Health benefits role in recruiting

MSPBJ: What kind of health insurance do you offer employees?

Derheim: The Nerdery has two company-sponsored options through HealthPartners Inc.: a traditional co-pay plan and a high-deductible health savings account (HSA) plan. We cover two-thirds of the premium cost per employee.

MSPBJ: How have you recently changed how you deal with health insurance?

Derheim: A few years ago we added our high-deductible plan as a second option because we have a lot of young, single people who favor an HSA, whereas people with families tend to stick with the more traditional plan. This year, we got a better deal on vision and dental coverage by moving away from separate carriers and consolidating under one. We are evaluating self-insuring, given our continuing growth.

MSPBJ: How important is health insurance to attracting and retaining the best employees?

Derheim: It’s hugely important. Our vision is to “be the best place in the world for Web nerds to work,” but there are so many elements beyond insurance that go into making The Nerdery the obvious destination for nerds. To us, health insurance seems like more of a basic need — a given — almost like, “Of course, but what else?”