Why Top Benefits Brokers Choose WellSteps as Their Wellness Partner

Executive Summary

Why should benefits brokers partner with WellSteps for employee wellness?

Today’s benefits brokers are expected to deliver far more than insurance plans and renewal strategies. Employers increasingly look to their brokers for guidance on controlling healthcare costs, improving employee wellbeing, strengthening workplace culture, and supporting long-term business performance. Employee wellness has become an important part of that conversation.

That’s why many leading brokers choose to partner with WellSteps. Rather than offering a standalone wellness platform, WellSteps combines evidence-based programming, dedicated wellness experts, technology, and measurable outcomes to help employers build healthier, more engaged workforces. The company’s broker program is designed to strengthen client relationships, create new business opportunities, and help brokers deliver strategic value that extends well beyond annual renewals. WellSteps also provides brokers with implementation resources, reporting tools, and a performance-based approach focused on participation, behavior change, and long-term return on investment.

Why Brokers Trust WellSteps: By the Numbers

For benefits brokers, a wellness partnership should do more than add another benefit to the portfolio. It should create measurable value for clients and give brokers something concrete to stand behind.

50%+ Employee Participation
WellSteps’ performance targets call for program participation to exceed 50% of all eligible participants, with many programs reaching over 80% engagement.

7%+ Improvement in Health Behaviors or Risks
By the end of year two, participating employees are expected to demonstrate an improvement in health behaviors or health risks of at least 7%.

150% Minimum ROI Guarantee
We provide a performance-based guarantee that clients will achieve a minimum 150% return on the cost of their wellness solution. The stated cost-trend target is for participants to have fewer medical expenditures than nonparticipants by the end of year three, with savings totaling at least 150% of program costs.

$15.60 Saved Per $1 Invested
In one employer example, reduced absenteeism produced $15.60 in savings for every $1 invested.

$3.23 Saved Per $1 Invested
Another WellSteps client reported $3.23 saved per $1 invested through reduced claims costs.

5% Broker Commission
Brokers and consultants can earn a 5% commission on groups that sign up for WellSteps, or that amount can be passed along to the client as a discount.

Together, these numbers tell a stronger story than “we offer a wellness platform.” They show a model built around engagement, behavior change, cost outcomes, and measurable value. Illustrating the kinds of results brokers can bring into conversations with both prospective and existing clients.

RELATED: WellSteps Broker Benefits Sheet

The Role of Benefits Brokers Has Changed

There was a time when a successful benefits broker was measured primarily by the ability to negotiate competitive premiums and navigate complex health plans. Those responsibilities still matter, but today’s employers expect much more.

Instead of asking only about deductibles and networks, the conversation turns to employee burnout, rising healthcare claims, chronic disease, retention challenges, and workforce engagement. Those aren’t insurance questions. They’re business questions. Increasingly, they’re also broker questions.

Modern benefits brokers have evolved into trusted advisors who help organizations build healthier workplaces while managing costs and improving employee experiences. Employers want partners who understand not only benefits, but also the human factors that influence healthcare spending, productivity, absenteeism, and organizational culture. Employee wellness sits at the center of that conversation.

When designed thoughtfully, a wellness program isn’t another employee perk tucked inside an HR handbook. It’s a long-term business strategy that helps organizations invest in their people while creating measurable value across the organization. That’s precisely why many of today’s top-performing brokers choose to partner with WellSteps.

RELATED: SHRM: 2025 Employee Benefits Survey

Why Wellness Has Become a Strategic Business Conversation

Employee wellness has moved well beyond step challenges and lunchtime nutrition seminars. Today’s workforce faces increasingly complex health challenges that directly affect organizational performance.

The business case for employee wellness begins with a significant healthcare challenge. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 90% of the nation’s annual healthcare expenditures are for people with chronic and mental health conditions. While not all of these costs are preventable, the findings underscore the importance of prevention, chronic disease management, and healthier daily behaviors.

For employers and benefits brokers, this creates an opportunity to look beyond annual insurance renewals and develop strategies that support employee health over time.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), chronic diseases account for the vast majority of healthcare spending in the United States, with many conditions linked to modifiable lifestyle behaviors. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has similarly highlighted the importance of preventive health strategies in reducing long-term disease burden.

Meanwhile, the 2025 KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey reports that 83% of large employers offering health benefits provide at least one program addressing smoking cessation, weight management, or lifestyle and behavioral coaching. Among firms with 10–199 employees, 56% offer at least one of these programs. At the same time, the financial pressure surrounding employer-sponsored healthcare continues to climb. KFF reports that average annual premiums for employer-sponsored family health coverage reached $26,993 in 2025, an increase of 6% from 2024.

