The ROI of Ultima: Quantifying Retention and Healthcare Savings
Discover how Ultima delivers measurable value through deeper employee engagement and healthcare navigation.
What is Ultima?
Ultima is the AI-powered workforce engagement tool that meets employees on the channel they use most: text messaging. Serving as the front door to the company, Ultima proactively supports employees at every part of their employment journey, by surfacing resources and benefits, checking in and collecting feedback, and flagging high-risk employees for extra support. Ultima learns about each employee over time, targeting two critical outcomes: decreasing turnover through proactive engagement and support, and reducing company healthcare costs by guiding employees to the best value care options and encouraging preventive/primary care.
But the value goes beyond convenience. Ultima delivers two distinct types of ROI that compound when used together: healthcare cost savings and employee retention improvements.
Retention ROI: Retaining Employees Through Stronger Engagement
Rehiring is expensive. The cost of replacing an employee ranges from $10,000 to $40,000, including hiring, onboarding, and lost productivity.
While pay is a standard lever, it is rarely the sole reason employees leave: 69% of quit reasons are actually tied to culture, well-being, and engagement. When workers don't feel supported or connected, they disengage and eventually depart. Ultima closes the engagement gap by addressing the structural drivers of turnover:
- Visible Total Rewards: Strong benefits reduce turnover risk by 26%, but they are useless if forgotten. Although a third of compensation goes toward benefits meant to attract and retain employees, two-thirds of workers say their organizations don't do enough to explain or promote them, so many benefits go unused. Ultima helps employees discover and use the benefits you've already invested in, turning invisible perks into a tangible retention lever.
- The Feedback Loop: Workers who feel unheard are 4x more likely to report declining wellbeing. Ultima's automated check-ins ensure every employee has a voice, allowing you to triage sentiment risks before they lead to churn.
- Technological Equity: Employees lacking modern digital tools are 3x more likely to feel unfairly treated and 1900% more likely to find their employer not transparent. Ultima makes benefits and resources highly accessible over SMS, ensuring every worker has equal access to information.
Use the calculator below to see how retention improvements translate to savings for your organization.
Retention ROI
Calculate the value of reduced employee turnover through improved benefits discoverability.
Average headcount lost each month
Hiring, onboarding, productivity ramp
Ultima's impact on churn reduction
Annual retention value
$1,248,000
monthly turnover × 12 × refill cost × reduction
Healthcare ROI: Helping Employees Find the Highest Value Care
Employer healthcare costs are rising sharply, with a projected 9% increase this year (Mercer). The good news is that there are proven interventions that make skyrocketing costs far from inevitable. When employees can easily understand their benefits and navigate to the right care, these costs decrease significantly. Ultima enables this through embedded healthcare pricing, appointment booking, and care navigation that guides employees to high-value providers.
Research shows that care navigation programs can reduce healthcare cost trends by 6-10%. This happens through multiple mechanisms:
- Reduced ER visits: Care navigation reduces emergency room visits by 33%, saving $3,000+ per avoided episode
- Lower-cost imaging: Medical prices vary widely; an MRI can range from $400 to $12,000. Navigation helps employees find quality providers at better prices
- Surgical episode optimization: Care navigation saves an average of $17,943 per surgical episode by directing employees to higher-quality, lower-cost providers
- Avoided surgeries: Better primary care uptake helps prevent unnecessary surgical procedures
- Better plan selection: When employees understand their options, they can choose plans (like HDHPs) that better match their needs
- Medication adherence: Adherent patients cost $10,000 less over two years and show lower rates of absenteeism
Ultima targets these proven ROI drivers to lower employer healthcare costs. Use the calculator below to see how these savings translate for your organization.
Company headcount
Includes dependents
Covered lives
2,000
Healthcare ROI
Calculate healthcare cost savings from care navigation and better benefits utilization.
KFF cites ~$10k per employee
Navigation programs validate 6–10%
Annual healthcare value
$600,000
employees × annual cost × reduction
Expand to view the breakdown of cost drivers.
We include ER, imaging, surgical, plan selection, and adherence levers by default.
Layering Two ROIs Together Creates Even Greater Impact
While healthcare cost savings and retention improvements each deliver significant value on their own, their combined impact is even more powerful. When employees can easily discover their benefits and navigate to high-value care, you get:
- Lower healthcare costs from better care navigation and utilization
- Higher employee satisfaction from easy access to benefits information
- Reduced turnover as employees value and understand their benefits
- Lower HR administrative costs as employees self-serve instead of calling HR
Ultima brings these benefits together in a single platform, making it the comprehensive solution for modern benefits administration. By quantifying both healthcare and retention ROI, you can build a clear business case for the platform's value.
Ready to see Ultima's ROI for your organization?
Schedule a demo to learn how Ultima can deliver measurable value through improved benefits discoverability and care navigation.
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