Most employees carry more legal stress than they ever admit. Tickets, landlord disputes, custody questions, identity theft scares, wills they avoid for years. None of it stays outside the workplace. Tom Von Jess breaks down why prepaid legal services matter more than most leaders think. His angle is simple. When you give people affordable access to real legal help, they show up differently. They’re calmer. They’re less distracted. They feel supported in ways that actually move the needle on engagement.
In this episode we talk about prepaid legal services, voluntary benefits, identity theft, employee engagement, retention, legal workload, workplace benefits, adoption strategies, and what really drives participation. Tom pulls apart how these programs get used, how people decide to trust them, and why affordability decides everything.
Key Takeaways:
Legal problems hit quietly. People sit on them until the pressure gets uncomfortable. This benefit gives them a place to go before things spin out. When the barrier to entry drops, you see employees tackle the stuff they’ve been avoiding for years. Estate planning. Real estate questions. Financial concerns that keep them up at night. Year two and year three always spike because people finally realize they can use it without getting burned.
Participation tells its own story. Fifteen to twenty percent is strong because legal help is personal. People use it when they trust it. They use it when the examples feel real. Education is what makes or breaks adoption, not handouts or slide decks. When someone hears a scenario that mirrors their world, they engage. When they understand the cost compared to hiring a lawyer solo, they stay.
What sticks is the employer effect. When a company offers something that actually helps with life’s heavy problems, employees take note. It creates a quiet kind of loyalty. Not the forced cheerleading kind. The real kind. The kind that shows up in how committed they feel on an average Tuesday.
This episode was recorded live at isolved Connect in Scottsdale.
The Heroes of HR podcast is a limited series sponsored by isolved. isolved is an HCM platform that modernizes HR, benefits, and payroll across Healthcare, Hospitality, Manufacturing, and more.
Learn more about isolved: https://www.isolvedhcm.com/
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction and Setting the Scene
01:12 Understanding Prepaid Legal Services
02:50 Voluntary Benefits and Employee Engagement
07:23 Driving Adoption of Legal Services
09:10 Measuring Success and Utilization
11:16 Categories of Legal Services Utilization
13:35 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Guest:
Tom Von Jess, National Sales Director, Strategic Partnerships, LegalShield
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-von-jess/
Connect with Us:
William Tincup LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tincup/
Ryan Leary LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanleary/
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