California Employers · Employee Benefits · Retention

Rising costs. Climbing turnover. And a plan that quietly underperforms.

Most employers know benefits matter. Fewer know what good ones actually look like. Renewals roll over, premiums climb, and the team you worked so hard to hire keeps looking elsewhere. Sixth Man's employee benefits practice starts with the part most brokers skip — what's actually keeping you up at night.

Alejandra Samaniego
Employee Benefits Division Leader · Sixth Man Employer Services
Book a Call With Alejandra →
Pain-FirstDiscovery before product
VoluntaryNo-cost retention options
Multi-CarrierStrategy, not a shelf

Three places employee benefits quietly cost you.

Rising costs. High turnover. Plans that look fine on paper and underperform in practice. Whether you're overpaying for benefits, missing optimal coverage, or carrying no plan at all — the financial and cultural cost shows up in the same place: the people you can't keep.

01
Overpaying for the wrong plan

Renewals roll over without a real review. Carriers count on inertia. Each year you absorb the increase and tell yourself you'll shop it next time — and next time looks the same.

02
A plan that doesn't perform

Coverage that looks competitive on the summary, then underwhelms when employees actually need it. Turnover follows. Recruiting costs follow. The plan is a line item; the team you lost is a much bigger one.

03
No plan at all

The "we can't afford it" trap. Without a benefits strategy, you lose the people you hire and pay the recruiting cost twice. Most employers don't realize there are voluntary options at no employer cost.

"We don't lead with a product. We lead with what's actually keeping you up at night about your people — and we work backward from there. That's how you build a plan that retains."

— Alejandra Samaniego, Employee Benefits Division Leader

Discovery first. Product second.

Most brokers walk in with a carrier and work backward. We walk in with questions and work forward. The plan we build for you depends on where the business actually is — your stage, your workforce, your margins, and the people you're trying to keep.

01 · DISCOVERY FIRST

Pain points before products

Every conversation starts with what's broken — turnover, cost creep, plan dissatisfaction, no plan at all. We diagnose before we recommend. The product comes after the conversation, not before it.

02 · STRATEGY, THEN STRUCTURE

The plan fits the business

Health, supplemental, retention tools. We match the carrier and the structure to your goals — not the other way around. The same business doesn't need the same plan two years in a row, and we re-evaluate it that way.

03 · OPTIONS AT EVERY LEVEL

A path from where you are

From employer-paid medical to voluntary supplemental benefits at no employer cost. Whether you're starting from zero or rebuilding an existing plan, there's a real option that fits the budget you actually have.

Retention is the number. Benefits is the lever.

The benefits conversation looks like a cost line. Run it right and it shows up in retention, in recruiting cost, in productivity, and in the kind of team you're able to build. Here's what employers who move to Sixth Man typically get:

  • A real discovery conversation about where your team is and what they actually value.
  • Voluntary supplemental benefits — accident, cancer, critical illness — that strengthen retention with no employer cost.
  • Group medical structures shaped around your workforce profile, not a one-size template.
  • Multi-carrier access. We're carrier-agnostic, so the plan fits the business, not the relationship.
  • Education on what's coming — CalSavers, supplemental regs, ACA changes — before renewal, not at it.
  • One trusted advisor across benefits, workers' comp, and employer services. No vendor sprawl.
RETAIN
Where the work shows up
01
Lower turnover when benefits speak to your actual workforce.
02
Stronger hiring when the plan competes with bigger employers.
03
Cleaner P&L when carrier and structure actually fit the business.
04
Direct line to a real advisor — not a portal, not a 1-800.

Book a call with your benefits advisor.

A direct conversation about your current plan, your team, and what an actual retention-first benefits strategy could look like. No quote engine. No auto-responder. Alejandra reaches out within one business day.

Rising costs. Climbing turnover. There's another way.

If you've been overpaying for a plan that's not delivering — or carrying no plan because the cost feels impossible — talk to Alejandra before your next renewal. The conversation is direct, the strategy is built around your team, and there's almost always more room than the market wants you to believe.

Book a Call With Alejandra