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Employee Benefits
how to choose the right employee benefits software for your company
January 9, 2023
You already know that employee benefits are not a luxury but a strategic tool for recruiting and retaining bright talents, increasing your company's profitability, and improving productivity.
You also know that having a one-size-fits-all benefits program is already obsolete in this day and age. Your competitors are offering a slew of attractive benefits that could lure your top talents away. The most apparent counter-measure is to provide even more flexible and more relevant benefits.
However, expanding or customising your benefits comes with a risk.
How would you keep track of so many types of benefits for each employee? And how do you ensure your benefits are strategic expenses, not a waste of money?
This is where employee benefits software comes into play. Over 43% of employers now use some kind of benefits software to automate manual work, save time, and offer flexible benefits without losing track of them.
Now, you might be wondering:
"How do I choose the right employee benefits software for my company?"
You're precisely at the right place. This guide covers all the factors you need to consider, including user interface, usability, ease of use, and so much more.
What Is A Benefits Administration Software?
A benefits administration software is a cloud-based or on-site benefits management system that helps you administer the company's health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off (PTO), and other employee benefits.
Typically benefits administration software covers three major modules:
- Human resource management (HRM) module for managing your employees
- Employee benefits module for choosing, customising, and administering your benefits
- Administration reports that track how much has been spent on various areas in real-time
Nowadays, most benefits management software offers a portal as a one-stop place for everything related to benefits and some benefits platforms like Mednefits offer mobile apps for added convenience and transparency.
What Are The Types Of Benefits Administration Software In The Market?
The market for employee benefits software is highly fragmented, but the three major types of benefits administration platforms are:
- Manual Benefits Administration (MBA) platform. Like an excel sheet, this type of benefits management software lets you manually track each employee's benefits.
Benefits administration software. A cloud-based or self-hosted suite that offers easy access to your company's benefits plans through one common account.
This is one of the most popular among employers as they're easy to use and offer sophisticated benefits administration tools such as automatic reimbursements, paid time off tracking, etc.
Mednefits is one of them. It is a cloud-based health benefits portal that offers continuously dedicated support to help you with onboarding, setup, customisations, and managing your employee benefits.
It comes with an easy-to-use app that allows HR to track benefits expenses and employees to track their benefits usage at their fingertips.
- HRM software with a benefits administration feature. This type of employee benefits platform offers an all-inclusive solution for your company's healthcare needs: choosing and customising medical plans, tracking expenses, hiring employees, administering them, generating reports, and exporting data.
Why Should You Switch To Using Employee Benefits Software?
The costs of benefits, especially healthcare, are already rapidly rising, stretching you thinner than ever. So, why should you invest in an employee benefits platform? Is it worth it? Let's look at 5 reasons why (#4 is the biggest).
- Saves time. Benefits software automates manual processing tasks and finishes in record time. HR doesn't have to look at physical receipts and waste hours keypunching in data. Plus some software platforms are also integrated with their own healthcare provider network. Once your employees visit a pre-approved GP, the reimbursement will be activated automatically.
- Reduces human error. Because the software is automated, there’ll be a data trail behind each transaction — so if anything goes wrong, you’ll know where to look.
- Offers personalised benefits. You can customise benefits based on the type, budget, and panels.
- Reduces cost. The software tells you which benefits are being used most and least in the organisation. So you can change the cap on spending for each category and you’ll only pay for benefits that are used by employees. No more spending on sleeping benefits.
- Improves employee experience. Employee benefits software allows your employees to manage their own benefits account. This way they will have more flexibility, visibility and control over their benefits usage.
How Does Benefits Administration Software Compare To Benefits Administration Outsourcing Services?
When it comes to managing your compensation and benefits packages, you have 2 choices: 1) buy a benefits software service or 2) outsource benefits management to someone else. In this section, you'll find out the pros and cons of each choice and see which is the best for your company.
Benefits administration software
Pros:
- Higher levels of control. You get to decide the workflow, plan, budget, data charts, and more.
- Cheaper to subscribe.
- More transparent because you have control over the software. You can see what you want and need to see.
- Saves time through automation.
Cons:
- Compliance falls squarely on your shoulders.
- You manage employee benefits yourself.
Benefits administration outsourcing service
Pros:
- Compliance and liability becomes someone else's burden to carry.
- A dedicated person in charge of support.
- Minimal administrative work from your side.
- Saves time.
Cons:
- Low levels of control.
- More expensive than software.
10 things you need to consider before buying an employee benefits software
So, how do you evaluate the best-fit software for your business? Given the number of solutions currently on the market, this may be intimidating. Don't worry; we've got some solid factors for you to consider at this stage:
- Cost. Not the cost of the software, but it's how much the software can save your cost. Be sure to ask this question, "How much can your software save me?"
- Ease of use. Download a trial and let the youngest and oldest employee in your company try using it. Check how easy or difficult it is for them to use.
- User interface (UI). Use the "headache" test to see if the UI is good. Use the trial software for 30 minutes. Do you have a headache? Do your eyes feel tired? Do you feel confused and lost? If you answered yes to at least one question, it has a bad UI.
- Transparency. Is the pricing clear, transparent, and flexible? Make sure there are no surprise fees.
- Accessibility. Does the software support all devices (PC, Mac, iOS, Android)? Is it disabled-friendly? Can your employees access the benefits portal using their own devices?
- Integration. If you want to retain your current HRM system, look for benefits software that can integrate into your HRM without any issues. Even better, look for one that has many integration options to choose from.
- Flexibility. The more flexible a software is in customising your plans and benefits, the better. Show them your list of benefits and plans and check how much they can customise for you.
- Automation. Does the software automate all of the manual tasks, leaving room for your HR to breathe?
- Security. Find out what security features they're using to keep your data safe, even from the software provider.
- Features. Does the software have all the features you need and might need in the future? The more, the merrier. Oh, remember to ask if you need to pay extra for additional features.
Want to see how benefits software works in your company? Contact our Benefits Specialists for a free live demonstration.
Related articles:
- 3 common mistakes that cost your employee benefits ROI
- Five considerations when renewing employee benefits insurance
- Why attractive employee benefits matter more than you think
About Mednefits:
Mednefits helps businesses take care of their employees with its automated, affordable, and accessible employee benefits platform.
Request to join Mednefits for free to help process and track claims in real-time, while controlling costs.
