Our Most Read Broker Resources of 2021
Quick look: 2021 was a year to remember. We all became familiar with the terms the Great Resignation and the Big Quit, and at the same time were still tasked with conquering some of the challenges of years past, like modernizing benefits packages. Today, take a dive into ExtensisHR’s most read broker resources last year which touched on a variety of topics – ones that are still relevant to growing your book of business.
With topics ranging from evolving HR technology to broker compensation disclosures, our most popular blogs of 2021 (according to our Google Analytics trend analysis) were reflective of the mixture of emerging and recurrent trends that brokers faced last year. Take a few minutes to reflect on which broker resources were most helpful in 2021 – and how they may continue to benefit your business as the new year begins.
1. How Technology is Changing for Brokers
It’s not hard to understand why this technology-centric blog ranked as our most-read piece of the year.
Today’s businesses and their employees are facing many new circumstances: distributed workforces, the Great Resignation, and the future of work are hot topics in nearly every workplace. As such, yesterday’s HR tools and strategies are being replaced with personalized technology solutions designed for today’s modern workforce. They’re transforming the industry at such a rapid pace, businesses unable to adapt will ultimately get left behind. But good news: this creates ample opportunity for brokers to help.
In this blog, explore how your clients can meet HR objectives through digitization, the importance of a human resource information system (HRIS), the advantages of a PEO partnership, and how personalized technology delivers optimal value.
2. Help Clients Overcome the Labor Shortage
If there’s one HR trend that stuck out in 2021, it was the labor shortage. With businesses across all industries facing the same shortage, recruiting became more difficult than ever. As a result, competition was (and remains) at an all-time high when seeking out and securing top talent.
How can you, as a broker, help? The first step is understanding how today’s employees define job satisfaction and how to help your clients align company benefits and culture to meet employees’ demands.
Visit this blog to explore exactly what employees want, the importance of modernizing benefits, and how brokers can best help their clients.
3. Brokers: How to Get More Attention from the C-Suite
Your clients’ business leaders are busy – which can prove to be challenging when your livelihood depends on attracting their attention. To succeed, it’s necessary to tailor your sales strategies to stand out from competitors and create more meaningful connections with your clients’ C-suite executives.
In this blog – our third most popular last year – get detailed tips on how to:
- Learn more about your prospects – before you meet with them;
- Effectively probe to discover their company goals;
- Create more authentic, meaningful conversations;
- Talk more about solutions and less about insurance;
- Emphasize education and give detailed, understandable explanations of benefit plans;
- Develop an early, effective relationship with the client’s HR department;
- Act as a knowledge base, sharing guides, infographics, white papers, and more;
- Increase credibility by staying on top of trends and backing your claims with real data;
- Regularly and effectively ask for referrals;
- And last but not least, focus on empathy and always ask yourself, “how can I help?”.
4. Broker Compensation Disclosures: What You Need to Know
Many of our most-read blogs last year featured timeless topics, but this piece stands apart with its information about the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 and its firm deadlines.
The Act – which aims to help employers better understand broker incentives and gauge potential conflicts of interest – introduced new compensation regulations for brokers and consultants, who will now be required to disclose their compensation to their employer clients. The new regulations went into effect December 27, 2021, so brokers should prepare as soon as possible, if they haven’t already.
Visit this blog to discover who is required to provide the disclosure, what needs to be included in the disclosure, important deadlines to keep in mind, and consequences of non-disclosure.
5. Finding the Right Benefits for Multigenerational Workforces
Our fifth most popular blog of 2021 focused on the ever-changing multigenerational workforce and what benefits employees desire, whether they are a Boomer, a Gen Xer, or a Gen Zer.
Read this blog to dive into details about how you can help your clients offer tailored benefit packages by revisiting existing benefit packages, assisting in administering staff surveys, helping SMB leadership prioritize benefits, consulting with a PEO for deeper insight into industry trends, and providing multiple communications channels for employees.
ExtensisHR: Here for brokers yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
At ExtensisHR, we’re proud to keep a pulse on the HR industry and deliver you the right information at the right time. We thank you for your readership and look forward to helping you grow your book of business in 2022.
Want to learn more about ExtensisHR’s full portfolio of HR services and technology? Contact our experts today.
