Your plan was designed for people who sit at desks.
Most of the people on your plan are not going to read an email about it. They are on a line, on a shift, and possibly not reading English first. Everything about how a benefits year is normally run — the portal link, the lunchtime webinar, the PDF — assumes a workforce yours is not.
Michigan’s mid-market runs on fabricated metal, transportation equipment and machinery, then plastics and rubber, paper, chemicals and food. This page is written for a tier-two supplier, because that is what most of them are.
The problems are specific, so the answers have to be.
What is actually true at a Michigan manufacturer
- A large share of your population has no company email address, so open enrollment has to happen on shift, on paper or at a kiosk, in the languages your floor actually speaks.
- Overtime, layoffs and seasonal swings mean full-time status is determined by a look-back measurement period, not by a headcount on a given day.
- A high deductible only saves money if people can fund it. On an hourly wage it becomes a reason to defer care, and deferred care is next year’s claims.
- If part of the workforce is collectively bargained, those benefits may sit in a trust you do not control — so you are running two populations under one roof.
What CFH does about it
- Runs enrollment where the work is: multiple shifts, in person and in print, not a link sent to people who do not have an inbox.
- Sets the measurement and stability periods so variable hours do not turn into reporting exposure.
- Models the contribution strategy against what your wage base can absorb before recommending a plan design.
- Keeps the non-bargained plan coherent alongside whatever the trust provides, and tells you plainly which levers you do not control.
See how we work a whole benefits program →
Aerospace and defense suppliers: what changes on government work →
Four sizes, four different problems.
Find your headcount. What changes at that size in this industry, and what we do about it.
The whole floor sits in one rate tier, so a single family enrolling mid-year moves the renewal more than anything you did about claims.
What we do about it: Prices the small-group market properly every year instead of accepting the incumbent’s renewal letter, and gets enrollment done on shift rather than by email.
This is the band where the look-back measurement period stops being theoretical — an overtime-heavy year can push variable-hour employees into full-time status a year after you worked them.
What we do about it: Sets the measurement and stability periods against your actual overtime pattern and produces the 1095-C data from your time system, not from a headcount.
Claims become credible enough to price on, so level-funding and self-funding are real options — and a floor workforce’s claims concentrate in musculoskeletal injury, imaging and specialty drugs.
What we do about it: Models funding against your own claims and puts the stop-loss specification where the risk actually sits.
Multiple plants mean multiple networks, multiple eligibility files and — if any site is bargained — a plan you only half control.
What we do about it: Runs the vendor stack as one program, and tells you plainly which levers sit with the trust and which sit with you.
The three things employers in this sector ask us first.
How do you enroll people who are not at a computer?
On shift, at the plant, in print and in the languages your floor speaks. We run multiple sessions across shifts rather than sending a portal link and hoping.
What happens to our ACA reporting in a year with heavy overtime?
Hours worked in your measurement period set full-time status for the stability period that follows, so an overtime year produces offers of coverage a year later. We set the periods so you can see it coming.
We have a union population and a salaried population — can one broker handle both?
Yes for the plan you control. Where bargained benefits sit in a trust we manage around it and tell you plainly which levers are not yours.
Send us your renewal.
We’ll tell you whether it looks competitive, where we see opportunity, and the five questions we’d put to your carrier. No cost, and no obligation to move anything.
The renewal letter
Your current plan summary
Contribution split by tier
Enrolled counts by tier
Four documents — two more if your group is 50 or more. Nothing else; every extra one is a reason to postpone.
An independent employee benefits consulting firm. We look at the entire benefits program — cost, plan performance, risk and administration.
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48304
248.370.8853
Colorado Springs, CO 80921
719.425.2649
Houston, TX 77084
281.404.5670
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