John Weber, National Information Solutions Cooperative (NISC) Financials Product Line Manager
The benefit open enrollment period is crucial for any human resources (HR) team. It’s a process that requires commitment, time and attention to detail. Thankfully, there are ways that organizations can reduce repetitive tasks and automate manual processes. With the help of benefit-enrollment software, you can provide impactful employee benefits without hassle or headaches.
There are many reasons to implement benefit-enrollment software, including increased efficiency, improved accuracy and convenience. See how you can save company resources and improve your employee experience with these top reasons to automate your benefit-enrollment process.
(1) Increased Efficiency
Implementation of benefit-enrollment automation can considerably increase efficiency for your HR team and your employees.
Instead of having your employees fill out paper forms every time they access a benefit and then having to transfer their data into spreadsheets for payroll, health insurance and other HR needs, an effective platform will automatically organize all this information.
Research shows that automating benefit enrollment enables companies to reduce time spent in administrative tasks by 50 percent.
(2) Improved Accuracy
If employees must manually enter information into multiple platforms, there will be a greater chance of human error. With an automated benefits system, companies can significantly reduce the risk of inaccuracy. If you try to do reporting manually, you may run into errors, especially if you’re a bigger organization with many employees.
If you’re worried you may lose your data in case of a software glitch, don’t worry. Most automated benefit platforms have abundant and secure cloud storage. Even if your computers break down temporarily, you can easily restore your essential files.
(3) Convenience
Having employee benefit automation tools in place is significantly more convenient than manual processing. While it previously took a lot of paperwork and time, the entire process can now be done with a few clicks.
What’s more, benefit information can be accessed via a central platform by HR teams and employees from any location, anytime. This puts the power in your employees’ hands to manage and utilize their benefits, without having to reach out to HR for records and reports.
(4) Improved Employee Experience
A research survey from Jellyvision, conducted by Harris Poll, stated that 48 percent of employees find health insurance decisions very stressful, and 41 percent feel that open enrollment is extremely confusing. Ease stress and confusion by simplifying your process.
Automation tools allow employees to manage and change personal information when they need to at the click of a button. Plus, they can update their benefit coverage options during open enrollment or if they trigger a special enrollment period with a qualifying life event. They can also easily access their account online to get benefit information and assistance.
Some systems also allow employees to see their previous selections and the cost of choosing a different plan.
Automating your benefits can help your employees feel more engaged because their important information is at their fingertips. And happy employees usually lead to greater productivity for the organization.
(5) Save Company Resources
It costs only about $22 when an employee self-enrolls in benefits online, as opposed to around $110 when the HR staff manually enrolls the employee, according to www.CFO.com. That’s roughly 80 percent in savings.
Studies show that allowing employees to self-manage benefits results in time savings of 15 percent for your HR staff, since less time is spent addressing employee questions and concerns. For instance, employees can choose their beneficiaries and review their benefits without having to fill out tedious paperwork. Outside of open enrollment, employees can go into the system themselves to make changes to their W-4 or 401k elections.
NISC has been providing technology solutions to the utility and broadband industries for more than 50 years. NISC is committed to research, development and quality of the latest in technology to ensure its solutions cannot only solve today’s challenges but are positioned to solve tomorrow’s as well.
Further information on how NISC’s Enterprise System can help you automate your business – as well as your benefit enrollment process – can be found at www.nisc.coop.