How to Use Technoloy to Enhance the Employee Experience

Employees are asking for help, for better benefits, for affordable benefits, for flexibility, and for convenience. Over the past few weeks I’ve discussed the myriad of responsibilities and considerations for employers related to benefits; and the truth is we know that company leaders in finance and human resources wear so many hats it’s hard to keep up. We’re all busy, and striving to be productive, but it’s challenging. So, what can you do? Embrace the digital transformation that’s happening.

Technology to the rescue.

Many employers have already begun more heavily investing in technology – whether that be enrollment systems, HRIS platforms, etc.  While it is an investment (and sometimes a significant one with spending on HR/Benefits technology increasing approximately 15% in the past four years) we also know statistically speaking, benefits satisfaction and employee engagement increases in companies that are more digitally advanced. Employees want to be able to quickly enroll, check their benefits, and submit claims easily. And, with 43% of HR professionals believing their role became more challenging during the pandemic, according to SHRM, increasing the use of technology can help your HR team and your employees.

So, whether at your firm or your carriers we are seeing more employers ditch their paper enrollment and deploy mobile engagement solutions. It’s important to consider the opportunity to build in as many real-time integrations with partners as possible to make the experience as robust as possible. There are huge waves of innovation being deployed to address the issue of convenience. It’s visible in the release of new digital tools to enable more home-based care, better portals and websites serving as a front-door to providers to limit time spent in offices on paperwork, enhancing the patient experience, and more. How can employers leverage similar tools and know what will work with your employee population? Here are a few ideas:

• Survey employees to understand their satisfaction level with their benefits and uncover potential communication/education opportunities
• Understand what your carrier partners are doing to help employees understand and use their benefits and what improvements they are making to improve the experience for both you and your employees
• Ask your carrier partners to collaborate with you and each other to share data and cross refer to other carriers, integrate with technology solutions and work better together
• Deploy mobile app technology to bring together all you offer in a member-friendly format (if you need ideas or are interested in demonstrations of solutions like this drop me an email)

As you embrace technology, do know that we are also seeing more employers evaluate their cyber risks knowing employees may be working remotely. The news each night is sharing more high profile cyber attacks, and making sure your technology and that of your partners is keeping employee data secure is a consideration as you choose partners and providers. I’ll talk more about the importance of understanding cyber risk and how you can protect your organization in a couple of weeks. For now, I encourage you to consider where embracing new, better, or more technology in your solutions can help your organization to grow more effectively as financial and HR roles evolve to include more responsibilities and greater employee demands. What questions do you have about technology, and what solutions are you most interested in this year? Share your thoughts with me at [email protected].