Lots of employers renew their benefits packages on January 1. This makes for a really busy 4th quarter every year.
We introduced a new online enrollment system to one of our clients for January 1. The entire process went very well…not without a hiccup here and there…but very well nonetheless. What struck me was how much efficiency was added to the process for all involved – the employer, the employees, and our team. Here’s a quick summary of the differences
| Category | Traditional Process | Electronic Process |
| Pre-enrollment employee meetings | Piles of paper to hand out for employees to review | Demo of the new process with one sheet of paper to pass out – the customized instruction sheet
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| Open enrollment | Employees have to complete and sign multiple pieces of paper from different insurance companies and pass them in to HR
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Employees went online and walked through a simple, organized benefits election process |
| Communication at home | If employees wanted to review the materials with a spouse, they had to remember what was said in the meetings and bring the materials home.
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Employees could log on to the system 24/7 and review the options anywhere they had an internet connection on a computer, tablet, or cell phone. |
| Missing information or signatures | HR or MillBrook team member (MB) would need to track down employees to get missing information or signatures
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The system didn’t allow somebody to complete the process until all elections were completed. Signatures are electronic.
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| Keeping track of who has completed the process | Manual tracking via spreadsheet | HR can run a report 24/7 to see who has completed the enrollment process
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| Time to complete forms | It takes a while to complete different enrollment forms for health, dental, life, FSA, etc. Basic information needs to be entered on several different forms.
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Basic information is only entered once, and the employee can click through the system quickly. |
| Hunting down the stragglers | HR would physically need to track down employees who had not turned in their paperwork.
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HR could simply send an email to remind employees about the enrollment deadline. |
| Processing enrollment forms | Photocopying, sorting, and getting the enrollment forms ready to send off to the different insurance companies takes a lot of time.
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MB downloaded the required information for each carrier into an Excel report and uploaded to the insurance companies in minutes. |
| Payroll deductions | Pulled manually from a master election form and entered into payroll system | MB was able to run a report for the payroll company in Excel and send it to them
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The online enrollment process was simply a much better enrollment experience for everybody, but most importantly, our client and their employees.
If you have questions about setting up an electronic enrollment system for your employees, call us at (877) 724-0008 or click the link below.
