Are Our Benefit Programs Meeting Our Employee Needs?

As we approach the season for employees to make changes to their benefit plans, progressive Human Resource departments may want to ask is:  Are our new benefit programs meeting the needs of our diverse workforce?

Open Enrollment is usually a once per year event when employees of US-based companies and not-for-profit organizations may make additions, changes or deletions to their elected benefit plans.   During this period an employer will typically communicate to all eligible employees what options will become available.  Once the changes have been communicated to the eligible employees, Human Resources will implement the changes as well as ensure that all employees understand what has changed for them and their eligible dependents.

For Human Resources departments across the country it can often be a very stressful time; however, one way to mitigate the stress is to find out ahead of time what employees are looking for in their benefits.  Would they prefer to contribute more to their plans to have more choice or security?  Would employees like to see a cafeteria program made available to them?  Is higher co-pay more acceptable versus an increase in the employee premium contribution?  These types of questions can only be answered if you ask your employees ahead of the open enrollment season.

An easy way to discover what your employees want is to ask them by way of a targeted benefits survey.  This type of surveys allows employees to provide feedback with respect to future benefits and allows them to be a part of the process.

What is Open Enrollment?

Each January company’s go through the annual process of implementing the benefit programs that their employees have become to rely on to protect themselves and their families. Key to the success of any benefit plans enhancement and rollout is the planning and associated communication of the new programs.

To assist the HR professional with the process of a successful plan is a 5 step program. These steps are:

1. Evaluate the employee needs either through a focus group or employee survey. This process will ensure that the benefit enhancements that you are considering are aligned with your employee needs.

2. Establish a budget that has been approved by the leaders of the organization for the benefit programs. Consider using percent of payroll as the method for determining the benefit budget.

3. Working with your benefit broker have them provide you with alternatives to plan design, employer subsidized programs and plan paid for in total by the employees. Choice is very important to employees and alternatives to meet the unique needs of your staff should be considered at every stage of the process.

4. Interview those providers that have been identified and determine their qualifications and ability to meet your needs. Do your due diligence by asking those hard questions, ensure that performance and service guarantees are in place and check references.

5. Communicate the new or enhanced programs to the employees by way of health fairs, webinars, and employee newsletters and all-hands meetings. Where possible provide one-on-one service to the employees to assist them in the process of maximizing and utilizing the programs.

If these 5 steps are followed HR professionals will be in a position to successfully implement the benefit programs that are so important to the employees.

Why is Employee Self-Service so Important in Today’s Business Environment?

First of all employee self-service is a process that allows employees to make updates with respect their personal information directly into the company’s HRIS or the third party administrators web site.  This access is applicable for benefit changes, address changes, time keeping and payroll monitoring.  Self-service also allows the employer to find out what the employee is thinking and how engaged they are through the survey process.  Employee ownership of their information is very important to the accuracy of records and the on-going communication between the company and their staff.  In order to automate and implement a self-service approach all the company needs to do is integrate their systems and establish kiosks for those employees that do not have a dedicated computer.  Today with the computers becoming very affordable migrating from a paper-based to electronic based format is very easy.

Consider implementing a self-service process as this will allow more time for the HR professionals on your staff to move away from processing paper to becoming more a business partner with the employees and management.