Why Is Online Benefits Enrollment Vital For Your Employees?

The enrollment period is a daunting and strenuous time for companies. It means paperwork and more paperwork for HR teams, employers, and employees. For business owners, the amount of paperwork that they have to deal with often exceeds the time they spend on the growth and core functions of their business. Moreover, it is a lot confusing and frustrating for workers with hectic schedules. This is also added work for HR to complete all the formalities, fill all the forms for employees, organize their benefits plan, and chase them down to get the signatures and get necessary documents. This is costly, inefficient, and time-consuming for SMBs. 

Therefore, companies are inclined toward using online enrollment via a unified benefits administration software that digitizes all the processes of open enrollment. With almost 70% of organizations putting some sort of digital transition in place, digital benefits enrollment has become crucial, especially when these benefits plans are no longer an option but essential to run a successful business. There is urgency and necessity to complete the enrollment process virtually in this digital era. Getting rid of all the paperwork and taking lengthy tasks off your desk are not the only advantages of online enrollment, it also means a competitive edge over peers.

Kick-off open enrollment for employees so they can choose workplace benefits plans, including vision, health, and life insurance. Using this integrated software, HR can communicate with people about their choices, educate them, address their concerns when they get stuck. It is the best option for workers who are unfamiliar with the concepts and language of benefits offerings. 

As we adapt to remote work and virtual environments, it’s time to implement an open enrollment system for employees. We have listed a few benefits of online enrollment that will compel you to adopt the system now. So, let’s get started by understanding what is open enrollment.

What Is Open Enrollment?

In the US, open benefits enrollment is a time frame when employees can select, change, and sign up for various benefits options available to them. These packages include dental, health, life insurance, voluntary benefits, legal services, and more offered by employers. A few options are fully paid by companies while others are partially employee-paid through their salary deferral or other options.

As employees have restricted time to sign up for benefits plans, HR professionals, benefits brokers, and administrators have to answer a lot of questions and update policy changes. Of course, traditional methods are inefficient during open enrollment. There are several challenges throughout, including endless forms to fill out, reviewing all documents, chances of errors, record maintenance, calculating and deducting the right amount, alerting carriers, and whatnot. 

Each time there is a change or update, you have to go through a pile of paperwork, thereby leading to inefficiencies. That is why HRIS software for small business is recommended that keeps all these worries at bay. With this effective benefits administration tool to help employees, they can focus on their productivity and core tasks while gaining enhanced experience.

Benefits of Online Benefits Enrollment for Employees

Shifting to online enrollment for benefits is beneficial for both employees and employers. Today, we will talk about how it is helpful for workers and offer a great working experience for them. Take a look:

Empowered Employees

Amidst all the noise and chaos, it is difficult to capture the attention of your employees. From several applications to multiple solutions to benefits offerings, everything gets so overwhelming that it affects their understanding of benefits and enrollment. Implementing employee self-service software empowers your workforce by providing them all the information in one place. They have all the details required to make informed and right decisions about their benefits without having to deal with hundreds of emails. They can look at all the available options and find answers to their questions within no time throughout the enrollment process without browsing through Google to find the correct information. 

They can compare all the packages and select the best one that suits their needs, thereby saving invaluable time for HR managers to resolve their queries and look through their documents. The system takes care of all this faster, easier, and hassle-free than manual methods. Workers can complete their enrollment anywhere, anytime after talking to their family members about the options and review them at their own pace. With the process moved to online, companies create a simple experience for their employees so they can access information easily. 

Reduced Errors

Benefits enrollment involves a lot of documentation, formalities, signatures, etc. A single mistake on anyone’s end, and you have to go through all the paperwork again, thereby adding to the workload of employees and HR managers. Also, there can be chances that the benefits administrator let an unsigned form or incomplete enrollment plan slip through the cracks. As you move to a digital platform for open enrollment, you can mitigate the risks and reduce errors significantly that are common in manual data entry. There is no more room for errors due to incorrect information, indiscernible handwriting, blank fields, typos, etc. 

As these mistakes and risks are eliminated, employees and employers can stay away from hefty penalties. Staff members are sent automated alerts so they don’t miss deadlines and they can see the positive impact throughout the year. Integrated with carriers and a streamlined data collection process, mistakes are reduced drastically. To put it simply, with an online system for enrollment, errors are things of the past. 

Increased Engagement

“Millennials are first-generation digital natives.” – GallupCompanies are sparing no effort to attract and hire young and skilled talent that showcases amazing knowledge of the latest trends. However, engaging Gen Z is not easy and you have to be innovative to retain it. There is one firm belief that open enrollment through the online platform paves way for organizations to achieve success with younger employees. Also, the young generation contributes to the largest workforce in the US, and this labor force will soon reach more than 60 million so you surely cannot afford to lose their interest.

Over half of millennials and even older employees prefer to shop for healthcare services online. Rather than navigating through a plethora of websites and documents, they want all the information on one destination to get the process done instantly. Online benefits enrollment software brings all the required information they need on one portal so they can make informed decisions and elect the best plan within no time. You create efficiencies through adequate technology which engages and retains them.

More Benefits Offerings

Manual enrollment processing can take weeks for each employee, keeping HR and the workforce busy in the process. They hardly have any time for other core functions and other activities. This is such an arduous task for them that employers refrain from offering a wider variety of plans as they need more manpower and resources to complete it. Also, keeping track of numerous plans and ancillary options is difficult for employers and there is a possibility of confusion for employees. They have to understand nuanced differences between each benefits plan which can take days.

Thanks to online benefits enrollment, companies can organize, manage, and communicate plans and related details in a digital format. The all-inclusive software assists employees at every step by providing information using customized messages, helpful videos, links, and necessary facts in one central hub. Employees can compare the packages available to them, eliminating all the confusion and additional work for employers, employees, and HR managers.

Enhanced Employee Experience

According to a report, over 40% of employees feel that their open enrollment at their company is extremely confusing and almost 50% feel that making decisions regarding health insurance and benefits plans is always stressful for them. Online open enrollment creates a positive experience for employees while they select their benefits via software. The platform is accessible from anywhere at any time, taking all the hassle out of the annual benefits enrollment process. With all the necessary steps and information a few clicks away, they can compare policies, benefits, and costs at their convenience without the pressure of work hovering over their head. 

Digital enrollment helps workers make the best choices based on their eligibility and preferences for themselves and their family members. Also, integrating open enrollment with benefits providers or carriers makes the process smoother and effortless. Needless to say that easy enrollment encourages more participation of employees. 

Conclusion

Yes, open enrollment is difficult and complex but errors, inefficiencies, and tight deadlines make it even harder. You can take all the stress away and make open enrollment more effective by adopting an online system that offers a myriad of benefits for employers and employees.

Of course, as you go digital, there are many factors to consider. However, this is the perfect time to be innovative and try a digital method for this tricky process. Take baby steps in this direction and you will soon meet your employee demands wonderfully.