There Are Five Ways To Gauge A Benefits Platform’s Effectiveness.

Here are five straightforward queries to assess an employee benefits platform’s efficacy (or lack thereof).

 

Congratulations on completing open enrollment!

Superior even? You made the decision to use technology to automate your clients’ employee benefits enrollment this year.

However, how do you know you’ve picked the best platform provider?

 

To assess an employee benefits platform’s success (or lack thereof), consider the following five simple questions:

During open enrollment, were you and your clients ready?

Your platform supplier probably made a lot of promises, but were you and your employer clients ready when open enrollment eventually occurred? Were you given a client care representative to aid you after you made your purchase of the new platform, or were you left on your own after it was delivered? Was your implementation schedule followed?

A successful open enrollment requires a lot of work, including choosing the overall benefits and altering the medical, dental, and vision plans, carriers, and prices. To fulfill OE requirements, information must be updated as soon as choices are taken and promptly distributed to staff.

An excellent platform supplier will work with you every step of the way to ensure effective and timely delivery, support you during the open enrollment process, and continue to be a partner after OE.

 

Was your expectation fulfilled regarding the employee experience?

Employees may experience confusion and frustration during open enrollment, which is made worse when there have been changes to the plans, features, and carriers that are now offered.

Employees that have had prior instruction on how to use the process are better able to traverse it. Distribute instruction manuals and videos, let staff members join individually with a platform provider, and provide a customer care number where they can call with queries, get assistance choosing a plan, and get tech support and advice.

Employees should have the technical freedom to enroll using any device, on their own schedule, and from anywhere in the world. They should also have access to support when needed to help if they get locked out of the system or need direction.

To guarantee a smooth employee experience, the ideal employee benefits platform supplier offers all these components.

 

Did it eliminate manual labor and save the HR team time?

With the appropriate employee benefits platform, the employer experience should be improved.

If an organization has gone to the trouble of using technology to automate their employee benefits, it should give the HR team more time to concentrate on other activities to end the current year and begin the next. However, if you discover that they’re still devoting the same amount of time (or even more time) to dealing with plans, pricing, and adjustments than they did the previous year, that’s a red flag that something is wrong.

 

Does it gather and link every piece of employee data?

It is essential to have a system in place to collect employee data, but without an automated method of sending that data to payroll and the many carriers you work with, all that data is meaningless.

The top employee benefits platforms gather and link employee data, enabling smooth electronic integration amongst all carriers and instantly updating payroll to cut down on time and costs associated with duplicative work.

 

Was completing enrollment a simple process?

Now that open enrollment has concluded, do you feel confident in the decision you made? Or are you still experiencing aftereffects after a wild OE season?

The proper supplier streamlines data transmission to carriers so ID cards can be processed, providing employees with proof of coverage on effective dates, and making the entire open enrollment process—including its close-out—a breeze.

How many of these questions did you honestly answer “yes” to after reading them?

All is not lost if you suddenly understand the benefits administration technology solution that at the time seemed like a smart idea actually wasn’t.

You have time to consider other possibilities and can have a better employee and employer experience, which will save you time and money.

But do not put off cutting the cord until the following OE season. Instead, begin the planning process right away to devote the time and resources required to guarantee that your upcoming open enrollment is better than your last one.

 

 

 

 

Source: https://www.benefitspro.com/2023/01/03/5-questions-to-measure-the-effectiveness-of-a-benefits-platform/