Jourdan Pym, Vice President of People & Places at Karbon, wasn’t looking for a new benefits provider. In fact, he thought he and his company were getting great service from their current broker. But, when he received a LinkedIn message from Nava asking for a chat, he thought, “Sure, why not?” That chat turned into a game-changing benefits experience for both him and his team at Karbon.

As a high-growth company with over 200 employees, Karbon focuses on being scrappy and nimble in every aspect of their business, embodying their mission to empower accounting firms through centralized client communication, workflow, and collaboration. In a similar spirit, Karbon values creative, tech-forward solutions for all aspects of their operation, especially when it comes to supporting their number one asset— their people.

One of Karbon’s values is “Passion for action,” and to Pym, Nava embodies that through unwavering member support, innovative renewal strategies, and a level of HR support that’s downright unheard of in other employee benefits partners.

Next-level employee support

At the top of the priority list for Karbon when choosing a benefits partner was employee support. At Nava Benefits, we have a team of experts dedicated to answering plan questions, tackling complicated billing, and more, making benefits support truly year-round — and taking it off HR’s plate.

“We want our benefits provider to be our biggest advocate and bulldozing the doors down to get what our people need,” said Pym. In his experience, “everyone sells it, but they don’t really walk the walk.” One of the biggest successes of the Nava + Karbon partnership has been the game-changing employee support. After just a few months of support from our team, Pym noted that “the Nava Benefits Advocates chase answers down the street. And if they don’t like the answer, they challenge the answer.”

Another big win for the Karbon team? The Nava Benefits App. Pym mentioned that he wasn’t initially swayed by the app. “Everyone has an app,” he said. But over time, he grew to love the support it’s able to provide his employees. Everyone has an app, but not everyone has a good app. Pym loves that his employees don’t have to think hard about where they need to go to get answers — they go straight to the Nava Benefits App, and then the app directs them to the right place.

“Nava makes sure our people get treated with respect and dignity in their healthcare, which is so critical.”

More value, less spend

When Pym first responded to that fateful LinkedIn message, Karbon was facing a 6% renewal increase. For a scaling company that’s trying to be strategic with every dollar, that’s no small amount. The Nava team was able to get creative with their plan design, resulting in a 9% savings from what they were paying. Oh, and the best part? They also added to their benefits offerings — making short-term disability, long-term disability, and life insurance available to their employees for the first time ever.

Another win? Nava accomplished this cost savings and added benefits without having to change their insurance carriers. “We didn’t want to move off our provider because our people liked it,” Pym said. “Nava looked at our current structure and got creative so we could limit the disruption to our employees.”

An extension of our HR team

HR at Karbon wears a lot of hats, so when they’re not given the support and resources they need, it has a downstream effect. In previous experiences, Pym and his team encountered a lot of “people who didn’t have the time.”

Nava helps the Karbon team navigate all aspects of employee benefits, including the ones that are most taxing on an HR team, like open enrollment. To help streamline the open enrollment process for both Karbon HR and employees, Pym and the Nava team came up with a Slack workflow to get employees real-time answers to their open enrollment questions. Since Slack is Karbon’s main communication channel, the Nava team rallied to meet them where they were needed. “It was like having a benefits specialist right next to you,” said Pym.

“I would describe Nava as a true advocate for Karbon, as a true extension of my team. I’ve never had a benefits team report to me before, and it feels like I do now.”

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