The Benefit Profile's big data technology synthesizes an employer's own census data and a broad range of industry benchmarks to provide a straightforward graphic analysis that compares gender, age, and income to benchmarks based on buying patterns reflected in Sun Life policy records, and complemented by well-known industry resources such as Group MarketShare, LLC.

Key Features of the Sun Life Benefit Profile:

- Analyzes the demographic composition of a workplace by gender, age, and income.

- Correlates such demographics to incidence rates for medical issues.

- Displays typical demographic buying patterns of relevant insurance solutions; for example, the average life insurance coverage men or women each choose to buy.

- Illustrates typical benefits offerings of competing employers in the same industry and region to help employers gauge how a plan design could support cost containment or recruitment and retention.

“The Benefit Profile turns a wealth of data into actionable insight that is presented in a dashboard format, empowering brokers to deliver a highly customized, versatile benefits plan designed for each employer,” said Sun Life's Bilal Kazmi, AVP, Analytics and Innovations Marketing. “It's a way for employers to assess demographic risks and provide employees with a customized range of protection options. This innovation helps employers fine tune what's working, adapt to changes in their industry and region, protect their employees, and stay competitive year after year,” added Kazmi.

Hypothetical insights

• The Benefit Profile confirms that a fictional metal employer in a Midwestern state offers long term disability benefits plan with a higher salary replacement percentage than the industry and regional average. This insight allows the employer to either promote that detail to current and prospective employees or adjust the plan to create a more affordable option for employees that remains in line with industry peers.
• A broker may know that 30% of an employer's overall workforce is enrolled in optional life insurance. However, the broker may not know whether a particular demographic of that workforce remains underserved. Segmenting employee participation by age, gender, and income, the Benefit Profile helps identify such a potential group, for example workers earning less than $30,000 annually. This insight could lead to a more focused enrollment and communications strategy targeting certain segments of the employee population.
• A hospital in the Southeast is considering adding new benefits to its benefits program, but is unsure which product to add next. The demographic analysis in the Benefit Profile determines that the workforce contains a high proportion of women and employees over age 40. After reviewing incidence data for a variety of voluntary products within the Benefit Profile, the employer decides that critical illness coverage would be a good fit for its employee population.

As one of the leading stop-loss providers in the U.S., Sun Life is also developing a stop-loss analytical tool to help brokers support self-funded employers, and employers that are considering becoming self-funded.

To learn more about the Benefit Profile, visit http://bit.ly/XVM5Pg for a brief video describing five ways a Benefit Profile can help brokers and employers build more competitive benefits packages.