When a competitor offers more salary, the comparison employees make is usually missing half the numbers.
An offer letter shows base pay. It rarely shows the premium contribution, the deductible, the disability coverage or the account deposits that come with it. For employers competing on total package rather than salary alone, we build the document that puts both sides on the same footing, honestly, including where your package is not the stronger one.
Salary is compared in dollars. Benefits have to be too.
A list of plan names persuades nobody. A benefits package persuades when an employee can see what the same protection would cost them somewhere else.
Paycheck Contributions
A higher salary with a larger premium deduction can take home less. We show the annual employee contribution at each tier, because that is the number a competing offer rarely states.
Out-of-Pocket Exposure
Deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums decide what a bad year costs a family. For an employee managing a known condition, this line can outweigh a salary difference.
Coverage That Is Hard to Replace
Employer-paid disability, life coverage and HSA deposits never appear in an offer letter, yet would cost the employee real money to buy individually, and some would require medical underwriting.
The Individual Market
For employees weighing contract or self-employed work, the individual market is the alternative. We show what comparable coverage could cost there, labeled as an estimate, not a quote.
Retention messaging only works if it survives the employee checking it.
Employees considering an offer compare numbers carefully. A document that overstates value damages trust at the moment you most need it.
Only Real Value
We count what the employee would actually lose by leaving, not every program on the books. Leaving out a perk nobody uses makes the total more credible, not less.
Where You Are Weaker
If your deductible is high or your family contribution is above market, the document should not hide it. Managers need to know that before the conversation, not in the middle of it.
Tested Against Market
Claims about value are checked against market contribution and out-of-pocket data first, so the word “competitive” refers to something specific.
The document is most useful in the conversations HR does not run.
Retention decisions happen in manager conversations, recruiting calls and counteroffers. The material has to be ready for all three.
Recruiting
A one-page summary for candidates that turns the package into annual dollar values, so a lower salary offer is judged against the whole package rather than the base alone.
Counteroffers
When a valued employee has another offer, a personal comparison built on their own coverage and tier gives the manager facts rather than impressions.
Manager Briefings
Managers explain benefits poorly because nobody explained the benefits to them. A short briefing with the numbers lets them answer the question they are actually asked.
What employers ask about retention messaging.
Is this just a sales piece for our benefits?
No. It is a comparison, and a fair one includes the parts of your package that are weaker. Employees trust it precisely because it is not one-sided.
What if a competitor’s benefits are better?
Then the document shows that, and it becomes an input to the next renewal. Sometimes the answer is a contribution change rather than a raise, and we model both.
Do you need competitors’ plan details?
Not usually. We use market data by size, industry and region, and when an employee shares a competing offer, we can compare it directly with their permission.
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.
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