Sponsors That Understand Service Team Roles More Satisfied

Of over 2,000 small market plan sponsor survey respondents (with less than $10 million in plan assets), 34% said that they did not clearly understand the roles of their service team members. Those who said they fully understand service team members’ roles and responsibilities reported an 83% overall level of satisfaction, compared with 63% overall satisfaction level reported by sponsors who were confused by service team roles.  

According to a press release, another way in which having well-defined roles and responsibilities helps sponsor satisfaction is by setting clear service level expectations. The two areas in the survey in which satisfaction ratings suffer most when sponsors don‟t understand service team roles are “treats me as an important client” and “employee education materials and meetings.” Sponsors who clearly understand service team roles are 57% more likely to feel like they are treated as an important client and 55% more likely to be satisfied with their provider’s employee education offering.   

An additional challenge in the small market is the prevalence of unbundled plans, in which the presence of TPAs can further complicate the service picture. Survey results show that unbundled plan sponsors are 24% less likely to clearly understand service team roles than their bundled counterparts.