so busy. Being able to provide them our enrollment services is their only priority. We’re able then to bring so much more to the table.
Joe: Not only are they getting the benefits education that we provide, but the Steele enrollment process also helps strengthen the relationship between employee and employer.
Can you elaborate on that? How do enrollments with Steele improve the employee-employer relationship?
Joe: A Steele benefit counselor will help eligible employees make the best benefits decisions possible by individually assessing every employee’s current needs and personal situation. In fact, benefit counselors are able to get enough information before ever actually speaking with the eligible employee by reviewing their enrollment profile.
For example, I can see how old they are, if they’re married, have a family, whether they already have benefits or not, if they have a high deductible, etc. From here, I can already point out things they might want to consider, such as what plans do they have in place, if any, for paying a high deductible if something were to happen medically?
That’s where Steele benefit counselors are able to explain to those eligible employees what options their employer is providing to them, and which of those options might best fit their current needs. This helps both the employees and the employers as the Steele enrollment team acts as the bridge between the two. We highlight to the employees just how highly valued they are by their employer.
What does the training process actually look like for Steele benefit counselors? How do we ensure they perfectly know each client we assign them to?
Johana: The main thing is we’re not just assigned to a client’s account without knowing any information. If available, we’re given the exact enrollment guides the actual employees will have in front of them, so we are able to review year-after-year any possible changes in a company’s offerings.
Joe: Ever since the beginning of our business, Steele hires only the most professional and knowledgeable benefit counselors through a rigorous screening process. From there, we train each benefit counselor on an account-by-account basis, a process which has greatly expanded over the last few years.
Benefit counselors will be assigned to certain clients and from there an account manager will direct and provide the necessary information needed to know the in’s-and-out’s of a client’s offerings.
Johana: Whether we’ve worked with a client before or not, our benefit counselors will always sit down with that account’s Customer Success Manager to understand each of their benefit offerings in detail.
Joe: The training is majorly involving, but every client that we work with should rest assured that every benefit counselor that we have working on their case and helping their employees are highly trained, highly educated, and highly informed of their company’s core benefits.
Lastly, what makes a Steele benefit counselor different than your average benefit counselor?
Joe: One thing we always want to do besides educating employees on their benefits and the value of their benefits is providing the service that’s needed for those employees to continue keeping that benefit.
When we come back to do enrollments for a client year after year, we typically see the same folks. We’ll ask them if they’ve submitted their wellness benefit for example.
Johana: I know there’s times where maybe an employee completed their previous benefits elections by themselves or they forgot what they enrolled in. That employee might have forgotten they had a wellness benefit and never filed for it, so we’re able to bring that up and they’re so thankful! It’s a little extra money, especially since they can file for previous years as well. So really, looking out for your employees is what we bring to table.