Here's a scenario that is all-too-familiar to employees, benefits advisors, and HR teams: An employee has a question about their health insurance or benefits and turns to HR for assistance. Perhaps they're going through cancer treatment and need to find out if a medication is approved. HR then becomes the middle person between the employer and the advisor (or the insurance carrier). After some back-and-forth, the news may or may not come back in the employee's favor, which potentially puts HR in the tough spot of delivering potentially bad news. 

This chain reaction of inefficiency strains HR resources and leaves employees frustrated and unsupported during a critical time of their life. Benefits are harder than ever for employees to understand due to the increased complexity of offerings, changing regulations, and dynamics of remote work. Inadequate communication and limited understanding from employers only exacerbates the problem.

The bottom line is that when HR teams act as intermediaries between employees and brokers, the end result is a time-consuming and stressful process for them, and a disappointing experience for employees.