It may not be open enrollment season, but it’s never too early to start conversations with clients and prospects. This time of year, employers are open to the conversation. So, this is your opportunity to stand out among a sea of brokers shouting “benefits savings!”
More than benefits
Of course, helping employers offer cost-saving benefits packages is important, but everyone is having this exact conversation. You’ll need to lead with something different to stand out. Lead with technology.
As a benefit consultant, your value can go beyond that of helping employers save money on benefits offerings. You can help employers enhance their BenAdmin processes through technology.
When starting the conversation with clients or prospects, you can uncover pain points by asking questions about their current BenAdmin processes.
Here are some examples of questions you can ask:
- How are you managing benefits administration? Is your current technology solution effective?
- Are you manually sending new hires, terminations, and life event data to carriers?
- Does your current system integrate with payroll or HRIS? Or does HR have to perform duplicate data entry?
- Does your current system allow you to access data?
- Are your employees engaged during open enrollment?
Here are some responses you’re likely to receive:
“We are manually entering data everywhere”
Benefits technology, including HR technology, but if your clients current technology doesn’t communicate with other HR systems of record, they’re wasting time and money.
You can provide a technology solution that can integrate with payroll, HRIS, and carriers. Integration with other HR systems of record drastically reduces the amount of data entry that HR will need to perform. Data exchange between your client’s tech stack keeps all their systems up to date, without the risk human error (which can be costly). If your clients constantly find themselves having to performing manual data entry, then you have an opportunity to help alleviate their administrative burden through technology.
“Our current system can’t handle the benefits we want to offer”
Voluntary benefits like pet insurance or tuition reimbursement are becoming more popular, so technology needs to flex to handle these kinds of benefits. If the technology can’t handle the complexities of these benefits, offering them will be challenging. Help employers by presenting them with a technology solution that doesn’t require clunky work-arounds to offer the benefits their employees are looking for.
“We don’t have access to data”
Benefits technology houses a wealth of meaningful data that employers can access, or at least they should have access to. If your client or prospect lacks access to data, they’re missing out on a wealth of information to help curate the best benefits package. Employers can review data to determine which benefits had the best adoption rates, and identify any areas of friction during the enrollment process. You can provide a solution that helps your clients drive desired outcomes.
“Our employees don’t find open enrollment engaging”
Employees should actively engage in open enrollment every year. Often times, employees opt to use the same coverage as they did the year before without ever reviewing new options. Not only is the employee doing themselves a disservice, but it affects your clients ROI. So, how does technology help? Through self-service functionality. Self-service functionality allows employees to navigate their benefits on a tablet, smartphone, laptop, and desktop at anytime — anywhere.
What’s more, technology with decision support functionality equips employees with the tools they need to feel confident making critical benefits decisions. Support tools can clarify unfamiliar benefits jargon with glossaries, side-by-side plan comparisons, and educational videos. You can take decision support tools a step further with deep analytical tools that can estimate out of pocket expenses. Well-informed employees are engaged — properly executed benefits technology makes this possible.
Equip your clients with technology that will help their employees feel confident when selecting benefits, boosting engagement.
Helping your clients choose a benefits technology solution
When helping your clients choose a benefits technology solution, there are a few helpful things to keep in mind:
Avoid the hidden costs of “free”
Your clients may find solutions appealing if offered for free, but you should advise against this. Solutions that are “free” often leave employees paying much more than they anticipated because the free solution is likely a watered down version of the software. Without the full version of the software, your client is likely missing out on critical functionality.
Understand everything included
When looking at technology solutions at a glance, they appear to all have the same offerings. It’s only when you take a closer look that you notice differences in the service model, fees, features, and functionality. Make sure your client has a clear understanding of what they are buying.
The big picture
Clients and prospects may be wary of the cost of implementing new benefits technology. If your client is nervous about the cost, it’s important that they understand the potential ROI. New benefits technology should be viewed as an investment in future time savings, avoiding administrative headaches, and employee engagement.
You only need to look like a technology expert
Brokers often avoid the benefits technology conversation because they don’t feel qualified to advise on it. That’s where having a technology partner comes in. Benefits technology experts help you identify gaps in your clients current technology, and bring new solutions to the table. Rather than doing all of the legwork yourself, the right partner will perform a thorough discovery process that assesses your clients needs, challenges, and goals to identify the best fit solution(s).
With the right technology in place, technology partners configure, support, and maintain the system so that it can knock it out of the park for your clients. They’ll provide timely and reliable responses to all of you and your clients questions and needs.
Through technology partners, you can provide your clients with a best-fit, fully-serviced benefits technology solution. Your clients won’t have to license a platform or have to dedicate staff to learning, implementing, and maintaining it.
Work with us
With ebm, you’re equipped with our toolbox of benefits technology solutions that will help you stand out, above your competition. Not only do your clients receive a best-fit benefits technology solution, but top-of-line client service as well. Learn how partnering with ebm for benefits technology helps you to attract, win, and retain business.