For benefits brokers, these trends intersect. Clients want better benefits, but they are also under pressure to control costs. They want healthier employees, but they may have limited internal resources to manage another initiative. They want engagement, but they have probably seen benefits programs launch with enthusiasm in January and become digital tumbleweeds by March.

At the same time, employers continue to navigate:

• Healthcare cost inflation
• Mental health concerns
• Employee burnout
• Hybrid and remote workforce challenges
• Labor shortages
• Increased competition for talent
• Higher expectations for employee benefits

These issues don’t exist in isolation. Organizational health is like the foundation of a building. If the foundation begins to crack, the problems eventually appear everywhere else, in productivity, morale, turnover, recruiting, healthcare costs, and overall business performance. Wellness helps strengthen that foundation, and a good wellness partner helps close the gap.

Research from organizations such as SHRM, Mercer, and Deloitte continues to show that employees increasingly value organizations that invest in their well-being. Companies that prioritize employee health often experience stronger engagement, improved retention, and more resilient workplace cultures.

For benefits brokers, this creates an opportunity. Rather than simply discussing insurance products once a year, brokers can help clients think strategically about preventing health risks before they become expensive claims. Positioning brokers as long-term strategic partners rather than transactional vendors.

RELATED: How Wellness Programs Create a New Revenue Stream for Benefits Brokers

What Top Benefits Brokers Look for in a Wellness Partner

Not every wellness company is built the same. Many platforms promise engagement. Others focus primarily on activity tracking or rewards. Leading brokers, however, evaluate wellness partners through a much broader lens. They want solutions that strengthen their credibility while helping clients achieve measurable business outcomes. Here are several qualities experienced brokers consistently prioritize.

Proven Outcomes Matter More Than Promises

Wellness programs are often judged by participation numbers alone. But participation tells only part of the story. A successful wellness strategy should ultimately encourage healthier behaviors, reduce health risks over time, and support lower long-term healthcare expenditures.

Research reinforces the need to evaluate employee wellness programs on more than participation alone. A randomized clinical trial published in JAMA found improvements in certain self-reported health behaviors, including regular exercise and weight management, among employees offered a workplace wellness program.

For benefits brokers, the takeaway is important: effective wellness partnerships need clear performance benchmarks, credible measurement, and a long-term commitment to meaningful outcomes—not simply impressive engagement statistics.

WellSteps has built our approach around measurable performance expectations rather than vague aspirations. With goals that include:

• Employee participation exceeding 50% of eligible participants
• Demonstrated improvements in health behaviors or health risks by the end of the second year
• Lower medical expenditures among participants over time
• A minimum 150% return on investment for clients through its performance-based guarantee

These benchmarks reflect an important distinction. The objective isn’t simply getting employees to log into an app. The objective is helping people build healthier habits that contribute to meaningful organizational outcomes.

For brokers, measurable results create stronger renewal conversations, reinforce trust, and provide tangible evidence that wellness is supporting broader business goals.

Flexibility Across Diverse Client Populations

No two organizations share the same workforce.

A manufacturing company faces different health risks than a financial institution.

A school district has different scheduling realities than a healthcare system.

Municipal governments often serve employees spanning multiple departments, age groups, and job responsibilities.

An effective wellness partner must adapt to those differences. The WellSteps program is designed to support organizations across diverse industries and company sizes while helping employees adopt healthier lifestyle habits that can reduce absenteeism and improve productivity.

This adaptability benefits brokers with varied books of business by enabling them to recommend a consistent wellness partner without forcing every client into the same template.

Technology Works Best When It’s Backed by People

Software is an important part of modern wellness programs. But software alone rarely changes behavior. Consider the difference between owning a sophisticated fitness tracker and working with a knowledgeable coach. The device provides information. The coach helps translate information into action.

Successful wellness programs require both. One aspect often highlighted by WellSteps clients is the role of dedicated Wellness Guides, who help organizations develop programs, communicate effectively with employees, and maintain engagement throughout the year.

As one client shared, their Wellness Guide became “instrumental in helping us communicate with team members to keep them engaged.”

That human partnership can make the difference between launching a wellness platform and sustaining a wellness culture. For brokers, it also provides confidence that clients will continue receiving support long after implementation.

Real Partnerships Build Long-Term Value

The strongest broker relationships aren’t built on annual transactions. They’re built on consistently helping clients solve meaningful business challenges.

