How to Successfully Handle Changes in the Employee Benefits Industry

How are you handling the changes in the industry? Are you hunkering down, hoping to weather the storm? Or are you jumping up to catch the wave? I see colleagues responding in both ways, and I believe that the most challenging response — catching and riding the wave — is also the most successful.

One major change involves our roles as gatekeepers. Consider this big-picture view about the gatekeepers in our lives. How often do you…

• Use a travel agent to book an airline ticket?
• Walk into a bank and talk with the tellers?
• Open a printed copy of the Yellow Pages to find a phone number?

Technology, combined with consumer trends and federal legislation, has changed gatekeepers and their roles.

• Traveling? Statistics say you booked your flight online.
• Banking? You are likely accessing it through a website, or perhaps your smartphone.
• Thumbing through the Yellow Pages? You’re probably using a digital thumb.

Gatekeepers aren’t going away — we have more librarians than ever — but their roles are changing. Similarly, our roles as insurance gatekeepers are changing. We must change in order to succeed, and part of that transformation includes becoming educators for our clients – including end-user consumers.

Reaching and teaching our clients

In the fast-changing environment where ancillary benefits are selected and paid for by employees, the workers are empowered. They represent our most important clients, and we must interact with them and educate them about the products that best meet their needs.