Rebuilding trust in ancillary benefits through smarter plan design

How Novaura, a Central Texas benefits broker, helped an employer improve participation, perception, and value

About the organization

A car dealership in Central Texas that employs 100+ people. The workforce includes a mix of hourly and salaried employees across a wide range of ages and income levels, making benefit affordability, clarity, and usability especially important.

Where the organization started

For several years, employees had grown dissatisfied with their worksite and disability benefits. While coverage was available, employees didn’t see value in the benefits offered. Ancillary benefits were intended to provide financial protection and peace of mind. Over time, however, they became a source of frustration rather than confidence.

  • Premiums felt expensive
  • Claims were difficult to navigate and file
  • Benefit payouts were perceived as average
  • Participation across worksite, life, and disability plans lagged, making employees skeptical to enroll

The challenges

As a result of this dissatisfaction, the employer faced several challenges.

Employee participation in ancillary benefits remained low, despite the availability of coverage. At the same time, the cost of the plans did not align with employees’ perception of value.

The employer wanted to improve benefit offerings, increase participation, and deliver better value to employees. Any change needed to be 

handled carefully to avoid disrupting existing coverage or creating additional complexity for employees.

The challenge was to identify a better approach to ancillary benefits that addressed employee concerns while maintaining continuity and stability.

The solution

Novaura focused on improving both the real and perceived value of the benefits. This approach allowed the employer to enhance benefit quality and affordability while protecting employees from unnecessary change-related issues.

1
Analysis
Novaura worked with the client to evaluate the existing ancillary benefits through the lens of employee experience, employee satisfaction, financial efficiency, and long-term sustainability.
2
Carrier optimization
A new carrier partner was selected based on stronger benefit payouts, clearer plan design, and a more guided claims experience that reduced confusion for employees.
3
Experience
To ensure continuity and minimize disruption, most enrolled employees were grandfathered into the new program.
4
Edge cases
For the small group that needed to maintain existing coverage, individual policy transfers and direct-pay arrangements were implemented to preserve coverage and avoid gaps.

Results

The updated ancillary benefits delivered meaningful outcomes for both employees and the organization.

  • Enrollment across worksite, life, and disability benefits increased by 30 percent.
  • Employees gained access to higher guaranteed issue amounts for life insurance while seeing average premium reductions of 23 percent.
  • Benefit payouts also improved, with benefits paid averaging 15 percent higher than under their previous carrier.
  • Employee perception changed. After years of not being satisfied with their benefits, employees expressed renewed confidence. Lower premiums, clearer plan design, and an easier claims experience helped rebuild trust and engagement across the workforce.

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