Best Benefits Administration Software

What is Benefits Administration Software?

Benefits administration software serves to streamline and automate the process of managing employee benefits and eligibility. These solutions make the perks, amenities, and core services related to employee benefits management easy to set up for human resource administrators while making it more straightforward for employees to use.

A benefits administration software is a tool that helps businesses manage benefits provided to employees, such as retirement schemes, medical insurance, and paid time off.

Benefits administration systems make it easy to manage employee benefits from a centralized source. You can use this software to view and adjust employee benefits packages. You can also use it to announce open enrolment periods through the administrative dashboard. You also can set up auto-enrolment. Employers can create benefits programs for new employees and even liaise with suppliers. This type of software functions as a centralized employee benefits database equipped with reporting and HR analytics platforms. Some of them include healthcare brokerages and marketplaces. 

Benefits administration software products usually offer employee self-service portals and other options so employees can view and manage their benefits based on their eligibility on a single dashboard interface. They may even update their personal information and documents independently without relying on an HR professional.

What are the Benefits of the Best Benefits Administration Systems?

Let's outline the key advantages of employing a benefits admin software solution:

1. Time Savings

   An automated process can drastically reduce the average time an HR professional spends enrolling a new employee, doing data entry, addressing employee queries, and preparing benefits packages. Strategies that could ordinarily take months can then take weeks and even days. HR professionals will, as a result, have more time to be productive in other areas of HR management that require their attention.

2. Reduced Errors

   A benefits management system automates data collection and integrates with carriers, eliminating much of the human intervention from benefits administration and reducing the chances of errors.

3. Convenience and Satisfaction

   Employee benefits administration software allows employers, employees, and brokers to access benefit information using a user-friendly interface anytime and anywhere. It makes employees self-reliant to update the system and seek answers to general queries without HR intervention.

4. Transparency

   At any given time, all information related to benefits administration can be monitored and tracked at the individual level. It becomes possible to hold all the stakeholders accountable for their responsibilities. All of this ultimately promotes a more transparent benefits administration process.

   Ensuring employee welfare goes a long way in creating a great working environment, boosting employee morale, and increasing productivity. Implementing a benefits administration software solution can take the standard of benefits administration within your organization to a whole new level.

Top Features of Benefits Administration Systems

Let us take a look at some more features of these solutions:

• Dashboard: All the data is available in a dashboard format, which makes it easy to view, access, and understand.
• Plan Design and Forecasting: Benefits admin systems allow you to adjust and test variables such as deductibles, inflations, and co-pays to reach an optimal plan.
• Messaging Center: Top benefits administration software solutions allow employers to send personalized benefits-related content via text messages and emails to targeted groups of employees.
• Data-driven Cost Estimation: These solutions can typically study usage patterns and predict out-of-pocket costs.
• Billing and Payment: The best benefits administration systems will reconcile enrolment and billing data and facilitate the monthly billing processes.
• Statutory Reporting: Some benefits admin system provider portals also create and generate regulatory reports that can be sent automatically to local authorities for compliance.
• Eligibility Monitoring: HR Benefits administration software can also keep track of new employees, promotions, and even employee exits and make changes to existing plans based on eligibility.

A Beginner's Guide to Choosing Benefits Administration Software

Finding benefits administration software from so many available options can undoubtedly seem challenging. However, here are some guidelines to make it easier:

Types of Benefits Administration Systems

Benefits administration systems are typically available as the following:

• Standalone benefits management solutions
• A module that is part of a comprehensive human resource management solution

Standalone solutions may seem attractive since companies specializing in solving a single problem are more likely to offer the most robust solutions. However, integrated HR Software makes more sense for small and mid-sized companies as it will likely be more cost-effective. They are also easier to implement.

Either way, you must choose a system that does the following

1. Facilitates Self-Service

   The best benefits administration software solutions come with a self-service portal allowing employees to take charge of their benefits plan and guide them. Such features considerably lighten the workload of benefits administrators. Try and choose a solution that provides employees with an intuitive, user-friendly interface and an uncomplicated setup process. The same applies to the admin dashboard for the HR team as well.

   It may also be worthwhile to explore options that offer a mobile application. A user-friendly mobile solution will allow employees and benefits administrators to view information, take necessary actions, and update information swiftly at any given time from anywhere.

