Every client is different and EBS creates a tailored solution to meet the unique needs of each client. These case studies can give you an idea of how we work with our clients to solve their employee benefit and human resources needs.
Benefits: Not competitive with the market
Benefits: New company establishing a benefit program
Benefits: Consolidation of fragmented plans
Mergers & Acquisitions
Pharmacy
Co-Sourcing™
Communications
Retirement
Global Benefits
Case Study - Benefits: Not competitive with the market
Background
Energy Services Company has approximately 1,500 employees based in Houston, Texas with operations internationally.
Situation
- The company did not have benefits that were competitive with their market.
- Benefit programs were not in compliance with legal requirements.
- Costs were not well monitored, understood or modeled.
- Employees did not have a good understanding of their benefits and the structure was excessively complex with numerous vendors offering duplicate coverage.
- The company hired a new vice president of HR who engaged EBS.
Solution
- The process began with an extensive analysis of the current plans and benchmarking of their benefits to the marketplace, followed by a review of their policies, procedures and vendor networks.
- A multi-year strategy was developed to incrementally bring the company’s benefit programs up to speed.
- The company’s plan offerings were adjusted to be competitive in the marketplace based on the benchmark to their peers.
- Numerous duplicative vendor relationships were consolidated into a single network, and EBS negotiated substantial discounts on behalf of the company.
- New procedures were established to improve administration and monitor costs.
- A proactive and continuous communication campaign served to educate employees on how to utilize their benefit programs.
Case Study - Benefits: New company establishing a benefit program
Background
A newly established offshore drilling company with approximately 400 employees based in Houston, TX.
Situation
- The company wanted to establish a benefit program that was scalable for planned future growth, was efficient, and offered rich plan features that maximized the employees’ perception of value.
Solution
- EBS consultants worked with management to understand benefit offerings in the offshore drilling industry and develop a competitive strategy to attract talent.
- EBS built a data platform, which provided the technological foundation to support future growth and acquisitions.
- Administration was outsourced to EBS Co-Sourcing™ platform for scalable growth.
- EBS advised the company in vendor procurement, negotiation and implementation.
- EBS Communications practice developed materials to trumpet the value of the benefits package the company offered to its employees.
Case Study - Benefits: Consolidation of fragmented plans
Background
Energy Services company with approximately 20,000 employees worldwide.
Situation
- Needed to consolidate seven companies with 3,000+ employees.
- Called for establishment of a benefits strategy to quickly and efficiently accommodate growth through acquisition.
Solution
- EBS developed a custom turnkey process that enabled the company to assimilate numerous small acquisitions very quickly.
- Elements modified included the plan design, vendors, subsidy levels and negotiated managed care network discounts.
- As a result, the client realized $7 million in single year of cost avoidance and reduction.
Case Study - Mergers & Acquisitions
Background
A privately held information technology firm in Texas merged with a publicly traded information technology firm in Ohio. The combined company consists of approximately 6,000 employees.
Situation
- Merger of two vastly different cultures and people strategies extending down into benefit offerings.
- Vastly different demographics between the two firms.
- EBS was tasked to create a new benefits program from the ground up to fit the new company. Timing was critical, as the company wanted the new benefits program ASAP.
Solution
- EBS assembled a cross-functional team that was able to design and implement a complete benefits program that fit the vision for the new, combined company.
- The new benefits program was met with acceptance by the employees, resulting in reduced turnover during the merger.
Background
Manufacturing firm based in Dallas, TX, with approximately 6,000 employees.
Situation
- Company had direct contract with Pharmacy Benefits Manager (PBM).
- The company's PBM contract lacked overall transparency and did not pass 100 percent of rebates back to the plan.
- The company's PBM contract had inferior pricing on ingredient costs, fees and rebates.
- EBS determined that there was an opportunity to significantly reduce pharmacy costs.
Solution
- Company engaged the services of EBS’ pharmacy coalition, Ascendent®.
