Designing an Employee Dental Plan

If you think offering your employees a dental plan is simply silly, reconsider that attitude in light of your business’s bottom line. According to the Surgeon General of the United States, employees miss about 164 million hours of work due to dental visits and dental related health problems. That is a lot of lost productivity!

In addition to the lost work hours, kids lose 51 million school hours, as well. That translates into some lost time at work for some of your employees who aren’t lucky enough to have a stay-at-home spouse who manages family appointments on their behalf. For kids, preventive care is absolutely key in saving them from costly procedures that will cost even more time and money in the end.

Employees who are considering applying to work at your business look at all the benefits you offer, including competitive wages, sufficient vacation and sick leave time, and medical, dental, and supplemental insurances. To attract the best employees, and keep them working productively with you for many years, you should offer an employee dental plan to complement the benefits every employee expects.

Dental preferred provider organizations, dental health maintenance organizations, dental indemnity insurance, and discount dental benefits all have their advantages and disadvantages as an employee dental plan. The profit margin of your business, the number of employees and dependants, and the ages of your employees are all factors in figuring out which plan will work best for your needs.

Always consider the cost of replacing a good employee who leaves your company for one that offers a complete choice of benefits, including an employee dental plan, before ending or changing your benefits package.

Many small businesses are looking to cut costs during this current recession. In fact, about 11 percent of companies will probably cut dental benefits this year. Cutting the employee dental plan entirely out of the picture could cost you some good employees.

If you must scale back, consider offering discount dental plans instead. With most of these plans, there are no minimum participation goals, and most can be extended to cover the employee, all dependants, part-time workers, retirees, and others who might be excluded from a managed care dental plan.

When asked to rank the importance of benefits in the workplace, employees said health benefits were number one, retirement benefits number two, and dental benefits number three. This highly valued benefit is especially important for young people who are just starting their careers, because they are often just starting their families as well. They know good dental care is vitally important to the overall health and well being of their families, and expect that their employers will offer an employee dental plan to help them with expenses.

Providing your employees with a good all care dental plan, and encouraging them to take advantage of the suite of preventive services covered under the plan, will save you money in the end. After all, you make an investment in your employees every day - help them invest in their own health, too.