PerkSpot

If you work in Human Resources, you are surely familiar with how employees value certain perks and benefits of your particular organization. Some of these benefits are easy to quantify while others are more difficult as they can affect an employee’s well-being and attitude. As these intangible benefits can be difficult to measure, PerkSpot has helped several clients by providing them with qualitative responses and interactions the PerkSpot team has with various users and employees of our clients. PerkSpot also conducts occasional surveys that seek to deliver more value to the employee by improving the various aspects of the PerkSpot program — ranging from the specifics of a discount on apparel to the coverages on a home insurance policy. And while the feedback from existing PerkSpot clients confirms we are a value-added partner, it’s often the user feedback we receive that surprises our clients the most. When they see the intangible benefits an employee receives by using PerkSpot, we celebrate a truly win-win-win relationship for employer, employee, and PerkSpot.

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Sound appealing? Sounds like GoHealth, a new voluntary benefits offering from PerkSpot.

PerkSpot has partnered with GoHealthInsurance.com to help connect you and your family with affordable and quality health coverage. When you use GoHealth Insurance technology, you’ll see how easy it is to view different plans online from top insurance companies, compare rates and benefits, and even apply online for a plan.

GoHealthInsurance.com is a leading source for health insurance plans nationwide — and offers an unbeatable selection of top-quality health insurance plans for families and individuals.

If you need advice exploring your options, you can speak with a licensed GoHealth insurance agent who can answer any of your questions — and walk you through the process of purchasing coverage.

Members of PerkSpot’s employee benefits program have full access to GoHealthInsurance.com’s technology. Help your employees save money and your human resources deptartment save time by empowering them with the tools to find an affordable health plan using the tools at GoHealthInsurance.com.

Time to throw out your traditional ideas of what insurance is about.

It’s not just about health care anymore. Imagine other emergency costs to your family, and what comes to mind? Ever considered the impact that the financial burden of a sudden legal event could have on your life?

67% of Baby Boomers have experienced a family, financial, home or car-related legal event in the past year.* 100% of Baby Boomers will eventually, let’s face it, die  (even Robert Redford, despite his appearance to have some sort of deal with the devil). Will 100% of them have a will that’s solid within the eyes of the law? Of course not! 40% of those surveyed* haven’t planned for any legal events at all and would have to simply “find a way” to pay.

Find a way! As grandma says (in one way or another), ways do not grow on trees. These “ways” are found in the form of insurance. In this case, legal insurance.

And soon, employees will be able to purchase just such  a voluntary benefit (a legal plan) on PerkSpot – at a discounted rate, of course. In a lawsuit-ridden world like the one we live in, legal events have become a new form of financial illness afflicting the lives of many people every day. Legal insurance benefits are as necessary to one’s financial well-being as health insurance, and PerkSpot has stepped in to offer this voluntary benefit discount, offering your human resources department a better way to support its employees.

*According to a survey conducted by Russell Research on behalf of ARAG, a leading provider of legal insurance in the work site market

As we continue to develop world-class employee discount and voluntary benefits programs, we’ve noticed a common problem amongst our clients and prospects: the inability of some employees to obtain the financing needed to make purchases on more expensive items. A common and often necessary purchase that falls into this category is computers, and that is why PerkSpot has partnered with Purchasing Power to eliminate this problem.

Purchasing Power is a program that will allow employees to purchase computers and other items with the convenience of payroll deduction while bypassing the traditional financing process altogether. This allows employees to purchase these items without unbalancing their budgets, and frankly, it allows a greater number of employees to purchase in the first place. For example, 50% of those who apply for financing from Dell for computer purchases do not receive it. If an organization of 30,000 employees has 5,000 employees making computer purchases each year, that could be as many as 2,500 employees who are not able to retrieve the financing they need to make these purchases.

As human resources departments across the world are struggling to remain competitive in their voluntary benefits offerings amidst the shaky economy, PerkSpot has identified Purchasing Power as a great benefit for employees and employee discount programs.

On PerkSpot.com, you’ll see that we offer an array of “perks” as employee discount programs.  Discounted gym memberships, savings on consumer goods, apparel, tickets…all things employees have come to associate with the typical perk.

So what is the real difference between a corporate perk and a corporate benefit? Do perks come in packages like benefits have traditionally done for so long? As Shakespeare once said, “A perk by any other name…”

You see where we’re going. It’s a grey area when it comes to offering perks and benefits. It’s complicated, and it’s a headache.

Traditionally, many employees offer corporate benefits packages that include insurance. They can be extensive and comprehensive, but come with high premiums that are a premium cost to the employer. Sure it helps a great deal with talent retention, offering your employees the best rewards and recognition that money can buy, but the fact of the matter is, employer money and business cashflow are buying those things, and if we’re to believe the pundits – money is tight these days.

So employers are cutting back.

Over 14,000 people are losing health benefits altogether – EACH DAY – as corporate benefits become a, if not THE deciding factor when searching for the right job. Ultimately, cutting back on corporate benefits means cutting back on talent. Saying goodbye to offering uncomplicated employee access to a wide array of health and other insurance benefits is tantamount to saying goodbye to easy access to top talent.

It seems that if you look between a rock and a hard place – that’s where you’ll find those employers who are feeling the cinching of the economy and the need to do right by their employees (to say nothing of their employees families, who may depend on the benefits packages that are getting cut).

This is where PerkSpot.com comes in. Soon we’ll be adding access to voluntary benefits offers and opportunities on our site. What once was a tedious, complicated process – almost as fun as a trip to the DMV, minus the lines – will be simplified, easy and frankly – beneficial to employees.

So maybe perks and benefits are the same thing.
At PerkSpot.com, they definitely are.

Three weeks ago we wrote about the results of two surveys that led us to believe that ‘baby boomers’ are more tech savvy than we once thought. Our belief has been further bolstered by a recent eMarketer article stating that the gap between generations using the Internet is narrowing. Specifically, the study ‘noted that the biggest increase in Internet use since 2005 was in the 70-to-75-year-old age group; just over one-quarter of them were online in 2005′.

As the Internet becomes ubiquitous among all age groups, the appeal of a discount program for both employees and retirees as part of a voluntary benefits package only grows. Furthermore, we are PerkSpot are devoting increased time to develop and research meaningful savings opportunities for all age groups.