The annual open enrollment period is a daunting time for both employers and employees; it is a lot of work for companies and can be a confusing process for workers. For instance, if you have 20 employees and offer five benefit plans with several documents correlated to each plan, you will be sifting through many documents during open enrollment, not to mention trying to get everyone together to hear the same information. However, by using technology-based enrollment, you can save time and money and make the process more efficient and user-friendly for you and your employees. Most insurance brokers have online enrollment solutions available without a charge. Let’s look at some of the reasons more and more companies are using online enrollment.
Benefits of Technology-Based Enrollment
- Every step of the benefits management process is automated, eliminating the need for paper-based processes and improving efficiency and accuracy.
- Online enrollment lowers the overall cost of providing services to your employees by eliminating the costs of distributing and collecting paper enrollment packets.
- Online enrollment shortens the enrollment cycle.
- Online enrollment enables employees to self-enroll in benefit programs, review their benefit data and report life event changes.
- Employees can choose plans based on eligibility criteria and can compare costs and coverage of previous elections against new offerings.
- Elections can be automatically applied to employee records.
- Employees receive written confirmations detailing their elections.
- Employees can easily view and update their records and plans.
- HR can check the status of enrollment in real time and may be able to generate detailed reports regarding the cost of employee benefits.
Disadvantages of Technology-Based Enrollment
- Employees may be intimidated by the software and may also desire interpersonal assistance, rather than making their selections via a computer.
- Employees may not make informed benefit decisions if they are only advised via the computer and are not provided personalized recommendations.
Recommendation
We recommend using the traditional open enrollment meetings in conjunction with the online enrollment system. This way, employees get the benefit of personal instruction and use of the enrollment system as well as a thorough review of their employee benefit options. Then they can log in at their convenience (even with their spouses) to make their final elections. FBN
By Ed Gussio
This year, look for opportunities to improve your open enrollment with new technology! Should you have any questions, or wish to see a demonstration, give the team at Benefit Logic a call at 928-526-5691.