- Ascendent®'s purchasing platform offered superior guaranteed contract pricing terms, including higher discounts, lower fees and higher rebates (guaranteed per prescription).
- Through Ascendent® the company gained access to a registered pharmacist who was able to offer clinical guidance as well as consultative advice on the plan benefits and programs to achieve greatest savings potential.
- Through Ascendent® the company has projected savings of $2.3 million in pharmacy costs over the 3-year contract period.
Background
Drilling Contractor based in Houston, Texas with approximately 3,000 employees.
Situation
- Company could not effectively integrate acquired entities into its business due to a lack of technology to support data management.
- The existing benefit administration process was decentralized and was handled through various manual processes, resulting in inaccurate eligibility data and premium billing.
- The company was experiencing challenges related to COBRA administration, resulting in compliance issues.
- HR personnel spent the majority of their time focused on resolving issues surrounding the Health and Welfare benefit program and were unable to focus on strategic issues.
Solution
- All employee benefit and dependent data was combined in one data platform, which provided the technology to support future growth and acquisitions.
- An audit of all employee and dependent benefit eligibility discovered 500 ineligible participants, resulting in a reduction in benefit claims liability and a monthly savings of approximately $25,000 in stop loss and administrative fees.
- The benefit enrollment process was automated. Online and telephone enrollment options were added to streamline the enrollment process.
- A streamlined, standard leave process was implemented between the client and EBS, which documented the appropriate processing of benefits for leave participants.
- EBS Co-Sourcing performed an audit of COBRA participants and took appropriate steps to correct all compliance issues.
- Plan documents were digitized for faster, more efficient delivery via compact discs and the internet.
Background
Oilfield services company, based in Houston, Texas with 15,000 employees.
Situation
- Needed a benefits brand to use with employee benefit communications.
- Had several distinct business units that had their own corporate identity.
- Could not tie the benefits brand to the corporate identity without favoring one of the business units.
- Company was moving to a shared-services model for benefits for all business units.
Solution
- Worked with the one factor all business units had in common – shared services for benefits.
- Developed a “unity” brand that focused on benefits, not corporate identity.
- Brought the new tagline together by using a combination of the colors and logos for each business unit.
- The result was a benefits brand that defined and supported the promise of benefit equity for all employees and brought together the corporate look and feel for all business units so all were appropriately represented.
Background
Internationally-based manufacturing company with the US division based in Houston, TX and employing approximately 1,500 employees.
Situation
- Compliance issues across three qualified retirement plans dating back 30 years.
- Retirement benefits were not competitive with the market.
- Pension benefit plans that were not well received or understood by the employees.
- Costs were not monitored, understood or modeled.
- Vendors were not serving the client's needs or expectations appropriately.
Solution
- The retirement practice at EBS worked in conjunction with legal counsel to file corrective actions with the IRS and DOL under the Voluntary Correction Program (VCP) and Voluntary Fiduciary Correction Program (VFCP).
- EBS developed, implemented and administered a plan of action with the client.
- The client’s plan design was reviewed by the retirement practice at EBS. Several modifications were made, including freezing the pension plans, merging multiple defined contribution plans, and enhancing the company’s 401(k) match to be competitive to the peer group.
- EBS performed a RFP search and guided the client through service provider selection and conversion process.
- EBS documented client benefit rules, norms and procedures to eliminate future processing errors.
Background
A leading provider of information technology and software systems for the automotive industry with over 6,000 employees worldwide faced a need to transition their Canadian employee benefit program.
Situation
- The organization was operating a costly defined-benefit pension plan that did not align with the changing organization or the changing workforce.
- The Global Solutions practice at EBS led a project team to evaluate the pension alternatives available to the organization.
Solution
- The team recommended that the organization freeze the defined benefit plan and launch a new defined-contribution pension plan.
- The new Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) offers an industry competitive benefit and supports the organization shared approach to retirement savings while delivering annual savings in excess of $500,000 per year.
- These savings will help the organization remain competitive in a cost-conscious Canadian marketplace.