Open enrollment season can be challenging, even more so if you’ve had to adjust to employees working remotely. According to a recent insurance industry survey, 72 percent of employees said they found benefit enrollment processes to be complicated and stressful – and you know it’s not easy for your HR or management team, either.
Regardless of your business, industry, or situation, your human resource information system (HRIS) really shows its worth right about now.
HRIS Open Enrollment Advantages
Your HRIS assists your company as you prepare for another year of benefit offerings, reporting, compliance, and communication. The end goal is to empower HR and senior leadership with reporting and dashboards showing relevant analytics and trends, and give employees 24/7 access to the information they need to make informed benefit decisions.
Perhaps your HRIS has been part of your talent management strategy for a while – or maybe you’re relatively new to this tool. Its benefits – which apply to payroll, compliance, compensation, EEO, affirmative action, project management, and open enrollment – include:
- Saving labor time. The system does the heavy work as you complete open enrollment and other projects.
- Saving paper and mailing expenses. It also reduces clutter and the potential for important documents to be lost or misplaced.
- Easing the burden on your HR team. It can be difficult to assemble, collate, and mail all the necessary enrollment forms in a timely manner. Using your HRIS takes a lot of the pressure off. Plus, employees can do much of their own research, further lessening the strain on their HR representatives.
- Minimizing errors. After benefit plans are selected, information can be easily transferred to payroll, and deductions can be taken out automatically and accurately. All pertinent information is stored in your HRIS and sent to carriers. Since there’s no need to rekey anything, there’s less of a chance errors will occur. And, your HRIS automatically determines each employee’s eligibility for a plan, so they don’t accidentally apply for the wrong one.
- Reducing risk. Sharing sensitive information is necessary during open enrollment. Your HRIS ensures that access to this data is limited to the right people, and audit trails offer proof of who made changes and when.
How an HRIS Partner Can Help
During open enrollment, it helps greatly to have the right expertise on hand. The role of your HRIS Partner is to help you navigate the maze of updates that must be made annually, as well as set up and validate your plan and processes. This requires an in-depth knowledge and experience with:
- Summary plan descriptions.
- Validating current plan setup and building new plans.
- Updating rates and annual limits.
- Waivers and dependent/beneficiary options.
- Facilitating changes to carrier connections.
- Coordination of payroll deduction changes. Customizing the enrollment experience for employees.
- Set-up of your open enrollment dashboards and workflows.
- Running post-enrollment audits and reports
The HR Works team of certified HRIS professionals have in-depth experience and are focused on helping our clients boost their efficiency and success with human resources technology. We can help you increase efficiency, reduce risk, and achieve desired results, not only during open enrollment, but from “hire to retire” when it comes to effective talent management. contact us today to learn more about how HR Works can help you through this year’s open enrollment season.
