Offer a Ben Admin Solution for the Digital Age
If you haven’t reassessed your current system (or aren’t using a benefits management platform at all), now is the time.
We’ve tackled seven growth-minded marketing topics for your insurance agency, and now it’s time for the grand finale. After listening to and working for your clients, you’ve probably realized by now that digitization is the expectation. We’ve come to a point where technology is mere table stakes.
Open enrollment (OE) and benefits administration (ben admin) are some of the most complex HR processes, so ben admin and human resource information systems (HRIS) especially need to be on point.
So how do you ensure you’re using the right technology for you and your clients?
6 Signs Your Ben Admin Platform is Living in the Past
1) It’s underperforming what was promised.
You sat in on all the sales pitches, you looked at G2 reviews, crunched all the numbers, and then chose the ben admin platform that you thought best served you and your clients’ needs. But did it really automate job processes, workflows, and repetitive, tedious tasks? Or are there still too many manual duties for you, your clients, and their employees?
According to a Small Business Benefit Trends report, HR personnel are actually working harder because of outdated processes and systems. We know as a broker you value your time and your clients’ time, so if your ben admin system is wasting time, then it’s probably wasting your money.
Employees expect self-service options, and if they have to go to HR all of the time, that wastes time on both ends. The whole goal of modern ben admin is to reduce time for everyone involved, increase access to benefits information for employees so they can make more informed decisions, and reduce administrative burden for brokers and employers.
Not to mention, if the system itself runs slower than what your clients and their employees are used to, or takes too long to start and load programs, that dampens the overall experience for everyone.
When you think about your current system and saving time, ask yourself these questions:
- Does your ben admin require a robust certification process or does it take just a few hours to learn?
- Is the system easy and intuitive for your clients and their employees?
- How long does it take you to do group builds? Days? Weeks?
The reason you and your clients use a ben admin is to reduce your current administrative burdens that take a lot of time, aren’t satisfying, and don’t produce a high ROI. If your current ben admin misses the mark on any of these, it’s time to look for a replacement.
With Ease, brokers only need a few hours of time to learn the Ease platform, group builds only take a few hours, and G2 reviews show users find the system incredibly easy to use.
2) It hasn’t evolved.
Maybe your ben admin system initially lived up to your expectations. But needs and clients change.
Since making your purchase, you’ve probably been too focused on your day-to-day to monitor what’s new in the market and haven’t realized how much technology has evolved. Customers tend to stick with their current systems and continue to be frustrated by them because they’re unaware of how much technology has advanced in this field and what was once cutting edge could now be outdated for brokers, clients, and their employees.
For example, because of login challenges alone:
- One in five workers have avoided accessing employee-provided benefits, skipped open enrollment and requesting time off, and missed employer-provided perks and discount marketplaces.
- 62% have missed meetings due to the hassle of logging in.
- 26% said they’ve given up on doing something altogether to avoid it.
Additionally, 37% of employees reported the onboarding process at their current job was time-consuming, confusing, or challenging.
Your technology needs to meet employees where they are.
No matter their comfort level with technology, employees still want and expect access to their information 24/7, 365. You and your clients should also be able to pull data easily, access user friendly, real-time dashboards, and run customized reports with your ben admin system.
So you may want to re-evaluate the different systems and applications your clients are using for HR purposes. How many are there? Do they talk to each other? If the answer is “too many” and “not at all,” you’re making it too hard on yourself…and your clients.
The ROI for a modern ben admin system for you and your clients is staggering. Businesses with an efficient onboarding program have 2.5 times more revenue growth and 1.9 times the profit margin compared to those with inefficient onboarding processes. New employees also have higher productivity and acquire company knowledge faster.
By reducing the repetitive and cumbersome task of entering the same information over and over again through automation, you increase employee satisfaction for your clients. And, by expediting onboarding you save time and resources — and you increase accuracy and employee satisfaction.
Other ben admin system advancements include feature quoting, customer onboarding, and other capabilities enabling a broker to service more clients more efficiently than ever before. So if you have an existing system and you’re still experiencing pain points, now is the time to research a new system that may be perfect for your needs now — and in the future.
3) Your current system isn’t right for your clients’ businesses
Maybe your client base has expanded and is more diverse than it was in the past. Maybe you’ve added more small group clients and your current system is tailored for large groups. Or perhaps your existing book of business has experienced major changes over the past few years.
Some other variables that impact organizational needs include:
- Workforce size
- Work model (remote, in-person, hybrid)
- Time-tracking methods and PTO policies
- Amount and type of benefits offerings
- Pricing
Some ben admin systems charge per employee per month (PEPM). Others, like Ease’s pricing model, use a flat monthly fee, so if your business grows, there isn’t a huge price increase in using the technology.
59.43% of employers also say they’re more likely to choose a broker who offers a free benefits administration technology solution. Unlike other third-party companies, such as PEOs or direct-to-employer software, Ease is a broker-powered solution.
That means you remain an integral part of the equation. You or your agency subscribes to Ease, the system becomes an added value to your offering, and you decide when to onboard your clients to better serve them.
4) Lack of connections.
To truly maximize efficiency and save time, your ben admin system should connect with your HRIS, payroll, onboarding system, employee engagement, wellness, performance management, time off programs, carriers, and third-party platforms. Data should constantly be exchanged, updated, and accessible so employee data is current everywhere.
