The Dealership's Guide to No-Cost Employee Retention: The Elysian Health Package + Mercer CHOICE Home/Auto Coverage
- Lynn Adkison
- Oct 7
- 4 min read
The Crisis: The $500,000¹ Turnover Cost and 67%² Sales Turnover Rate
It’s a costly issue that has plagued dealerships for years: turnover. The annual employee turnover rate in the automotive industry is staggeringly high, reaching up to 67% for sales positions. According to industry reports, each sales employee leaving can cost a dealership $45,000, contributing to an average total annual turnover cost of $439,000 per dealership. That’s more than mere pocket change.
Adding to the dilemma is that most turnover reduction strategies cost even more money—competitive compensation, strengthening culture, and implementing employee development programs. In fact, almost half of former dealership employees (48%)³ cited poor benefits as a reason they decided to leave. It may seem like this high-priced cycle is destined to keep repeating itself in your dealership.
The Elysian Solution: Bolstering Your Benefits for No-Cost Employee Retention
Elysian Dealer Health, in partnership with Favorite Coverage, offers a critical, low-cost way to bolster your lagging benefits package. This robust health package is a hospital indemnity policy that works seamlessly using your existing Section 125 Plan, meaning employers benefit too.
A key financial takeaway: An employee with a weekly taxable gross of $800 would typically result in an employer annual FICA contribution of $3,182.40. With Elysian Dealer, the same employee's weekly taxable gross is lowered to $523.08, causing the employer's annual FICA contribution to drop to $2,080.81.
The benefits are noteworthy and delivered with the white-glove service your employees deserve:
Payments for qualified out-of-pocket hospital expenses.
Virtual primary care, urgent care, and behavioral health.
A dedicated prescription benefit.
Health management coaching, behavioral change workshops, and digital emotional well-being solutions.
Personal Pathfinder assessment and laboratory/genomic screenings.
Professional tax consulting services.
The Employee Advantage: Increased Take-Home Pay
Many employees see an increase in their take-home pay due to tax savings with our simultaneous pre-tax deduction and post-tax claim payment within the same check. By completing a monthly health management activity, the post-tax claim payment offsets the pre-tax premium deduction, often resulting in increased take-home pay.
Elysian Dealer does not affect your existing medical coverage; instead, it wraps your existing policy in savings. The combination of no out-of-pocket expenses and an increase in take-home pay for employees, coupled with tax savings for employers, creates a compelling reason to participate. Furthermore, the program boosts your employees' preventative care, which can help offset catastrophic claims on your existing health policy. This is the foundation of no-cost employee retention.
The Mercer CHOICE Solution: Auto/Home Savings and Residual Revenue
Favorite Coverage and Mercer's Auto/Home CHOICE quoting platform provides your employees with a single, mobile-friendly application to compare quotes and find the best coverage.
Group Rate Advantage and Customer Support
Group Rate Advantage: Employees receive the benefits of a group rate without needing to be in an organized group. The platform provides real-time, side-by-side quotes from top national providers, including Farmers GroupSelect(™), Liberty Mutual, Progressive, Travelers, Nationwide, and National General.
Customer Support: Employees have a dedicated, toll-free number to reach carrier-neutral, licensed benefits counselors whose sole purpose is to ensure the customer gets the most coverage at the best rate possible.
Consolidated Billing: Streamlined payroll consolidation from various carriers via our proprietary system makes it incredibly easy for customers to pay their premiums.
The Best Part: Your Residual Revenue Model
You become a partner too. Our residual revenue model means your dealership earns money every time a policy is sold. Whether your employees, your customers, or your grandma buys a policy, your business earns revenue for the life of that customer.
The Implementation: Simple, Dynamic, and Zero-Admin
The Favorite Coverage Dual Employee Benefit offering requires zero administrative hassle from your team. Implementation is incredibly easy for both products, creating a dynamic employee retention combination guaranteed to save your company time and money.
Elysian Dealer Health Implementation (5 Steps)
Fill out the simple census data form.
Review the Elysian Dealer analysis.
Review the payment & claim process.
Sign the pre-populated agreement.
Elysian installs and educates your employees for you! (No staff time required).
Mercer Home/Auto CHOICE Implementation
Implementation is as simple as marketing the benefit. Your company will receive a dedicated referral code. We provide the materials and handle the administration. From there on, all you worry about is making sure every customer that walks through the door is aware of the savings they could achieve using YOUR group-priced quoting tool.
Conclusion: Stop the Cycle. Start the Solution.
The cost of inaction is clear: employee turnover is costing your business hundreds of thousands of dollars annually, and poor benefits are a core reason employees walk out the door. The data shows this topic is resonating with your peers, as benefit-focused messaging drives a +439.7% surge in LinkedIn Impressions and a strong 37.58% Open Rate on direct communication.⁴
The Elysian Dealer Health Package + Mercer CHOICE Home/Auto Coverage isn't just a band-aid; it's a dual-benefit system engineered to solve the retention crisis while creating a new, passive revenue stream for your dealership. It's a zero-cost employee retention solution that pays you to solve your biggest retention headache.
Isn't it time to end the cycle of costly turnover and start earning revenue on your solution?
Take Action Today: Schedule Your Free Benefits Overview.
Data & Methodology
NADA, "Financial Impact of Dealership Staffing."
Automotive News, "Annual Dealer Turnover Report."
SHRM, "Employee Benefits & Retention Study."
Internal Digital Campaign Performance, Favorite Coverage (2025)
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