Add High-Tech To Your High-Touch Enrollment

By Chip James

Business owners and human resource professionals have plenty to worry about.

They’re being pushed and pulled in every conceivable direction in the 21^st century workplace.

They’re concerned with attracting and retaining top talent. They manage schedules and time off. They keep up with the latest changes to federal regulations. They onboard new employees. They keep current employees challenged and happy. And let’s not forget payroll.

As their benefits broker, there’s little you can do to help them with those responsibilities.

But there is one area where you can provide a great service: benefits communication and enrollment. And business owners and decision-makers are looking to you for guidance.

Have you considered how you can help connect them with a high-quality carrier that brings experience and technology to the table – at no cost?

The enrollment headache

Enrollment season can be one extended headache for many business leaders and HR professionals. Communicating about benefits options, answering questions and enrolling dozens or hundreds of employees via pen and paper can be a huge hassle.

Pen and paper, you ask?

That’s right. At more than half of America’s businesses, benefits enrollment is still done the old-fashioned way, according to LIMRA research included in a new white paper by Colonial Life titled “High-Tech Benefits.”

Only 47 percent of employers are using technology for enrollment or benefits administration, according to LIMRA’s 2017 research, “Convenient and Connected: Employers and Benefits.” LIMRA listed the main reasons for this.

• Company not large enough (32 percent).
• It’s too expensive (24 percent).
• There’s not enough staff (16 percent).
• In-person meetings are more engaging (15 percent).
• Broker/administrator preference (15 percent).

Keep the high-touch

While technology can save valuable time and energy for employers, many HR professionals and brokers find the enrollment experience is made more meaningful by in-person consultation.

Employees find value in one-to-one benefits counseling sessions provided by strong carrier partners, according to Colonial Life’s post-enrollment surveys over the past decade.

But a business can keep that high-value, high-touch benefits communication experience, while adding technology solutions. A technology partner that provides a great enrollment experience – and adds a benefits administration system to help with these responsibilities at no cost – can be a win-win for HR professionals.

A valuable carrier can provide highly trained and qualified benefits counselors to educate and discuss benefits needs with employees. A carrier that also can provide employers with technology solutions to streamline benefits enrollment and tackle daily administrative HR tasks can give brokers and their clients the best of both worlds.

What are they looking for?

Although fewer than half of America’s businesses are using technology during this enrollment season, many say they’re looking to change that in the near future.

More than one-third of employers say they’re either “actively” or “casually” looking for enrollment technology systems, according to LIMRA. And nearly half of those employers say an update is coming in the next two years.

And what are they looking for in these new systems and platforms?

According to additional 2017 LIMRA findings, here are the top six features employers say they’re looking for in a new benefits administration system, enrollment technology or both:

• Low cost (87 percent).
• Data security (86 percent).
• Ease of use for employees (85 percent).
• Accessible all year (80 percent).
• Employee re-enrolled annually (77 percent).
• All insurance benefits on same platform (77 percent).

Connecting the dots

Partnering with a top carrier will help brokers by providing a toolkit of offerings that employers are looking for. The right carrier will provide both high-tech and high-touch solutions to the ever-growing and always-evolving needs of the workplace.

The right technology will enroll core benefits, voluntary benefits and ancillary benefits on one seamless platform that employees find intuitive and easy. It will be available for new employees and employees who need to change coverage during the year. And it will be an option to easily re-enroll employees year after year.

The best partners should help make lives easier – for brokers, employers and workers. They can help brokers deliver the best benefits experience by providing employees personalized resource materials (web content, emails, one-to-one meetings) and ample time to make the correct decisions for themselves and their loved ones.

If you’re looking to deepen your relationships with your clients by making things easier for them and their HR departments, consider adding high-tech to your high-touch enrollments.

Chip James is assistant vice president for enrollment solutions and technology partnerships at Colonial Life. He may be contacted at chip.james@innfeedback.com.

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