At WellSteps, we know that employee wellness is a business strategy rather than simply an employee benefit. Our broker program emphasizes healthier lifestyles, reduced absenteeism, improved productivity, and stronger organizational outcomes through comprehensive wellness programming.

When wellness becomes part of a client’s long-term business strategy, brokers naturally become part of that strategic conversation as well. Instead of checking in only at renewal, they have opportunities throughout the year to discuss engagement trends, workforce health, organizational goals, and future planning.

Those ongoing conversations often strengthen client relationships in ways traditional insurance discussions alone cannot.

RELATED: What Is a Broker Wellness Partnership and How Does It Work?

Seven Reasons Top Benefits Brokers Partner with WellSteps

Every broker wants to provide exceptional service. But the brokers who consistently earn long-term client trust often have something in common: they bring solutions to the table before clients know they need them. Employee wellness is one of those solutions.

When employers begin asking how to improve engagement, reduce turnover, manage healthcare costs, or support employee wellbeing, brokers who already have a trusted wellness partner are positioned to lead the conversation with confidence.

Here are seven reasons many brokers choose WellSteps as that partner.

1. Nearly Two Decades of Wellness Experience

Experience matters. Employee wellness isn’t a trend. It’s an ongoing discipline that combines behavior science, technology, healthcare, communication, organizational psychology, and leadership.

Organizations need more than a software platform. They need guidance from professionals who understand how to engage employees, support leadership teams, and create programs that remain effective long after launch.

For nearly 20 years, WellSteps has partnered with organizations across multiple industries, refining programs that help employees adopt healthier lifestyles while supporting broader business objectives with a comprehensive wellness approach designed to improve productivity, reduce absenteeism, and help prevent chronic disease.

For brokers, that experience provides confidence when recommending a wellness solution to clients with different workforce sizes, industries, and organizational goals.

2. Wellness Built on Behavior Change, Not Just Participation

Many wellness platforms celebrate activity. WellSteps focuses on real-life behavior change. Because there’s an important difference.

Imagine buying a gym membership. Walking through the front door is participation. Developing healthier habits over the next year is behavior change.

Organizations don’t invest in wellness simply because they want employees to complete challenges. They invest because healthier behaviors can contribute to lower health risks, improved quality of life, stronger workplace cultures, and better long-term business outcomes.

Our broker program outlines measurable expectations that extend beyond engagement alone, including improvements in employee health behaviors and health risks over time. For brokers, this distinction matters because clients increasingly want evidence that wellness initiatives are producing meaningful results, not just high login rates.

3. Measurable Business Outcomes That Support Client Conversations

Business leaders appreciate wellness. They invest in outcomes. That’s why reporting and accountability have become essential parts of modern wellness programs.

Our broker materials establish clear performance expectations, including:

• More than 50% employee participation
• Improved health behaviors and reduced health risks by the second year
• Lower medical expenditures among participating employees over time
• A minimum 150% return on investment through its performance-based guarantee

These metrics provide brokers with something incredibly valuable: Meaningful conversations backed by measurable progress. Rather than asking, “How do you think the wellness program is going?”

A broker can instead review participation trends, engagement levels, wellness initiatives, and outcome reports that demonstrate tangible progress toward organizational goals. Those conversations reinforce the broker’s role as a strategic advisor rather than simply an insurance consultant.

4. Stronger Client Relationships Through Year-Round Value

Renewal season shouldn’t be the only time brokers hear from their clients. Workplace wellness creates opportunities for meaningful conversations throughout the year. Instead of focusing exclusively on premiums and plan design, brokers can discuss:

• Employee engagement
• Leadership initiatives
• Communication strategies
• Preventive health
• Workforce wellbeing
• Organizational culture

Offering a wellness program helps strengthen relationships by providing employers with a valuable service that supports employee satisfaction and retention. That additional value helps transform brokers from insurance providers into long-term business partners. And stronger partnerships often lead to greater client loyalty.

5. New Opportunities to Grow Your Book of Business

One of the most overlooked benefits of wellness is how it can expand a broker’s business, not through aggressive selling, but by creating additional value for existing and prospective clients. When employers see their broker bringing thoughtful, evidence-based solutions to workforce challenges, conversations naturally broaden beyond insurance renewals.

A WellSteps-Broker partnership can support business growth in several ways, including:

• Creating an additional revenue stream
• Differentiating brokerage services
• Helping attract new clients
• Strengthening existing relationships
• Providing a competitive advantage in the marketplace

We also offer a 5% broker commission or discount, depending on how the partnership is structured.

