October 20, 2017

The data is in: According to a study by the Life Insurance Marketing and Research Organization, seven out of 10 workers surveyed said they want the option of enrolling in workplace benefits programs online, rather than having to do it on paper or in person in the human resources office.

Researchers also found that:

    • 82% of HR workers consider open enrollment to be stressful and frustrating.

 

    • 8 out of 10 HR managers believe that open enrollment periods strain HR department resources and divert valuable staff resources and time from more productive, proactive tasks.

 

  • Three quarters of HR managers think their staff spends a lot of time simply explaining benefit packages to employees, according to Guidespark.com, an HR best practices website.

But thanks to recent evolutions in information technology, much of this busywork and paper-pushing is simply no longer necessary. Most employee benefits vendors facilitate Web-based enrollment and benefits management, and allow employees to do the work themselves, if they prefer, from their own homes.

Eliminating the paperwork and taking your HR staff out of the process — except for monitoring and reporting — has tremendous benefits for your workers and your organization alike. These include:

    • Fewer staff distractions because employees can find the answers to many of their own questions online,

 

    • Lower transaction costs,

 

    • Less strain on printers, copiers and toner supplies,

 

    • Fewer hours spent walking employees through enrollment forms, line by line,

 

    • Elimination of the need for extensive packet preparation,

 

    • The ability to monitor enrollment in real-time and quickly create up-to-the minute reports,

 

    • Elimination of duplicate entries — from the original manual entry and then to computer-based entry,

 

    • Improved customer service by human resources staffers, and

 

  • Reduced enrollment errors. Employees enter their own information and are more likely than HR staff to recognize errors in such data items as birthdates and Social Security numbers.

Making your online enrollment go smoothly requires some preplanning, but in the long run you’ll save time and headaches.

© 2017