2 minute read
HR World estimated that HR departments spend roughly 80 percent of their time managing paperwork and handling administrative tasks, mainly caused by insurance enrollment.1 More and more public sector organizations are implementing benefit administration systems now to help them administer, support, manage, educate, and report more efficiently.
Think of a benefit administration system as a fairy godmother or a magic wand. By managing benefits and data on a single platform, it can help to ease your HR/Benefits department’s biggest pain points – paperwork, data entry, and other administrative tasks.
The open enrollment process can also be simplified. The system allows your employees to manage their own benefits on their own time. They can view plan descriptions, enroll online, update their personal information, order a new ID card, add a life event, etc. Employee-initiated changes are processed within the system, following the proper eligibility requirements, and data is transmitted to your HR department, insurance carriers, etc.
Many benefit administration systems can also connect with your other internal systems including HR or payroll platforms. Then benefit, payroll, and employee data can all be managed and stored in one place.
Integrating all your platforms together can help to reduce manual entry, paperwork, and human error.
Open enrollment periods are often the only time employers have an opportunity to provide benefit education to their employees. As employees take on more responsibility for their own benefits, they require a greater knowledge. With a benefit administration system, employee education is available year-round. Employees can view resources, read benefit descriptions, watch videos, experiment with
cost calculators, etc. Materials can be pushed out through the platform. The system can also remind employees about enrollment deadlines or beneficiary updates.
Have you ever had to create a report where the information was in two different systems and you had to manually pull everything together? It can be a time-consuming and hair-pulling process. Having access to all your employee data and benefit information on one platform can make pulling reports easier. Some systems may offer easy-to-use report templates including employee census, payroll deduction, coverage information, ACA related reports, etc. Have a report that needs to be sent to Bob and Sue and your insurance carrier every month? Setup your reporting options and reports may be easily processed and transmitted to different parties accordingly.
Want to learn more about how to find the right benefit administration system for your organization? Download our guide.
1 https://www.benefitmall.com/BenefitMall/Business-Blog/2015/March/Benefits-Administration-Systems-Whats-In-It-For-Me