While financial incentives are certainly appreciated, many brokers find the greater value lies in becoming a more indispensable resource to their clients.

6. Resources That Help Brokers Deliver More Value

Great partnerships make everyone better. WellSteps doesn’t simply provide a wellness platform. We also equip brokers with practical resources that make conversations easier and implementations smoother, including:

• ROI Calculator
• Compliance Checker
• Checklist to Change
• Worksite Implementation Guide
• Educational wellness blog and supporting materials

These resources help brokers answer questions with greater confidence while supporting clients throughout implementation. Instead of starting from scratch, brokers gain access to tools designed to simplify planning and demonstrate value.

7. A True Partner Focused on Long-Term Success

Several WellSteps clients describe the difference not in terms of software features, but in terms of ongoing support.

One client praised the adaptability of the platform and highlighted how their dedicated Wellness Guide continually introduced new ideas while helping keep employees engaged.

Another shared that WellSteps provided campaigns, videos, educational materials, and support that contributed to healthier employee lifestyles and measurable health improvements during the program’s first year.

Those testimonials reinforce an important idea: Successful wellness programs aren’t built through technology alone. They’re built through collaboration.

RELATED: How Adding Wellness to Your Benefits Portfolio Sets You Apart From Every Other Broker

What Makes WellSteps Different from a Typical Wellness Vendor?

As brokers evaluate wellness solutions, one distinction becomes increasingly clear: there’s a significant difference between purchasing software and gaining a strategic partner.

Typical Wellness Vendor	WellSteps Approach
Primarily software-focused	Technology supported by dedicated wellness experts
Standardized programs	Flexible programs designed for diverse industries and workforce needs
Success measured mainly by logins	Success measured through participation, behavior change, and business outcomes
Limited implementation guidance	Ongoing planning, communication, and implementation support
Wellness treated as an employee benefit	Wellness positioned as a business strategy
Minimal broker resources	ROI calculators, compliance tools, implementation guides, educational resources, and broker support

For brokers, these differences influence more than implementation; they shape the quality of client relationships over time. That’s the power of moving from transactional conversations to strategic partnerships.

RELATED: WellSteps Broker Partnership Program

Why Strong Wellness Partnerships Create Better Client Relationships

The best broker relationships are built on trust. Trust grows when brokers consistently help clients solve important business challenges. Employee wellness creates opportunities to do exactly that. Rather than speaking with clients only during open enrollment or renewal season, brokers gain additional reasons to connect throughout the year:

• Reviewing engagement metrics
• Discussing workforce health trends
• Planning leadership initiatives
• Evaluating employee feedback
• Supporting organizational goals

These conversations move beyond insurance. They become conversations about people. And people are ultimately every organization’s greatest investment.

“Insurance helps organizations recover after something goes wrong. Wellness helps organizations invest in preventing many of those problems before they occur.”

Neither replaces the other. Together, they create a more complete employee benefits strategy. For brokers, that means greater relevance. For employers, it means a healthier workforce. For employees, it means feeling supported—not just when they’re sick, but throughout their entire well-being journey. That broader perspective strengthens relationships that often extend well beyond annual renewals.

Helping Clients Build Healthier Workplaces

The role of today’s benefits broker continues to evolve. Clients still expect expertise in health plans, compliance, and cost management. But increasingly, they also want guidance on workforce well-being, employee engagement, organizational culture, and long-term health strategy.

Employee wellness has become an important part of those conversations because healthier employees often contribute to healthier organizations. That’s why many brokers are looking beyond traditional wellness vendors and seeking strategic partners who can deliver measurable value.

WellSteps was built around that philosophy.

By combining evidence-based programming, dedicated wellness experts, flexible technology, practical implementation support, and a focus on measurable outcomes, WellSteps helps brokers offer more than another employee benefit. It helps them become trusted advisors who bring meaningful business solutions to the organizations they serve. Its broker program is designed to support participation, encourage healthier behaviors, strengthen employer relationships, and provide resources that make implementation easier for both brokers and clients.

As the workplace continues to change, the brokers who create the greatest long-term value will be those who help clients think beyond annual renewals and toward healthier, more engaged, and more resilient organizations.

If you’re exploring ways to strengthen your wellness offerings, deepen client relationships, and differentiate your brokerage, a partnership with WellSteps is worth exploring. Together, you can help employers build workplaces where healthier people—and healthier businesses—can thrive.

Frequently Asked Questions