Editor’s note: This short feature is one of several brief looks at local professional collaborations included in Xpress’ Business-to-Business Issue.
Cristina Hall Ackley, co-founder and president of local Ginger’s Revenge, says a common challenge that new businesses face is finding affordable benefits packages for their employees.
“When we started, we did a company health plan where we subsidized 70% and the employees paid 30%,” Ackley explains. “It was hard because they were high-deductible plans, and it was very ‘one-size-fits-all.’ With a small team like ours, it was difficult because they were still paying part of their premiums out of pocket and weren’t able to access a lot of health care.”
After a year, Ackley started looking into other options for the business and was eventually referred to Hummingbird Insurance, a local agency. Instead of offering a traditional benefits package, agents at Hummingbird spoke with employees to find the best insurance policies for their individual needs. Afterward, they provided the Ginger’s staff with recommendations for a wellness stipend so that employees could use the extra funds to pay for their policies.
“When it comes to health insurance, there are just not a lot of options, and small businesses like us are not big enough company to negotiate affordable premiums,” Ackley says. “To have a company like Hummingbird to work with our individual team members and guide them through the process is definitely very helpful.”
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.