Did your clients have a bad open enrollment? Here's what to do
Many HR teams across the country now wonder if there's any hope of ever improving their OE experience. There is hope for a better OE, and brokers can make that happen for their clients.
This is the sentiment that many employers experience in the months following open enrollment season. Perhaps they bought a new ben admin system hoping that would fix things. Or they thought they were ready for rollout, but didn’t properly plan. Many HR teams across the country now wonder if there’s any hope of ever improving their OE experience.
There is hope for a better OE, and brokers can make that happen for their clients. When you equip your clients with the right technology solution and strategy to back it, that’s when something magical happens.
Here’s what you can do:
Update your clients’ processes
Your clients may dread open enrollment because their technology isn’t solving for anything. When technology isn’t helping HR professionals streamline administrative tasks, it’s not doing its job. There are countless solutions on the market — but many of them can only handle the basics, like new hires and enrollment.
It’s crucial that your clients’ technology can integrate with other HR systems of record. Take payroll for example — if the ben admin system can’t integrate with payroll, HR has to enter data in both systems every time there is an enrollment change. Manual processes like these lead to more work for already overworked HR teams.
Technology should also be able to handle unique and complex benefits rules. In a day and age where benefits packages have expanded to include more voluntary benefits, HR needs technology that can handle a variety of them.
Plan for carrier connectivity
One of the biggest hurdles HR teams face is planning for carrier connectivity. Oftentimes, organizations change carriers without realizing each carrier has their own standards regarding the timeframe for building files, required data transfer formats, and processes for open enrollment.
Carriers likely have a fourth-quarter cutoff date for starting new electronic data interchange (EDI) implementations. Your technology partner must be aware of this date, otherwise your clients will have to find alternate ways to send enrollment data until integration is tested and implemented. Alternate methods of sending data are not considered best practice, as this compromises the security of the data (not to mention that they’re extremely time-consuming).
The main takeaway here: if you plan to sell a client on a new carrier, you need a communication plan. Wasted time will outweigh any cost savings from which your client might benefit.
Start the technology conversation early
If you’ve recognized that your client could benefit from new technology, you want to start that conversation post-OE. Brokers and employers alike may think post-OE is way too early to start the conversation, but it’s actually the best time.
Employers still have the woes of OE fresh in their minds during this time, which provides an opportunity for your clients or prospects to plan while they can still recall what went wrong last open enrollment. Besides, you don’t want to wait until OE season to test new technology that could lead to a delayed rollout and greater inefficiency. Employers can test technology with new hires and life events throughout the year to ensure their technology is working smoothly.
Analytics
Another reason employers should keep benefits top of mind throughout the year is because there are always opportunities to learn at every stage. Data can help here, but there’s a catch…
Most ben admin systems house valuable data; however, employers don’t always have access to it. Usually, HR has to submit a ticket and enter a queue just to run a report. That data belongs to the employer, and it shouldn’t be a struggle to access. Best-of-breed technology doesn’t restrict access to data, allowing full access with dashboards and robust reporting capabilities.
With ongoing access to data, HR can look into employees’ behaviors and patterns during OE. Evaluating factors such as adoption rates and the amount of time taken to enroll can identify and address any issues and points of friction. Furthermore, this is an opportunity for HR to establish benchmarks for future comparisons.
Client service
So now you know what your clients and prospects need, but how do you deliver? By partnering with the right technology vendor.
The right partner will not only connect your clients to best-of-breed technology, but outstanding client service to back it as well.
You and your clients won’t need to research technology. The right partner will conduct a thorough discovery process that evaluates the needs, challenges, and objectives of your clients to identify the best-fit solution.
Once an optimal solution is identified, a proficient technology partner is ready to configure, support, and maintain the solution. Technology partners ensure a successful implementation and launch of new platforms by establishing transparent expectations. A good partner is upfront about system functionality, potential limitations, and timelines.
Unfortunately, the bar for client service in this industry is set low. But the ideal technology partner is there every step of the way. Clients will have questions — the right partner will be there to answer them with timely and reliable information.