With businesses now overseeing open enrollment for their workers, many employers admit they’re struggling to find ways to finance and organize increasingly complex benefit plans. Yet rather than decide to simply cut those programs as too costly and laborious to continue, a majority of small business owners are considering turning to outside experts’ help to make them more effective.

Employers’ commitment to benefits, and accompanying awareness that their plans are getting too difficult to operate alone, were two major findings in a recent survey of 759 small businesses by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (USCC) and JustWorks, an HR tech company. Nearly 70% of participating entrepreneurs said they recognize they need help in running their programs, and “wish they had outside” support in structuring, operating, and budgeting them. That desire for expert third-party assistance stood at 75% among Gen Z and millennial owners, with 64% and 54% of Gen Xers and boomers considering the idea, respectively.

Little wonder so many entrepreneurs are considering outside help in orchestrating benefits programs—especially with annual open enrollment activity underway. In addition to managing the often wide array of options included in many company plans, business owners are also forced to find new budgeting adjustments to fund their rising costs.

Health care insurance is the main example of that. While premium increases to all companies this year are slated to surpass 9%, they’re hitting small businesses particularly hard.

According to a recent report by the payroll services platform Gusto, employee medical costs to entrepreneurs have surged by 31% since 2022, and now represent $8,743 per worker.

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