From managing open enrollment, to recruitment and rehiring efforts, to COVID-19 workplace regulations, to supporting a shift to a remote workforce and the million other responsibilities on HR’s plate, it’s completely understandable for HR and benefits teams to have a “heads down” mindset to just get through the next year without formally evaluating their benefits administration solution.
The problem with that mindset is that right NOW it is more important than ever to determine whether you have the solution in place that can meet the dynamic needs of your team and your workforce. Below are four key reasons HR should formally evaluate the benefits administration solutions they have in place and determine whether it is time for a change:
Health and wellbeing is a much greater concern for all of us nowadays, and benefits utilization has increased dramatically as a result. This influx of benefits engagement provides a great opportunity to showcase the strength of your benefits program while collecting feedback on which benefits additions would deliver the most value. Aflac’s 2020-21 WorkForces Report found that 63% of employees expect at least one expanded benefit to help them feel secure in the workplace, including telemedicine, mental health and financial wellness. Benefits administration providers must deliver the flexibility needed to quickly make adjustments to benefits plans while providing employees with excellent call center support to help employers keep up.
As many companies are shifting to permanently hybrid or fully remote work, implementing an advanced digital infrastructure is crucial to successful onboarding, benefits enrollment, training, teamwork, culture-building and more. It’s important to ensure your benefits administration provider is providing the simple, consumer-like online experience that today’s workforce expects. In The Hartford’s 2020 Future of Benefits Study, 63% of employers reported that their company’s open enrollment strategy would depend more strongly on online resources due to COVID-19.
According to a 2021 SHRM survey, nearly half of U.S. executives reported that their organization had experienced much higher turnover over the past six months, and most (84%) said openings were going unfilled for longer periods than before the COVID-19 pandemic. Today’s intensely competitive labor market means HR must take a serious look at all systems responsible for onboarding, especially benefits enrollment. If tech is causing more issues than it solves, or it doesn’t integrate well with other systems, onboarding in high numbers can become a nightmare and lead to poor first impressions.
While HR is focused on open enrollment, steep competition for talent, and keeping remote employees engaged, it’s easy to perceive an incumbent benefits administration solution as the safe, less expensive bet. However, even though a lot of money and time may have been invested in a legacy solution, the cost of “hanging on” each year can be staggering. A recent article by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Letting Go of Legacy Systems, highlights several questions to help HR build the business case to upgrade their systems, including lack of flexibility, compliance issues, dependence on manual HR work, data integrity issues and more.
As your organization wraps up open enrollment, it is an excellent time to formally evaluate your current benefits administration solution to determine whether it is truly meeting your needs. Otherwise, sticking with the wrong solution could end up costing your team dearly in the long run.
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