Where They Are Now

Today they are a 300-employee Texas oil field services company whose benefits win the talent fights that stall their competitors. Recruiters who once named their coverage as the weakness now hear about it from candidates. Renewals arrive as numbers leadership planned for. The office runs the plan without the plan running the office.

Where They Started

Four years ago they were 22 people on a bare-bones high-deductible plan, watching turnover creep and hearing benefits cited on the way out the door. What they wanted was not a richer plan. It was a company people join and stay with.

How We Built It

We never proposed the expensive wholesale upgrade. We rebuilt surgically. At the first renewal, sharper plan design: targeted moves on out-of-pocket exposure and copays where they mattered most to field employees. The carrier we negotiated with recognized the group's clean health profile and favorable mix, which let us add real value without proportional cost increases.

As the company grew to 35 employees over the next two years, we revisited the design twice, adding an HSA-compatible option alongside a traditional PPO so employees had genuine choice. We also coordinated the benefits calendar with the business cycle, timing open enrollment and renewal conversations to their cash flow and strategic planning instead of the carrier's convenience.

What It Changed

By the eighteen-month mark the numbers were already telling the story: enrollment up from 68% to 91%, costs predictable and inside growth projections, and exit interviews showing benefits had flipped from a retention liability to a reason to stay. Several departing employees said outright they would be worse off elsewhere.

The deeper change was in how leadership saw the plan. Benefits stopped being a compliance checkbox and became a strategic business tool, one that let them compete for talent at their stage and scale without overpaying for coverage they did not need. Four years in, at over 300 employees and growing, the partnership has moved to the next strategic level: alternative funding structures built for the company they are becoming.