2. Reduces Benefits Administration Workload

   Companies often prioritize employee experience over HR experience when selecting a benefits administration software solution. However, HR teams interact more frequently with a benefits management system than employees. Merely choosing a solution with an attractive interface may not be the best way. Ultimately, a benefits management solution must be able to automate repetitive, time-consuming, manual, and data-intensive tasks for benefits administrators.

3. Integrates with the Existing HR Software Stack

   Benefits administration software must work in sync with your existing human resource management platform so that you can fully use all its features. Check whether your current systems will be able to receive updates from the new ones. You must also check how much legwork is involved in getting the systems to work in sync. Consider whether you will have to pay additionally to achieve that or whether it will be a service included in the cost of the new system.

4. Ensures Compliance

   Any benefits administration system you choose must help you comply with local statutory laws and regulations. For HR professionals and employees alike, staying on top of ever-changing employee/labor laws and regulations may not always be possible. Staying compliant becomes more complicated with organizations with multiple offices across various regions and locations. Checks within the system must prevent any errors in compliance so that benefits plans can be tailored and personalized to meet an individual employee's needs and preferences without the fear of defaulting compliance.

5. Data Analysis and Reporting

   When employers have analytical data, they are better poised to make optimal decisions regarding benefits management. An excellent benefits administration solution must be able to produce sophisticated reports that organizational heads can use as they make strategic decisions. The data must be able to provide a better understanding of benefits and costs and provide actionable insights. For example, the data could shed light on which benefits and plans employees prefer over the rest or average usage pattern reports that can aid in developing solutions that target common issues. Data and analytical essays can be of enormous help during audits.

6. Data Security

   Benefits administration software stores sensitive employee data. This data could be related to an employee's personal information, any changes, hours worked, claims made, medical history, and receipts about health-related costs. This data is accessed by multiple parties, including the insurance providers, the employer and the employees, and various other people within the organization. Choose a system that can set up reliable permissions to allow access. Look for a system that stores all the data securely in a centralized location. Inquire about how the data is stored and transmitted. You may want to look for a system that uses the EDI transmission method, also known as a carrier feed. This method has proven to be more secure, automated, and least prone to error.

7. Training and Support

   Implementing a new system involves some amount of legwork. Consider how challenging it will be to set up and maintain the system. Check the extent of training and support that will come with the product. Find out if there is a need to invest in anything else. You must work towards a seamless transition, only possible with adequate training and support.

Reasons to Invest in Benefits Administration Platforms

A benefits administration platform does require an investment, but the right solution can yield many cost benefits in the long run.

1. Efficiency and Flexibility

   Benefits administration involves monitoring and keeping track of various entitlements, rules, and eligibility for different types of employees. For HR professionals, it means coordinating with multiple stakeholders, including employees, vendors, suppliers, and the payroll and accounts team, to name a few. A manual process also involves incredible data entry, spreadsheets, and paperwork. It can be an incredibly complicated and time-consuming process. Co-pays and flexible benefit agreements only make the process more complex. Digitizing benefits management with a centralized benefits administration portal will remove much of the manual, repetitive, and mundane activities from the benefits administration process.

2. Benefits Engagement

   Employee benefits are generally one of an organization's most substantial business costs. However, it can quickly become money if employees are unaware of the benefits entitlements and don't appreciate them. It is imperative for employees to truly value their benefits packages and, more importantly, know how to use them. Benefits administration solutions can optimize benefits communication to encourage participation and drive engagement.

   A digital benefits solution can create multi-channel communication pathways and deliver a consistent employee experience across various channels. Employees can have options to interact with their benefits through a medium that they prefer.

3. Benefits Costs

   It has become increasingly important for employers to monitor, track, and control benefits costs and stay within the allocated budgets. While automating benefits administration does reveal indirect cost savings gradually, reporting and analytic tools make it possible to monitor benefits costs and even justify them in real time. Benefits administration systems also allow employers to validate their spending to prevent brokers from overcharging them.

4. Risk Mitigation

   A manual process requires data to change many hands and has few safeguards to protect it. On the other hand, a digital benefits management system usually comes equipped with data privacy and security measures. It consolidates and stores data in a centralized location and ensures that only those with the necessary permissions can access it. Any attempt to misuse data becomes easier to identify with a digital system by referring to the user's history.