This eliminates duplicate entries and manual work, saving time and resources. The modern ben admin should have the ability for systems to seamlessly share information to make things easier, more efficient, and more accurate. Think about how much time you, your admin, and your clients spend on adding the same data into multiple systems. That’s time and dollars spent on things that integrated tech systems should handle.
Ease completes the setup, implementations, and ongoing management for carrier connections. EaseConnect offers direct EDI/API feeds from Ease to carriers. This helps you reduce the amount of time it takes to manage benefits (paperwork, censuses, change/adds/terms) so you can focus on offering more unique benefits, increasing your commissions, and growing your business.
Plus, employees get a better user experience and make more informed benefits choices. This leads to higher benefits adoption, satisfaction, and retention.
5) Lack of security and compliance capabilities.
Information security and data privacy have to be top priorities for any benefit administration software worth its salt. And with good reason.
The average global cost of a single data breach for a company is now $4.35 million. It’s important when assessing your HRIS to make sure your clients have best-in-class cyber security to manage risk and protect sensitive employee information.
A single sign-in helps employees alleviate stress and helps businesses avoid additional security risks (like passwords written on sticky notes).
Ease ensures compliance with HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II, and HITRUST for further measures of personal and cyber security. In fact, we’ve earned a HITRUST CSF® Certification, an honor that puts us in an elite group of companies around the world, showing our dedication to providing top-notch security, managing risk, and protecting sensitive information.
We also have third-party vulnerability and penetration testing to increase resiliency to data breaches, and help identify any susceptibilities to cyber attacks or hacking. Any information uploaded into our system is scanned for viruses and malicious programs.
Plus, Ease requires all users to use two-factor authentication for secure access, which prevents up to 99% of automated hacks.
Ease also takes employee data already in our system and uses it to help your clients with something they may already have to do — ACA reporting. This helps them avoid severe penalties and fines from the IRS and other government agencies.
Employers can easily measure and track variable hour employees year-round, ensure coverage offered meets the minimum guidelines for affordability, send required notifications, and generate signature-ready IRS 1094 B/C and 1095 B/C forms — decreasing the manual work.
6) Communication and educational abilities.
Good ben admin systems help brokers and employers communicate and educate their clients and employees. They’re also self explanatory, or at the very least, they tell their users what they need to do in easy-to-understand terms.
A recent report identified the latest communications and education trends to evaluate ben admin systems.
- Email is still necessary, and engagement rates increase with videos and support tools. Your clients can email employees about open enrollment and view a snapshot of enrollment progress for each employee directly in Ease. They can also use our email templates to help employees better understand their benefits and inform them of the deadlines to select them — all of which increase participation and satisfaction.
- Decision-support tools are critical. Side-by-side plan comparisons, like you can find in Ease, with plan details and costs per-pay-period help employees make more informed decisions. This self-serve approach also empowers employees to research and evaluate their options to boost confidence in plan selection, and improve overall enrollment results. Engagement rates jumped to 77% when a decision-support tool is included.
- Video is the preferred learning method for employees. And videos are particularly helpful when they show step-by-step instructions, allow users to rewind or rewatch at their own speed, and give them constant access to the education. Ease users can access the Ease Help Center or Ease Academy to access our instructional videos and training modules.
- From-anywhere access with a mobile app. Make sure your ben admin provides information that reaches employees (and their spouses) when they need it. A mobile app is a must now, especially for Generation Z, because people want 24/7/365 access to important information. You can download the Ease mobile app on the App Store or Google Play store.
Why Brokers Love Ease
A few statistics show the Ease advantage. Last year, an impressive 80.04% of Ease users won new business, while non-Ease users won just 11.55%. 19.96% of Ease brokers lost business this past year compared to the 88.45% non-Ease brokers.
Here’s why.
1) Forms library
In addition to having top-of-the-line connectivity and security and compliance capabilities, Ease has 9,300+ mapped forms, which includes 8,700+ employer forms and 600+ employee forms. No other ben admin system comes close. This means virtually every relevant form in every state is in our library.
As an Ease broker, you’re able to attach an email address to any form in the library so all your different carrier forms and benefit changes are delivered to the right places. For example, if an employee makes a change in Ease, the change form automatically gets delivered to the carrier — the broker and employer don’t have to do it — saving you and your client precious time.
This provides a seamless and efficient experience for everyone involved. With Ease, you can streamline enrollment, reduce errors, cut the paperwork, and give your clients an easy-to-use tool to better manage changes throughout the year.
2) Rates library
Are you still having to go to carriers and then copy and paste quotes into a spreadsheet for your clients? Sounds time consuming and tedious.
With our rates library, you can create custom medical plan quotes, with side-by-side comparison quoting capabilities right inside Ease. Ease has medical plan rates from leading insurance carriers and general agents to make quoting quick and easy.
Simply pick from a dropdown and send your clients the quotes, creating a much more efficient and effective workflow for everyone involved.
3) Quick Case Build
No one else allows brokers to build plans faster than Ease. You can set up an entire group in just a few hours, from importing employees to building plans, instead of a few days or weeks.
That’s yet another way Ease saves you time and increases your efficiency.
We’re Here to Help
Every business is different and every client has different needs. Start your ben admin search by asking “what problem(s) am I trying to solve for?” Many make the mistake of focusing on the actual technology first instead of what their desired business goal is.
You don’t need previous software knowledge to use Ease — our team has helped thousands of agency staff bring their clients online. The Ease system is quick and easy to implement, allowing you to be up and running in hours, ready to serve your clients.
