By Anna Ebert

Often one of the most important aspects of employment, besides the job itself, are the benefits packages that the company offers to its employees. Employees search to find the best package deal to accommodate them and their family’s needs. Employers strive to find services that provide the best care available with affordable prices for the company. The struggle is evident and not one that is new.

Both groups have their own vested interest in the benefits program. This is also true of Benefit Source, Inc., which serves as a link to bridge the gap between employers and employees.

With healthcare becoming more complex and costly, it would be easy to get lost in it all and become frustrated. However, Benefit Source works to accommodate both the company and its employees to ensure satisfaction for everyone who is involved. And just how does Benefit Source successfully accomplish this harmony? It begins with their personal belief: “The ultimate reason for a company’s success is its ability to attract and retain the right talent.” Benefit Source’s role helps companies do just that through three different levels of customer service.

First, Benefit Source creates individualized programs that best suits each customer within the company. Implementing the program is the next step, and could be the last for some companies. But, Benefit Source goes one step further to continually manage and assess what each customer needs from their benefit package. Making this all affordable, both to the company itself and its employees, is another key component of Benefit Source’s philosophy.

Jennifer Browne, now the president of Benefit Source, began working at the formerly known downtown Dunlap Insurance Company as a secretary 16 years ago to put herself through school. Little did she know that this job would not just be a stepping stone on the way to earning her business management degree at AIB. “When you’re 18, that’s a long time,” she remembers. Now, in existence for 26 years, the company has been under her ownership for the past four years and is located in West Des Moines.

The way Benefit Source currently approaches healthcare was something that started about 10 years ago when Jennifer began to feel uneasy about the cost and solutions surrounding healthcare plans. “There truly had to be a greater way to teach and educate people about the process,” she remembers thinking at the time. Her ultimate goal was to take what people already had and make it better. “We strive to bring it from good to great,” she says. The one thing that Jennifer realized is that a company’s success is contingent upon the happiness of the employees. Therefore, to help companies retain the talent that they have, ensuring that healthcare plans are satisfying employees’ needs is key.

Under this idea, Benefit Source essentially serves two clients in one: the business itself, and the employees of that company. There is a strong individual focus on the employees so that they receive the benefits package that best serves their needs. Additionally, Benefit Source also strives to educate people on how to best use their packages, because having the best won’t do them any good if they don’t know how to effectively use it. This also plays into their devotion to establishing and maintaining a long-term relationship with clients.

With such a caring, personable approach to something that might normally be dreaded, it takes the right group of people to make all of this happen. This is where the close-knit group of people that make up Benefit Source come into play. Each member of the small staff is an integral part of the whole composition of Benefit Source. And while one woman had the vision for all of this, it is the employees who help carry it all out. The small staff is proof of the long-term commitment and dedication, since six of them have been employees for over 10 years. This is not the kind of place where clients are treated as nameless entities, but rather with care and personal attention.
“We operate as a family,” Jennifer
notes. “That’s how we treat our
customers, too.”

A new addition to the Benefit Source Family, Lori Hasenwinkel, agrees that one of the unique things about this company is the atmosphere it projects. Within the office, she notes that the laid-back pace in a calm atmosphere was something that took getting used to from her last job. She formerly interacted with Benefit Source as a carrier, but when her company downsized, Benefit Source was quick to snatch her up to add to their team, which was another contrast to formerly only being known as a number at her last job. But at Benefit Source, she is a part of the puzzle in which everyone has a place. “Your opinions matter,” she said. “As a team or office, it will be discussed and decided.”
While there are already so many evident reasons why Benefit Source stands apart from the rest, another one is that Jennifer is one of the few sole female owners in the benefits business in the state of Iowa. “I love it because women have a unique ability to key in on the hot buttons of people,” she says.

She also notes that being a woman has its advantages against the competition.
Since most employees in Human Resources departments are female, Jennifer can relate to them, in addition to already understanding their desire to meet employees’ needs. But on a sheer business to business level, she can at the same time see the company’s concern with only the bottom line and costs, and not necessarily the intricate details. This is where Benefit Source can relate to, and better serve both sides of a business and help achieve everyone’s goals.

But, taking over a company in a primarily male-dominated industry is not without it challenges.
However, Jennifer was fortunate to have hands-on industry experience from the start of her career. Early on, she had a great deal of responsibility, which made her purchase of the company almost the next step in a natural progression. This also made the process less daunting for her, and almost seamless to clients, who were already used to working with her. Other mentors throughout the years helped her pick up on the finishing touches, like business etiquette. While she can’t offer one exact piece of advice for other women in the industry and across other fields, she does have one major tip to share.

“Never compromise yourself, always obtain what you’re looking for— integrity is the key,” she advises.