Welcome to our Partner Profile Series. Each month, we'll feature insights and perspectives from HR professionals and consultants working with a wide variety of clients to address today's most pressing issues.
This month our spotlight is on PlanSource, a platform that automates and streamlines every aspect of employee benefits programs, so HR teams can spend less time on benefits admin tasks and more time on what matters.
Interview conducted by David Sherman, Director of Channel Partnerships and Strategic Alliances at PTO Exchange.
A Conversation with Neil Mammele
Neil serves as the SVP of Strategic Partner & Customer development at PlanSource.
PlanSource is a technology company that automates and simplifies every aspect of employee benefits programs, so employees and HR teams can make smarter, more confident benefits decisions.
Neil has been with PlanSource for almost six years.
Watch the full interview with Neil here.
1. Please tell us a little bit about yourself and what you focus on at PlanSource.
I’ve been with PlanSource for five and a half years. With a background in marketing and sales, I now run the business development, customer development (cross-sell), and partner expansion functions here. I love the speed at which we operate at PlanSource, a company that has seen incredible growth over the last couple of years. A major initiative I work on with our team is creating our Partner Marketplace – a collection of over 60 lifestyle, voluntary, and other employee benefits our current clients and prospects can utilize. The Marketplace's goal is to make it easier for clients and prospects to leverage our existing partnerships when they consider expanding their benefits offerings. PTO Exchange is available on our Marketplace, and we’re excited to partner with the company.
At home, I am a husband to Mallory and father to Olivia (four months old!) and our two pups, Ollie and Petey. As an ex-collegiate athlete, I enjoy staying active and have had the golf bug since the pandemic began. I am a die-hard Philadelphia sports fan as well. Go Birds!
2. As the SVP of Strategic Partnerships, what do you look for when you're searching for a new partner and what makes for a great partnership?
First, our go-to-market (GTM) approaches have to be in line. PlanSource partners with brokers to provide benefits administration and engagement solutions to their clients. We primarily operate in the midmarket and have a network of resellers.
Second, while we can create all the partnerships we want, we need a dedicated resource from a partner to help with marketing, sales training, page content (for our enrollment solution), and more. After we onboard a partner, it is a joint initiative between our teams to hold each other accountable for goals, pipeline development, and issue resolution.
Partnerships can die on the vine when our GTM approaches aren’t in line, and we don’t have oxygen to breathe into our relationship.
3. If you had to pick one or two unique benefits programs that have the ability to make a huge impact on the industry, which would they be and why?
Pandemics, recession, and social unrest spark change and innovation, and we’ve seen plenty of that over the past few years. We have seen a greater variety of benefits enrolled on our platform than ever before. Two programs that have the ability to make an impact in the benefits industry would have to be:
- Financial wellness programs that put control back into employees' hands. Currently, 56% of Americans are unable to cover a $1,000 emergency expense. Either we can't save appropriately, or we need new means to unlock funds to cover major and emergency expenses. This creates a ton of tension and stress for families.
- Mental Wellness. This is no longer a box to check or an employee assistance program (EAP) offered but not engaged with. I think of companies like Kumanu who are on our marketplace. Kumanu takes a very specific and proactive approach to solving mental wellness. It has individuals identify both their personal and professional purpose. Because those who know their purpose in life and work are more likely to be resilient and less stressed in their day to day.
Both solutions need to be activated during enrollment and need ongoing engagement and reminders for folks to leverage them properly.
4. What are some of the main challenges your clients face, and how does PlanSource help solve some of those challenges?
Benefits are confusing. If I was to ask you right now, “What are your deductible and out-of-network primary care co-pays?”, “Who is your telemedicine provider?”, “where would you find the guidelines for your new PTO policy?”
What would you do? Not to mention employees spend 15 minutes choosing benefits, and it’s costing employers north of $10k per employee.
All this being said, our goal at PlanSource is to bring together enrollment solutions, your HCM provider, and a best-in-class engagement tool to make benefits less confusing at the point of enrollment and easier to interact with afterward.
5. Why PlanSource? What makes your marketplace different from your competitors?
When you pair our benefits administration, engagement solution, and integrations with HCM and Insurance carriers—and now our Marketplace—our solution covers various pain points for employers and their employees. Our marketplace leads with an integrated approach first – between our plan design template and existing EDI and SSO integrations—our goal is to activate these products for our customers, as opposed to arduous implementations.
Use PTO to Enhance Financial Wellness
PTO Exchange developed the first flexible benefits platform that allows employees to self-direct the value of their unused paid time off (PTO) for other needs and causes. The platform caters to employees’ individualized needs and different transitions in life (retirement accounts, student loan repayments, charitable donations, and more) – offering a choice and flexibility to control the value of their unused vacation. PTO Exchange helps companies stand out in a competitive job market, increase employee engagement, build loyalty, reduce balance sheet liabilities, and strengthen culture.
Learn more about how PTO Exchange can help with financial wellness - download our free data sheet below.
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Published on Oct 20, 2022 by Dave Sherman
