Blueprint for Optimizing Employee Benefits for Manufacturing

In Georgia’s manufacturing sector, margins are tight, skilled labor is scarce, and operational disruptions are expensive. Yet one of the most overlooked levers for mitigating these pressures is also one of the most controllable: your employee benefits strategy.

When thoughtfully designed, employee benefits can do far more than check a compliance box—they can drive retention, support recruitment, improve workforce health and productivity, and materially reduce costs. But most manufacturers are still stuck in a benefits model that prioritizes status quo over strategy.

The Manufacturer’s Dilemma: High Cost, Low Engagement

For many manufacturing employers, benefits represent one of the largest line items in the budget—often second only to payroll. Despite this investment, most HR and finance leaders report chronic underutilization of high-value programs, poor employee understanding, and little visibility into what’s actually driving spend.

The issue isn’t just misaligned plan design. It’s a systemic failure to treat benefits as a performance lever.

Totem’s Approach: Treat Benefits Like a Supply Chain

Totem works with manufacturers to manage benefits with the same discipline applied to production, logistics, or quality control. That means interrogating every component—from pharmacy to stop-loss to care delivery—to identify hidden inefficiencies and structural misalignments.

On average, Totem clients experience a 20% reduction in total plan costs, with some seeing as much as 29% in annual savings. On the pharmacy side alone, Totem consistently delivers 50% savings—a critical differentiator at a time when specialty drugs continue to outpace inflation. These results vary depending on starting point and plan maturity, but they reflect the power of an aligned, evidence-based strategy.

Plan Design That Actually Serves the Workforce

Manufacturing workforces have unique needs. Irregular schedules, high physical demands, and limited digital access mean benefits must be accessible, intuitive, and high-value.

Totem builds custom self-funded plans that offer:

• Zero-dollar access to high-quality primary care

• Centers of Excellence for complex conditions (e.g., cancer, MSK)

• Bilingual benefits service center with real-time texting support

• Sleep health and chronic disease programs with proven ROI

• Data-driven clinical engagement for high-risk, high-cost members

These solutions aren’t layered on top of an inefficient plan—they’re built into the structure from the start.

Communication: The Often-Missing Link

One of the most frequent failure points in benefits strategy is communication. Too many manufacturers rely on once-a-year open enrollment and hope employees will retain what they hear.

Totem replaces that broken model with a continuous communication engine:

• Multilingual outreach via text, phone, and mail

• Proactive new-hire onboarding and guidance

• Member-level support for plan navigation and decision-making

The result is better-informed employees who actually use their benefits—and fewer HR headaches along the way.

HR Teams Don’t Need Another Vendor. They Need a True Extension.

In manufacturing environments, HR teams are often lean and stretched thin. That’s why Totem doesn’t act like a traditional broker. Instead, Totem embeds itself as an extension of the employer’s HR and finance function, assuming responsibility for:

• Benefits administration and vendor management

• Compliance and fiduciary support

• Wellness program design, delivery, and documentation

• Surcharge tracking and appeals

• Onsite clinic coordination and data integration

Totem’s Wellness Facilitation service is particularly valuable to manufacturers looking to improve engagement without taking on additional administrative burden. The program includes full project management, real-time data tracking, learning system navigation, and complete communication support—freeing internal teams to focus on core operations.

It’s Not Just About Cost. It’s About Stability.

For most manufacturers, the hidden cost of a poorly aligned benefits plan isn’t in premiums. It’s in turnover, absenteeism, overtime coverage, and lagging productivity. By building a benefits strategy around high engagement, financial transparency, and member trust, Totem helps employers protect their most critical asset: a stable, healthy workforce.

Results That Speak for Themselves

Across its manufacturing client base, Totem has delivered:

• 50% average savings on pharmacy costs

• 8–29% reduction in overall annual plan spend

• Significant improvements in member satisfaction, engagement, and care quality

In one case, a manufacturer struggling with double-digit annual increases transitioned to a Totem-managed self-funded plan and saw a 22% cost reduction in year one—all while improving access to care for its employees.

Conclusion: Benefits as a Competitive Advantage

Manufacturing leaders in Georgia face a difficult equation: control rising costs while attracting and retaining the skilled labor necessary to grow. Traditional benefits strategies won’t solve that. But a proactive, data-driven partnership with a firm that understands the manufacturing landscape can.

Totem’s approach goes beyond brokering to engineer benefit plans that serve people and performance. For manufacturers looking to strengthen their workforce, reduce costs, and position themselves competitively, it’s one of the highest-leverage investments they can make.