5 questions to measure the effectiveness of a benefits platform
Here are five simple questions to evaluate the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of an employee benefits platform.
Even better? This year, you finally pulled the trigger and decided to automate your clients’ employee benefits enrollment with technology.
But how do you know you have chosen the right platform provider?
Here are five simple questions to evaluate the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of an employee benefits platform:
1. Were you and your clients prepared for open enrollment?
Your platform provider likely made many promises, but when open enrollment finally came, were you and your employer clients prepared for it? Once the new platform was purchased, were you handed off to a human on the client service side to help you, or were you left to fend for yourself after delivery? And was your implementation timeline adhered to?
Lots of planning goes into a successful open enrollment, including making overall benefits decisions and changes to medical, dental, and vision providers, plans, carriers, and rates. And after those decisions are made, that information needs to be updated and communicated to employees in a timely fashion to meet OE deadlines.
A quality platform provider doesn’t just sell a solution; they’re with you every step of the way to ensure successful and on-time delivery, assist during the open enrollment process and remain your partner post-OE.
2. Was the employee experience everything you hoped it would be?
Open enrollment can be a confusing and frustrating time for employees, made even worse when there have been changes to available plans, benefits and carriers.
The process is made easier when employees have been educated in advance on how to navigate the process. Distribute resource guides and videos, allow employees to do one-on-one enrollment with a platform provider, and have a customer service number to answer questions, help them decide on a plan, and receive support and recommendations from their technology.
In addition to the human element, employees should have technical flexibility which will allow them to enroll through any device, in their own time and from anywhere in the world, as well as support when needed to assist if they’re locked out of the system or need guidance.
An ideal employee benefits platform provider offers all these elements to ensure a frictionless employee experience.
3. Did it save the HR team time and manual work?
The employer experience should be better with the right employee benefits platform.
If an employer has gone to the trouble of automating their employee benefits with technology, it should free up the HR team’s time to focus on other initiatives to close out the current year and kick off the next one. But if you find that they’re still spending the same amount of time (or even more time) than last year dealing with plans, rates, and changes, that’s a telltale sign that something’s amiss.
4. Does it collect and connect all employee data?
Having a system in place to collect employees’ data is crucial, but all that information is meaningless unless the system also contains an automated way to send it to payroll and the multiple carriers you work with.
The best employee benefits platforms collect and connect employee data, providing seamless electronic integration across all carriers and automatically updating payroll to save time and money on duplicative work.
5. Was closing out enrollment a breeze?
With open enrollment now behind us, are you confident about your choice of solution? Or are you still feeling the aftershocks of a crazy OE season?
The right provider makes the entire open enrollment process—including its close-out—a dream, ensuring data is seamlessly sent to carriers so ID cards can get processed, giving employees proof of coverage on effective dates.
Be honest: After reading through these questions, how many did you answer with a resounding ‘yes’?
If you now realize the benefits administration technology solution that seemed like a good idea at the time actually wasn’t, all is not lost.
There’s time to look at other options, and you can get a better employee and employer experience that will save you time and money.
But don’t wait until the next OE season to cut the cord. Instead, start that planning process now to commit the time and resources necessary to ensure your next open enrollment is better than your last.