Employers today are moving to online benefits enrollment because it’s effective, employees can check on their benefits package anytime, day or night, it generates a cost and time savings and it improves employee enrollment percentages up dramatically. Before, online benefits systems were expensive and cumbersome for both employers and employees. In 2019, there are more competitors offering the service and the online benefits enrollment platforms are flat out excellent, making it a no brainer to sign up with a service.
Today 75 – 80 % of companies in the US have moved from manual
paper driven benefits enrollment programs to online benefits administration.
That sounds good on the surface, but the bottom line is companies need to find
a vendor the provides excellent customer service both during the sale and
onboarding period and after the company goes live.
Here are several factors to know why it makes perfect sense for your company to switch to an online benefits administration platform:
- Premium Payment Error Elimination – Manual employee benefits administration naturally leads to occasional mistakes when paying monthly premium benefits. By going to online employee benefits instead of doing it manually, companies can realize a monthly premium mistake free experience.
- Reduction of Non-qualifying Employees Enrolled in Company Benefits Plan – Studies indicate employee benefits plans with non-qualified employees and dependents on the benefits rolls account for a total cost of 3% to 10% of combined annual premium expense nationally. With the advantage of computer programmed employee benefits combined with eligibility program requirement rules, this cost no longer is factor in most instances. For example, when an employee has only been with the company for 2 months and qualification for benefits does not start until completion of 3 months, an online benefits program will prevent benefits from activating until the employees 3 months with the company has elapsed.
- The Painless Easy and Simplicity of Online Benefits Administration – When a company provides online benefits administration it gives employees access to sign-up, check current selections and to change benefits 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The need for face to face benefits enrollment or administration is gone. Also gone are the high expenses and the time required by human resources to manage both enrollment and benefits management. It is far simpler, less painless and much more effective for employees to review available plans, make changes and review current benefits than it was before with a manual paper driven employee benefits program. It’s obvious both employers and employees benefit dramatically from online benefits enrollment and administration.
- What to Look for in a Provider When Changing to An Online Benefits Administration System – When choosing an online benefits administrator provider, it is extremely critical to find one that is well versed in both the technical aspects of setting up all the online benefits your company provides and one that is well versed in human resources. The provider needs to provide highly personalized service to your company’s human resources employees and company employees.
Employees of company’s changing to online benefits administration will rave about the change for a variety of good reasons including 24/7 access, instant access to benefits information, easy of use and finally, the ability to make changes to benefits anytime anywhere.
Companies with online benefits administration platforms are
not new, but they are not par for the course for most companies either. Company’s
start realizing the advantages of online benefits administration almost
immediately because of the cost savings, time savings and the added benefit of
employees being able to both enroll in company benefits online and their
ability to access their personal benefits information anytime, anywhere.
