Better benefits without a bigger budget, and a reason to stay.

A professional or office employer competes for administrative, operations, and support staff against every other office in the market, and skilled people have options. Optiv Advantage gives your team a measurable increase in take-home pay without a raise. It adds real coverage they can actually use, coverage that strengthens your offer against larger competitors. And the employer funds all of it by recovering payroll tax it was already overpaying on every payroll run, so none of it lands as a new expense.

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$5 a week to over $100 a month

added take-home for the employee

No copay, no deductible

virtual care for the employee and family

Up to $957

employer recovery per enrolled employee per year

Competing for skilled staff when pay is not your only lever

Administrative and support staff have more choices than they used to, and pay is only part of what moves them. A firm cannot always answer a competing offer with a higher salary, especially against a larger employer with a bigger budget. What it can do is put more money in the same paycheck and offer coverage that stands out, so a competing offer stops being enough to pull good people away. Retention is the payoff, and in a professional setting a departure is costly. Institutional knowledge walks out the door, and the work slows while a replacement is found and trained.

Skilled office and support staff weigh total value, not just salary. More take-home in the same paycheck is a concrete reason to choose you.

A smaller firm rarely outspends a larger competitor on benefits, so a benefit that stands out without a bigger budget is a real recruiting edge.

Churn in professional and business services is a steady drag. National labor data shows persistent quit activity in the sector, and each departure carries recruiting, onboarding, and lost-productivity costs.

What makes good staff choose you, and stay

Office and support staff weigh two things when they compare offers: what lands in the paycheck and what the coverage actually does for them. A smaller firm rarely wins on salary alone, so a benefit that adds real take-home and real coverage stands out before the candidate ever interviews. The same two things keep a skilled employee from leaving for a larger competitor. Recruiting and retention are the same lever pulled at two moments, and there is a fuller recruiting playbook in the resources below.

A measurable take-home increase gives a candidate a concrete reason to choose you, and a current employee a reason to stay.

Real coverage a smaller firm can rarely match on budget, virtual care at no copay for the whole family, signals you value your people.

The recruiting edge and the retention edge come from the same benefit. See the recruiting playbook at /resources/recruiting.

How Optiv Advantage works for a professional employer

Optiv Advantage uses a Section 125 structure, which means qualifying benefit premiums come out of pay before payroll tax is calculated. That lowers the wage base the employer and the employee are both taxed on. Here is where the saving becomes concrete, and how it reaches your bank account. Each pay period, whoever runs payroll drops your payroll report into a calculation engine we provide. The engine returns an updated payroll with the benefits already calculated, and it flags new hires and terminations so people are added to or removed from the plan and enrollment outreach starts on its own. Because each employee's qualifying premium is now taken out before tax, the wage base is lower, so the FICA you deposit with that payroll is smaller. You keep the difference. It is not a rebate you wait for and not a check that arrives later. It is simply a smaller FICA deposit on the very next run, which means the cash stays in your account instead of leaving it. That drop-in step is what calculates your reduced FICA each cycle. It adds about five minutes and five clicks, and everything after the drop is handled for you. That is what we mean when we say we do the work. Coverage is provided by an A-rated, state-licensed insurance carrier. Implementation and the full mechanics are covered on the How It Works page.

WORKED EXAMPLE

Take one employee who elects pre-tax premium under the plan. The firm calculates its FICA deposit on that employee's wages after the premium is taken out, not before. The result is a smaller FICA deposit for that employee on the very next payroll, and up to $957 less over the year. Across a full roster of enrolled staff, that recovery adds up to real money the firm keeps each year. The figure is illustrative. The exact amount is modeled to each firm's census and depends on participation and election levels.

What the math looks like across your workforce

Modeled on a 100-employee firm at the sector churn rate, with a conservative reduction in line with what meaningful financial benefit programs are associated with in retention research. The turnover figures are industry data and are cited below. The Optiv savings are shown as a range. The exact figure is modeled to your census in a gated proposal.

Without Optiv Advantage

churn at the sector rate — replacement cost across recruiting, onboarding, training, and lost productivity while the role sits open — no payroll tax recovered.

