Empower Your Benefits with a Like-Minded Partner

When you're thinking about how to choose a benefits partner, just know alignment goes beyond services and price. It’s about shared purpose. You want a partner who understands your employee population, supports your values, and shows up with empathy, transparency, and flexibility.

As an HR leader, you aren’t just checking boxes, you’re building a benefits strategy that reflects what your organization stands for. Working with a like-minded partner matters.

Follow these tips for finding the right benefits partner who truly aligns with your goals, culture, and employee needs, and spend less time managing mismatched vendors and more time making an impact.

Aligning on values and purpose

Before you partner with any benefits provider, make sure you align on more than just logistics. The right partner should share your core values and understand the “why” behind your strategy. 

Consider asking the following questions to gauge alignment on values and purpose.

How do you tailor programs for different workforce needs?

Every workforce is unique. A strong benefits partner should ask about your employee demographics, like age, geography, income, family makeup, and job function, and then offer solutions to meet those varying needs. 

If your workforce skews younger, digital-first tools or mental health support might carry more weight. If you support union workers or employees with physically demanding jobs, look for a vendor with integrated physical therapy.  

How will you fit with our company culture?

Culture goes a long way for most employers. A bad culture fit will surely lead to low engagement and employee dissatisfaction. Regardless if you consider your business culture to be relaxed, vibrant, or highly formal, just make sure your benefits vendor matches your vibe. 

What’s your approach to health equity or inclusive care?

Benefits should support all employees equitably. That means removing barriers to care, whether it’s language support, affordability, or accessibility. 

For example, if you have a large hourly workforce, flexibility and ease of access might be a top need, so partnering with an advanced primary care provider can bring care onsite or close to the jobsite.

How do you measure success, and will your goals align with ours?

A values-aligned partner should understand what you define as success—whether that’s improving employee satisfaction, increasing preventive care engagement, or reducing costs. It’s likely all three. 

Ask how often they review performance, what data they track, and whether they proactively engage employees based on your specific goals. If their KPIs match yours, you’re more likely to move in the same direction.

Anne Hopkins, Director of People & Operations at CHG Healthcare, says the organization has saved millions from leveraging Marathon Health’s advanced primary care model, and attributes the success to the close partnership with the benefits vendor:

“Marathon is part of our culture. It's just become ingrained in our culture. There's a lot of stories on ROI (CHG has achieved $5.2 million in net savings), but where Marathon has truly made a difference is in the relationships they've built with our people. They're a trusted partner.”

Aligning on innovation and strategic thinking

Shared values are essential for a successful benefits partnership, but so is shared vision. A truly like-minded benefits partner shouldn’t just mesh with your culture, they should help push it forward. That means being strategic, proactive, and committed to innovation right alongside you.

A great partner anticipates potential issues before they occur. They keep a pulse on the benefits landscape, bring you new ideas before you ask, and help you pilot creative solutions to complement your evolving workforce needs. If they’re only delivering what you asked for last year, they’re probably not thinking big-picture.

Ask what new ideas the vendor has in the pipeline. Do they have a product roadmap? Are they experimenting with AI and virtual care? What strategies do they have in play to boost engagement? A like-minded partner should be testing new ideas and sharing those learnings with you, not just sticking to the status quo.

Finally, you need more than a vendor. You need a thought partner who joins planning meetings, challenges assumptions, and helps you connect benefits strategy to larger business goals like retention or cost management. 

The Best Partnerships Are Built on Connection

When you work with a partner who shares your values and brings fresh ideas, your benefits strategy becomes more relevant and impactful for your people. Take the time to choose a partner who gets what you’re trying to build. It’ll pay off in trust, engagement and long-term impact.