How well do benefits integrate with the lives of employees who need them?

The Great Resignation, the Big Quit, the Great Reshuffle. No matter what it’s called, the recent upheaval in the job market has employers competing for qualified workers and seeking to differentiate themselves through, among other factors, their benefits. It is not enough to offer benefit plans to attract workers; these same benefits must integrate seamlessly into the lives of employees to deliver their promised value and encourage retention. For insurers, that means incorporating new technologies that work unobtrusively to enhance the employee experience without compromising their personal health information (PHI).

Deliver benefits to those who expect them

It may seem obvious that benefits should be delivered to employees who qualify and expect to be enrolled. In reality, however, that isn’t always the case. As HR departments manage churn, onboard new staff, and update records of those who change residences or maybe just phone numbers, some employees are likely to fall off the radar. For companies of all sizes, managing employee data requires significant effort, and failing to assess the actionability of all records could open organizations to risk of disclosing PHI to unintended recipients.

Services, such as telephone number management and number intelligence, can provide companies with an automated and optimized approach to managing ever-changing data. Such intelligence is gathered in the background from a variety of vetted sources to help businesses to test the history of numbers in their repository. Augmenting such services with intelligence that incorporates email and text gives companies additional efficient ways to initiate contact with the right parties, and the technology becomes even more powerful when behavior is considered.

Loop in phone behavior to enhance service level

Consumers are seeking frictionless experiences, and employees normally will interact with their benefits providers rarely over the course of a year. While that pattern may keep costs down, it does mean that any interaction has the potential to stand out — sometimes not in a good way — simply because of a special circumstance. Intelligence about an employee’s phone behavior can give providers a leg up in their service response. Knowing which numbers are most often answered and at what time of day can help an insurer, for instance, follow up on a billing question at just the right time and on the right device.

Supplementing behavior intelligence for outbound calls with intelligence for inbound calls further raises the bar on service. Today’s systems can identify callers whose numbers are missing from their CRM and pre-screen a number to determine its actionability before the first hello, allowing agents to reduce time spent interrogating the caller on their identity and instead service a query or formulate a solution. Employees can expect reduced call handle times, increased containment within the interactive voice response system, and an improved member experience.

Introducing greater inbound caller intelligence can help generate greater efficiencies for benefits providers while improving the employee experience and building rationale for fostering long-term relationships. Along with the operational efficiencies achieved, such tools can help deliver greater peace of mind for employees concerned about their personal data and the institutions charged to protect it.

Get HIPAA compliance and fraud fighting in one

Insurers and plan providers are mandated by the federal government to maintain privacy and security. The chosen road to verifying inbound contacts is through knowledge-based authentication (KBA), with organizations required to verify a caller’s identity by asking two security questions. Although the KBA approach doesn’t appear to be going anywhere, it can put health care businesses at risk of releasing PHI to nefarious parties and being in violation of HIPAA regulations. After all, some of the most common questions for verification — such as a birth date, mother’s maiden name, street of a former residence — can be gleaned from public records and social engineering.

Related: Digital health apps marred by lax privacy practices

Organizations that put inbound caller authentication technology in place can continue using KBA methods, maintaining an expected rhythm for employees, while introducing a layer of security that enhances the level of confidence that the caller is who they say they are. Before an operator answers a call, today’s technology can quickly scan an inbound number and reconcile the information with known data points to confirm an identity or raise a red flag that additional verification should be pursued. Such an approach allows employees to proceed with their business unimpeded while potential fraudsters are subject to greater scrutiny that encourages them to abandon their efforts.

Call center technologies deserve closer look

Call center technologies have evolved considerably in recent years, and the most robust solutions can do more than answer a call promptly in the order received. Many benefits providers have one shot to get an interaction right, and to do so, they need to be armed with the best intelligence to exceed an employee’s expectations and make a friend for life. Selecting the right technology solutions partner can help give benefits providers the service edge they want with the security and PHI protection they need.

Shai Cohen leads TransUnion’s Global Fraud Solutions Group. Cohen has spent decades in the IT and cybersecurity industries leading business units and software engineering and product management teams. He joined TransUnion from RSA, where he was the general manager of its Fraud and Risk Intelligence business. Previously, Cohen served in leadership roles at EMC and Intel.