Do I want an online employee self-service enrollment system to manage my employee benefits?
If you are finding your benefits enrollment process becoming unmanageable, and you want to save time and gain efficiencies that result in cost savings then an online employee self-service benefits management system may be a good fit for you.
In a traditional paper enrollment system, each employee receives a packet of forms they are required to complete in order to elect the plans they wish to enroll in. The paper forms are returned back to the HR department where there may be several employees working full time to manually enter the data into an employee management system. Those employees must then also enter the data into each carrier’s website to properly enroll the employee and his/her dependents. This time consuming and cumbersome process includes redundant information that must be entered on each form by the employee and then entered into each system by HR.
Some of the most common problems with the traditional manual paper-based enrollment system:
- Printing costs for enrollment forms
- Administrative time building enrollment packet (assembling brochures, updating documents, etc.)
- Time ensuring that enrollment materials are applicable to an employee’s eligibility (what coverage they are eligible for due to bargaining agreement)
- Distribution time to deliver and explain the enrollment packet
- Errors due to incomplete, inaccurate, or ineligible enrollment forms
- Each carrier must be updated individually with enrollment changes
- Time lag between when employee completes an enrollment form and when the carrier data is updated
- Employee is unable to verify that their enrollment changes have been entered without creating online accounts for each carrier
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Industry estimates that a traditional paper enrollment system averages $9.00 per employee per month. This process is repeated over and over with new hires, dependent additions and changes, during open enrollment, and finally as benefits terminate. This process can take 3-4 weeks from assembly to final enrollment confirmation at the carrier.
With an online employee self-service enrollment system, each employee elects the plans they wish to enroll in from those they are eligible for on a single website. The enrollment elections are electronically sent to the HR department for review and approval, generally as an email alert that a pending enrollment is waiting for approval within the system. Once approved, the enrollment data is then electronically transmitted to each carrier where the member is enrolled.
An online benefits management system will significantly streamline the benefits enrollment process-saving time and money.
- Eliminate the physical cost of paper forms (printing, postage, paper, time and more)
- HR professionals no longer have to transcribe enrollment forms, freeing up valuable HR time and resources
- Provide greater efficiency by having employee-submitted enrollment forms immediately available for review by the HR professional
- Reduce administrative time required to explain benefit options to employees, due to detailed plan summaries, resources, and customer service available within the online enrollment system
- Reduce errors since incomplete forms cannot be submitted
- Maintain all carrier information for an employee through a single user interface
- HR professionals have the ability to instantly and accurately report the eligibility status of enrollees (especially beneficial for compliance with the Affordable Care Act)
- Payroll integration to automatically update deductions based on elections approved by HR
- Employee receives notification when their HR department has approved their enrollment form
- Employee can access online enrollment system to view and update eligibility from anywhere with Internet access, whether at home, work or vacation
Industry estimates that an online enrollment system costs less than $2 per employee per month. Using an online system can cut the enrollment process time in more than half.
As an employer, there is no end in sight for the requirements that continue to evolve regarding compliance, notifications, data retention, data security, data accessibility, etc. The benefits of having one source for this information are strong motivators for considering a cloud-based benefits management solution.
