Workplace tools should be straightforward and easy to use, especially for HR teams and employees. In the past, however, many companies became accustomed to using complex HR portals that were difficult to navigate and kept benefits information tucked away in hard-to-access areas. While the systems still satisfied “most” of the company's needs, the actual user experience was often an afterthought.
Modern best-of-breed benefits technology platforms are different. These systems are designed to be transparent and easy to navigate, giving employees a much more effective way to learn about and track their benefits coverage.
But how do you know what features or options your benefits solution should be providing? Below, we’ll cover six different elements that help to elevate employee experiences.
Mobile-First Employee Access
Employees shouldn't have to be at their work desk or on a company network just to check their health plan. In fact, most important life decisions happen at home and outside the traditional nine-to-five schedule. Best-of-breed platforms support this need by providing mobile access. Since these solutions are often cloud-based, employees can log in from any device whenever needed.
Having this flexibility makes it much easier for employees to involve their family members in the process of choosing their benefits coverage options. They don’t need a company-issued laptop just to look up a doctor's availability or compare premium costs with a partner.
Helping employees get answers to their benefits questions on their own time removes the stress of waiting for HR teams to open their emails the next morning to address a long line of employee information requests.
Interactive Decision Support
Not all employees have the same level of experience with setting up their benefits coverage. For many, reading and understanding long coverage documents or translating industry terms can feel like learning another language.
Modern benefits solutions help bridge that learning gap by providing simple comparison charts and short videos that explain offerings and eligibility in clear English. Instead of employees having to flip through a fifty-page PDF just to find out what a deductible is or how a specific plan affects their monthly premiums, they get fast, accurate answers to all their questions.
Plan modeling tools are also available in certain best-of-breed platforms that take benefits education a step further by showing employees the actual math behind their choices. They can see how optimal certain plan choices are based on their specific health needs or claim history from the last year, making open enrollment decisions even easier to make each year.
Automated Lifecycle Workflows
While having a great benefits platform is helpful during open enrollment windows, best-of-breed solutions are useful long after those periods close. These types of systems support HR teams all year long, from the very beginning of employee onboarding processes to employee exits.
For example, with the right benefits technology in place, HR teams can more easily manage year-round benefits tasks related to employees’ Qualifying Life Events, such as getting married or having a child.
Using automated eligibility checks and preconfigured notifications and workflows, best-of-breed platforms help eliminate the endless back-and-forth emails with HR and employees when updating dependent information or coverage details. The result is much more streamlined HR operations, increased accuracy, and employees who feel more supported by the business.
Seamless Systems Integration
The best technology tools are designed to integrate directly with other software, such as payroll platforms or insurance carrier portals. They use secure, real-time connections to ensure all employee information is up to date and securely protected.
Keeping everything synced helps prevent coverage gaps and meets many regulatory requirements related to data privacy and access. This accessibility also helps eliminate manual entry errors, saving HR teams countless hours reentering data from one platform to the next.
Real-Time Data Insights
Using a best-of-breed benefits platform allows your HR teams to use customizable dashboards to see how employees are leveraging their benefits offerings in real time. Instead of waiting for a month or year-end reports to realize that people are struggling with a specific part of the system, HR teams can gain ongoing insights around employee engagement.
Having this visibility allows the business to be much more proactive about its benefits offerings. If the data shows that a certain benefit isn't being used or isn’t as popular as other offerings, they can offer more training to employees on how these benefits work or adjust their investment strategy.
Leadership can also use these insights when creating Section 125 plans, helping them decide where to allocate their benefits budget in the future and achieve sustainable ROI.
Expert Support and Training
Even the best software is only as effective as the partners who help to implement it. Working with qualified benefits technology partners helps companies not only source best-of-breed platforms but also gives them access to full walk-throughs and technical guidance to ensure everything runs smoothly from the start.
Having a human element is vital for those complex situations that software can't always solve on its own. Reliable help desk support ensures that any glitches are fixed quickly, and HR teams spend less time fighting with the software and more time focusing on the people they support.
Empower Your Teams With the Right Benefits Technology
By choosing benefits tools and platforms that prioritize mobile accessibility and clear decision-making, organizations demonstrate they genuinely care about their teams’ digital experiences, while giving HR teams the solutions they need to automate and simplify their workflows.
Author Bio: Frank Mengert
Frank Mengert continues to find success by spotting opportunities where others see nothing. As the founder and CEO of ebm, a leading provider of employee benefits solutions. Frank has built the business by bridging the gap between insurance and technology driven solutions for brokers, consultants, carriers, and employers nationwide.