With Optiv Advantage

fewer replacements as retention improves — plus recovered payroll tax on every participating dollar.

Net annual value for a 100-employee firm

a range combining recovered payroll tax and reduced turnover cost — exact figure modeled to your census.

Turnover figures are industry data, cited below. Optiv savings reflect program averages and are modeled to each firm's census. Individual results vary. A 5 to 20% turnover reduction is consistent with documented outcomes when employers add meaningful financial benefit programs.

What the team member actually receives

The plan is built to be felt in the first paycheck and the first time a team member needs care. It pairs a measurable take-home increase with a virtual care suite most packages do not include. Virtual Urgent Care connects the team member and family to a board-certified physician around the clock, usually in under 15 minutes, and Virtual Primary Care gives them a dedicated PCP, both with no copay and no deductible. Their Health Maintenance Benefit is included. Optiv Access pairs with the Advantage plan to bring entry-level virtual care to part-time and contingent staff, and its cost nets against the firm's payroll-tax recovery rather than adding an expense.

A measurable increase in take-home pay, modeled to the staff member's situation.

Virtual Urgent Care and Virtual Primary Care with no copay and no deductible, for the team member and their family.

Mental-health support through the EAP, for the everyday pressure of client and deadline-driven work.

Supplemental accident, critical illness, and cancer coverage that adds to an existing package.

Work Shield workplace-misconduct resolution as a bundled bonus, resolving issues about 80% faster than the national average.

Indemnity payments are potentially taxable on the excess.

The value compounds with every skilled seat you keep filled

The payroll-tax recovery scales with the number of enrolled staff, and the turnover savings scale with how many stay. Across a 50, 100, or 250-employee firm, both move in the same direction and compound every year the plan is in place. Larger firms see larger recovery. The per-employee logic does not change.

50 employees

recovered payroll tax plus reduced turnover cost, modeled to census.

100 employees

a combined annual range, modeled to census.

250 employees

the same logic at greater scale, modeled to census.

Questions firm leaders ask

You do not have to match their salary to compete. Optiv Advantage puts more take-home pay in the same paycheck and adds virtual care at no copay for the whole family, coverage a smaller firm rarely matches on budget. It gives you a concrete answer when a candidate is weighing your offer against a bigger employer, and it is funded by recovering payroll tax you already overpay, so it does not add a benefits expense.

It sits alongside what you have. Optiv Advantage adds take-home pay and a virtual care suite most packages do not include, so it strengthens your offer rather than replacing anything. Because it is funded by recovered payroll tax, it adds to the package without adding to the benefits budget.

The plan can pay a fixed cash benefit when a covered medical event happens. Those payments are potentially taxable on the excess above what an employee paid in, and the question of how that excess is treated for wage purposes is genuinely unsettled. We do not describe the benefit as free of tax. The full analysis is available in a gated white paper for firms that want to see it before enrolling.

The entire process only adds about five minutes and five clicks to your regular payroll. Each pay period, whoever runs payroll drops your payroll report into a calculation engine we provide. That returns an updated payroll with the benefits already calculated, and it flags new hires and terminations so people are added or removed and enrollment outreach starts on its own. That same step figures your reduced FICA for the cycle, so the savings show up as a smaller FICA deposit on that run. Everything after the drop is handled for you. That is what we mean when we say we do the work.

SOURCES

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (2025 annual averages), professional and business services. Persistent quit and separation activity in the sector.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Office and Administrative Support Occupations, Occupational Outlook Handbook.
Society for Human Resource Management replacement-cost method. Cost to replace an employee commonly runs a significant share of annual salary.
Optiv Advantage program data. Employer FICA recovery of up to $957 per enrolled employee per year; employee take-home increase varies from as little as $5 a week to over $100 a month.

Know your numbers, before you make the call

The plan is engineered. The math is yours. Calculated, not recommended.

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The Optiv Group helps employers evaluate tax-advantaged benefits strategies, payroll-linked savings opportunities, and modern coverage paths with compliance-aware plan design.

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