When a company offers any benefit to its employees, there’s a fast way to gauge whether the effort was a hit or a flop: adoption rates. Some benefits take off like rocketships, with employees racing to onboard; others languish on the sidelines. Blue Earth Diagnostics’ Human Resources Manager saw this surprising disparity in real time when the company introduced four new benefits at the same time and discovered that employees were overwhelmingly most interested in the college savings and student loan benefits of SavvyFi.
The company:
Blue Earth Diagnostics is a molecular imaging company that provides innovative diagnostic imaging solutions. The company’s mission is to help doctors and patients make better cancer management decisions.
Blue Earth Diagnostics is constantly assessing the benefits package for its approximately 100-person staff, both as a perk to retain current employees and as a lure to attract new ones.
The challenge:
Blue Earth Diagnostics’ Human Resources Manager, LoAn Nguyen, had a mission: offer tax-free 529 plans to employees to help them save for college. Employees were increasingly asking for this benefit and LoAn knew that 529 plans would make for a compelling addition to the company’s benefits package, especially since Blue Earth planned to contribute to the plans of every participating employee.
Blue Earth Diagnostics engaged one of the country’s largest student loan and financial wellness brands, but they were disappointed with the experience. The provider’s implementation process was riddled with snafus and the point of contact was frustratingly non-responsive. After Blue Earth had promised employees that it would launch a 529 plan in 2021, LoAn acknowledged that the process was taking far longer than expected. Blue Earth fell months behind schedule.
Given the poor customer service that she experienced, LoAn had lost all confidence in the 529 vendor. It was time to look elsewhere.
But where?
LoAn conducted a new search for 529 plan providers. The challenge was to find a feature-rich 529 plan that was easy to implement and manage and which offered excellent customer service. LoAn checked with her benefits and retirement advisors, and she investigated several different portals that she learned about, but they all came up short. It turns out that the type of 529 solution LoAn was looking for is not readily available in the market.
The solution:
Then she discovered SavvyFi.
“Right away, I was attracted to SavvyFi’s platform, especially their cashback and gifting features,” said LoAn. “Implementation seemed like it was a breeze. And I was also impressed by the high level of communication from our point of contact.”
Blue Earth Diagnostics finally felt that they were in good hands. Now it was time to onboard.
The results:
Blue Earth Diagnostics kicked off their SavvyFi program on New Year’s Day, coupled with open enrollment. For each participating employee, Blue Earth contributed a certain amount per month to their plan, regardless of the size of the employee’s own contributions.
Simultaneously, Blue Earth Diagnostics launched four voluntary insurance programs: identity theft insurance, critical illness insurance, accident insurance, and life insurance.
The employee adoption rate of SavvyFi surpassed all the other new benefits.
“We had a 20-25% adoption rate with the other benefits, whereas about one-third of our employees enrolled in SavvyFi,” said LoAn. “I was pleasantly surprised that the numbers were so high for SavvyFi. It might be because this benefit makes sense for everyone, not just parents, but anyone who wants to save for nieces, grandkids, or themselves one day.”
SavvyFi’s implementation was easy. Blue Earth Diagnostics also appreciated the platform’s unique feature of enabling participants to create 529 plans, not just connect existing plans to the payroll system.
LoAn recognizes that high engagement rates in a company’s benefits program correlate with higher engagement overall. And with free money to be gained through participation, Blue Earth Diagnostics created a real incentive to participate.
Fewer than 2% of companies offer 529 plans, and while that is beginning to change, LoAn feels like Blue Earth Diagnostics is ahead of the curve.
“For us, it feels like a competitive advantage to be offering this benefit.”
About SavvyFi: SavvyFi is a user-friendly fintech platform that makes it easy for employers to provide college savings and student loan benefits to their employees. Because the company’s platform is “zero-touch” to HR – without any complicated systems, integrations, or paperwork – SavvyFi unlocks education financing capabilities to even the smallest employers that would not otherwise be able to offer these benefits.
Disclosure: Third-party quotes shown may not be representative of the experience of all SavvyFi customers and do not represent a guarantee of future performance or success.
