Last Updated on September 13, 2024
There are so many great things about automating Benefits Administration. It’s unbelievable how many employers would rather put in a frustrating amount of time using paper forms and spreadsheets, instead of investing in benefits administration software. Here are several reasons that show you how BA software will save you money, and more importantly, time.
1. Digital Is Faster, Period
It takes less than ten seconds to open up a local news website – it takes at least a day to receive the local newspaper. There are instances where doing things “the old fashioned way” is speedier than using technology and going digital. Those instances are few and far between. The same concept applies to benefits administration software: it is simply faster than filling out old-fashioned spreadsheets or using a pen and paper.
2. Rules and Regulations
There’s no denying that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires a lot of powering through reams of complex documentation. That’s not even taking HR rules and regulations into account: COBRA, HIPPA, ERISA, FMLA; the list of “alphabet soup” regulations never end. HR teams are forever submitting compliance requirements and monitoring the activities of employees.
No matter how skilled and hard-working the HR department is at performing these tasks, they will have the burden of a world taken off their shoulders when they utilize BA software. This is because humans are fragile and we have a limited amount of energy, focus, optimism and endurance. Software does not. In mere seconds, this software manages, calculates and adheres to the various overwhelming number of rules and regulations.
3. Improved Accuracy
How many employees do you have, using multiple systems? How many of those employees are entering information manually? Every one of us interprets information, instructions and policies differently. Not to mention that the cost of human error, when it comes to data input and reporting, is incalculable.
The risk is simply too high that someone down the line will make a mistake. Others will take this mistake, thinking it to be correct, and perform their work on this wrong data. Thus jeopardising the entire company. Software eliminates the risks for incurring thousands of dollars in penalties, fines and employee time.
4. Reporting
You will be able to easily set up your program and oversee it – at any time. This is because most software platforms have a comprehensive admin dashboard. This dashboard allows you to see the number of employees who are enrolled in benefit options, what those options are, as well as the prices. This makes it easier for your management team to readily access this information for whatever reason.
5. Reduce Errors
Mistakes happen. They’re a part of life. Unfortunately, the enrollment process has the potential for an island of mistakes. Mistakes that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. You’ve undoubtedly experienced several setbacks during the enrollment process; keeping track of key features (such as carrier integrations), educational features, decision support, etc. is burdensome. Benefits administration software will serve your HR department so well in terms of reducing the amount of human-made mistakes.
Conclusion
One of the biggest reasons BA software ends up saving you time personally, is because this software empowers employees to control their own benefits. Your HR team will then be able to focus their energies and extraneous decisions on matters more important to your company as a whole.
At the end of the day, implementing employee benefits administration software into your company will make your employees, to borrow from Zig Ziglar, “grin so wide they can eat a banana sideways.”
