Employee benefits, built one decision at a time.

Start with the question underneath the question

Owners usually open with "what would health insurance cost us?" The more useful question is: what problem are we trying to solve? Recruiting against a competitor who offers coverage is a different problem from retaining a foreman who has been with you nine years, which is different again from a spouse's cancer diagnosis that just made benefits personal for everyone in the shop.

Each of those points to a different package. Recruiting rewards a visible, easily-explained plan. Retention rewards employer contribution and stability. Protecting people from catastrophic cost rewards a strong medical plan paired with supplemental coverage. Naming the goal first keeps the budget from getting spent in the wrong place.

The four core coverages

Group health insurance

The largest line item and the one employees judge everything else by. Small-group medical plans in Oklahoma are typically community-rated, meaning your employees' health history does not directly set your premium — good news for a group with a claim year behind it. Decisions here come down to network breadth, deductible level, and how much of the employee-only premium the company will contribute. Most carriers require an employer contribution of roughly half of employee-only cost and a participation threshold before they will issue the plan.

Dental

Inexpensive, highly used, and disproportionately appreciated. A typical small-group dental plan covers preventive visits at or near 100%, basic restorative work around 80%, and major work around 50%, with an annual maximum somewhere between $1,000 and $2,000. Because employees use it every six months, dental does more for perceived value per dollar than almost anything else on the list.

Vision

The least expensive coverage most groups will ever add — often a few dollars per employee per month. It covers an annual exam plus an allowance toward lenses, frames or contacts. On its own it does not move anyone's decision to take a job. Bundled with dental, it makes the package feel complete.

Group life and AD&D

A flat benefit — commonly $10,000 to $50,000, or a multiple of salary — paid entirely by the employer. It is quiet coverage nobody thinks about until it matters enormously, and it is usually cheap enough that leaving it off is hard to justify. Employees can often buy additional voluntary life on top of it.

How to build the package

1. Set the budget as a per-employee-per-month number. "We can commit $250 PEPM" is a workable constraint. "We'll see what it costs" is not.
2. Decide the contribution strategy. A defined-contribution approach — the company pays a fixed dollar amount toward whichever plan the employee picks — protects the budget better than paying a percentage of a premium that moves every year.
3. Choose one strong medical option, not five. Choice sounds generous and reads as confusion. Two options is plenty for most small groups; three is the practical maximum.
4. Fill the gaps with voluntary coverage. A high-deductible medical plan paired with an accident or hospital indemnity plan often protects an employee better than a richer medical plan alone, at a lower total cost. See voluntary benefits.
5. Write down what happens at renewal. Decide in advance how much of an increase the company will absorb, and what changes if it goes past that.