Employee benefits platforms
- Benefits cost per employee a year
- $11,900
- Per employee a month
- $991.67
- As a percent of base salary
- 19.2
The numbers on this page come from the inputs you enter and the method stated: 3,600 seconds to an hour, 52 weeks to a year, twelve months to a year, and nothing else. No industry shrinkage figure, no occupancy benchmark and no assumption about your attrition; every one of those is yours to enter.
Employee benefits platforms are bought at the point where a spreadsheet stops being able to answer two questions: what the package costs per employee, and who is enrolled in what. This section is for the HR or finance partner at a United States employer who owns the benefits line of the headcount plan and has to defend it in the autumn: what a platform actually does, what a broker or an administrator does instead, what the package costs once every line is counted, and what the employer is left doing by hand whichever it buys. The benefits cost calculator on this site works the cost per employee from your own premium share, contribution rate and per-head costs, and converts one more percent of retirement contribution into what it costs the whole group. Orgplanly keeps that against the plan version that budgeted it, so the number in next year's paper can be traced to the roster it came from.
Open the How much are benefits worth Free to use. No account, no card, no sign-up.
Count the package before you shop for one
The benefits bill is the employer's share of health premium, the retirement contribution as a percent of salary, everything else per head (life, disability, wellbeing, perks) and the administration itself. Added up per employee and expressed as a percent of base salary, it is usually the second largest line on the plan and the one nobody can quote on request. Work it first, because every conversation with a platform, a broker or an administrator goes differently once you can say what you currently spend and where it goes.
Know which of the three you are buying
A platform is software the employer runs: enrollment, eligibility, the record of who chose what, and the file that goes to each carrier. A broker places the cover and is paid by the carrier. A third party administrator runs a specific account for you, an FSA or an HRA, including the claims. They are not substitutes, they are three jobs, and an employer that buys one expecting another ends up doing the third by hand. The pages in this section take them one at a time.
Decide what is worth administering at all
Every line in the package carries an administration cost, and some of the smaller ones cost more to run than they are worth to the people who use them. Look at the per-head administration figure beside the per-head value of each benefit, and be willing to drop a line that nobody enrols in rather than carrying it because it is on a competitor's list. A smaller package that is understood beats a longer one that nobody can explain at open enrollment.
Keep the cost against the plan that budgeted it
The benefits figure changes with headcount, with the mix of roles and with the renewal, and a number kept apart from the plan drifts from it. Keeping the cost per employee on the plan version that assumed it is what lets you say in the autumn whether the line moved because the premium moved, because the headcount moved, or because the package changed. Orgplanly holds that on the record once you are on Pro and exports it with the inputs attached.
Free worksheets for this feature
Everything this feature does in Orgplanly
- Benefits administration companies
- Employee benefits administration services
- Employee benefits outsourcing
- Employee benefits providers
- Company fitness challenge ideas
- Wellbeing employee benefits
- Employee benefit ideas
- Companies that offer pet insurance as a benefit
- Types of employee benefits
- Rewards and benefits
- Top 10 employee benefits
Employee benefits platforms: common questions
What does an employee benefits platform actually do? Enrollment and eligibility, the record of who elected what and when, and the files that go to each carrier. Anything beyond that, placing the cover or running claims, is a broker's or an administrator's job and is usually bought separately.
Is a platform worth it for a small employer? It depends on how many carriers you deal with rather than how many people you employ. One carrier and one plan can be run from a spreadsheet honestly; three carriers, a qualifying-event process and an FSA cannot, and that is usually where the per-head platform cost starts paying for itself.
How much do benefits cost per employee? Work it from your own figures rather than a survey: the employer health premium share, the retirement contribution, the per-head cost of everything else and the administration. The calculator on this site does that arithmetic and shows what share each line is, which is the part that usually surprises people.
Does Orgplanly administer benefits? No. It keeps the benefits cost per employee against the headcount plan and the plan version that budgeted it, so the line can be defended and traced. Enrollment, cover and claims stay with the platform, the broker and the administrator you choose.
What is the difference between a broker and a third party administrator? A broker places the insurance and is paid by the carrier. A third party administrator runs an account, typically an FSA or an HRA, including eligibility and claims, and is paid by you. Many employers use both and think they have bought one thing.
Orgplanly Pro
Keeping what you make
The worksheet answered today's question. Pro keeps the answer: the plan you just worked saved against the team it belongs to, re-opened at the next review instead of rebuilt, branded and exported for the budget meeting.
- Download the finished checklist or intake form as a file the client accepts
- The paperwork goes out clean, without the Kickoffo watermark
- Re-use the checklist for the next client instead of rebuilding it
- Your firm's logo on every checklist and form you send
- Export every client's onboarding at once when the account review or the buyer asks
- Send the plan for review from the record, not a spreadsheet
- Not part of Orgplanly today; your billing stays where it is
- Not part of Orgplanly today; your ledger stays where it is
$90per month, whole team
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