Most business owners do not look at insurance professionals as being able to help their business grow and produce free cash flow in the process. This is because, historically, insurance professionals have never been able to manage or reduce costs.

The National Association of Manufacturers and the Bureau of Labor Statistics have identified a need for several million qualified manufacturing employees over the next decade. Sounds like good news for people looking for a job, right? Unfortunately, there is a catch. The industry anticipates being able to only hire about one-third of these new workers needed, creating a huge employment gap which will likely increase labor costs.

Your benefits expense does not have to continue to grow at 10% or more each year. Once you take control of those costs that have been out of control for years and improve your employee healthcare benefits, you can take the surplus and invest in:

• People (wages, salaries, and better benefits to retain and attract talent);
• Property and Plants (building new, and/or renovating existing facilities to accommodate higher productivity); and,
• Equipment (replace depreciating capital assets with newer technology that allows your company to remain competitive and expand into new markets).

Manufacturers get healthcare benefits! The National Association of Manufacturers reports that 98% of its members provide healthcare plans for their employees. Some of the reasons why manufacturers invest heavily in providing healthcare benefits include:

• It allows them to maintain a healthy workforce, essential for productivity and growth
• It allows them to attract and retain qualified employees
• Providing healthcare coverage is simply the right thing to do

Stop if you’ve heard this one before: A manufacturing company walks into a health insurance benefits store, and by using technology and a third-party enrollment counselor they take their limited resources and create customizable benefits for their employees. The result? The company is able to lower its cost of coverage and create a suite of benefits specific to the health care needs of their employees. A suite of benefits that their competitors will struggle to replicate.