Buyer Beware: How to Find the Right Benefits Resources

The Benefit of Benefits

You understand the importance of offering benefits to your employees, but did you know just how significant their impact can be? Paycor analyzed data from over 30,000 organizations across the U.S. and found that businesses without any benefit plans had an average 157% turnover rate. But companies that offered on average six types of benefit plans (tailored to the specific needs of their employee population) saw a 138% decrease in turnover.

How can benefits have such a dramatic effect on turnover? Paycor believes it’s because benefits, when done right, offer something for everyone in the company, no matter their background, age, job title, or seniority. To make benefits a competitive advantage, HR leaders must prioritize and budget for a wide spectrum of needs and wants. So, the more benefit plans the better? Not exactly. Here’s what the numbers are telling us: the right mix of benefits can significantly reduce turnover (just as the absence of benefits, or the wrong benefits, can drive turnover rates way up). As you know, a successful benefits package is tailored to the needs of your unique employee population. (To learn more about benefits planning, check out this handy guide from Paycor.)

But here’s the thing, you can work with your clients all day long on benefit plan design, but if they don’t have the underlying HR software to make open enrollment and benefits administration an easy and (stretch goal) empowering experience, all that work goes down the drain.  

Here’s where things go wrong.

Capterra (a software review site) lists 300 benefit admin systems, but only seven providers with more than 500 reviews have a 4.4-star rating or higher (Paycor is one of them). Buyer beware: there’s a lot of bad benefits tech out there.

Here’s a representative quote from a Paycor customer that got burned: “Our provider failed to execute open enrollment, so employees weren't enrolled with the new health insurance provider for weeks into the new year. They failed to cancel our old health insurance, so we were doubled billed...it seems like this product was designed to trip up customers and make it difficult to cancel."

Yes! That’s exactly what it feels like when you invest in the wrong software. Please don't let your clients be stuck with bad technology AND bad service.

Bad technology…	…makes open enrollment harder.
Lack of integration across platforms an carriers.	You must manually split insurance payments each month between employee and employer portions, taking time away from more strategic initiatives.
No employee self-service.	You’re left answering employee questions instead of building a competitive benefits package.
A clumsy or needlessly complicated user interface.	Clients will spend months learning the software and working around their solution rather than being supported by their technology.

Help your clients make the right decision.

When evaluating benefits administration providers, look for five features:

1. Unified System: You need a unified Human Capital Management (HCM) system that lets you enter data once and then makes it available across all HR and payroll solutions vs. siloed products that don’t integrate with one another.
2. Electronic Storage of Employee Files: Store employee files in a cloud-based system to ensure security and efficiency.
3. Employee Self Service (ESS): Employees need to access and enroll in benefits anytime, anywhere. When major life events or demographic changes occur, they should be able to make the changes on their own, giving HR more time to focus on strategic initiatives.
4. Configurable Workflows: Maintain control of the system without being too rigid; enables employees to make changes.
5. Reduce dependence on manual tracking and cumbersome spreadsheets. Don’t get fooled by flashy demos; come prepared with questions that will ensure you’re getting the right HR technology and expertise.

Finally, ask tough questions.

You want an HCM partner, not a vendor. Here’s what you should be asking.

1. What experience do you have working with companies my size?
2. Can I access all employee data from a single employee record, or do I need to switch between products? (e.g. ben admin, time, payroll, etc.)
3. Login screens and dashboards are important, but can you show me the information behind those screens since that’s where I’ll be spending most of my time?
4. How will you empower our workers with employee self-service?
5. How will you help facilitate the transfer of information between my organization and our healthcare and/or 401(k) brokers?
6. Who will help me answer questions and resolve problems when they arise?

Employee benefits can have an amazing, transformative effect on your organization. But the first step is to become a savvy consumer of benefits technology. Expect more from your HR technology provider and you’ll be well on your way to success.

The AssuredPartners Employee Benefits team can help you do a full analysis of your HR resources and benefits offerings. Reach out to the team today to see just how far they can take you.

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