HR director says in-house benefits have saved county hundreds of thousands so far

Amber, the county's employee services director, presented the 2nd-quarter HR report and told the commission that bringing benefits administration in-house produced substantial premium savings at the six-month mark.

Amber said utilization of an employee clinic stands at 45% at the year mark and described plans to reach eligible employees who have not yet used the service to push utilization toward a 50% target. She also said the county switched Aflac representatives after payroll and HR issues and is monitoring prescription plan glitches that have been resolved.

On recruitment, Amber said Indeed now limits free job postings to three, increasing reliance on paid listings for hard-to-fill roles. "It's gonna be costly to continue to do that," she said, noting ad costs vary by position. She identified a mid-year premium savings figure the county attributed to in-house insurance administration (discussed in the meeting but expressed with slight variance in the transcript).