BY STEVE HARRIS, CEBS

One of the things my wife and I have learned over the last year is that our home Wi-Fi is not equipped to handle the bandwidth of two high school students, two home offices, a movie theater, music streaming, gaming, and a gym all at the same time. As our lives have gotten more complex, we’re all craving simplified experiences that are more authentic in nature. It’s one reason why tourism among our country’s national parks is surging.

Overload can also happen to the most well-intentioned firms when they interject too much complexity into their health and employee benefit plan offerings.

EMPLOYEE BENEFITS PLAN COMPLEXITY LEADS TO CONFUSION

Recently, a plan sponsor let us read through a guide produced by one of our competitors, and we found 19 different toll-free numbers. We believed that each time they launched a new point solution, the broker made more money, and it added another layer of complexity into the employee benefit plans. Their employees didn’t need more vendors; they needed help finding help when it was important to them.

Shortlister is an application Holmes Murphy licenses to help track point solutions. They now list over 2,000 vendors that call on our clients as much as they call us. We have some fun with all of this in an ACAP HealthWorks video production, starring two well-cast Holmies.

HOW CAN YOUR COMPANY SIMPLIFY ITS EMPLOYEE BENEFITS OFFERINGS?

Here are a few steps you can take to simplify your approach to health, wellbeing, and employee benefits offerings.

1. ELIMINATE HORSE AND BUGGY HR

The days of the HR department trying to be the exclusive connection point to inform and connect plan participants with a need is as dated as a paper map. An omni-channel approach will be far more effective to connect the end user when its needed as opposed to getting upset with your people for not remembering to use a benefit they saw on page 34 of a 50-page guide during last year’s holiday season.

2. USER EXPERIENCE (“UX”) AUDIT

A UX audit is where you will experience your value proposition through the eyes of your people, who lack experience in the field of employee benefits.

Is the benefit clear on how it can help? What steps must one take to use it? Have we ever asked our people which areas are causing them headaches? Could it all be further simplified?

3. INTEGRATED VS. POINT SOLUTION

Tailored solution providers that provide better outcomes create a strength that is also a weakness since it solves only one problem. An integrated system handles more complexity, but often fails to accomplish what the point solution does better.

We are seeing fast consolidation and interoperability in the market. Astute employers and a good broker can explore the best of both worlds through new Platform as a Service (PaaS) providers emerging in the industry.

YOUR WORKFORCE IS YOUR CUSTOMER

In my “What Your Employee Benefits Guide Says About Your Company” blog, I shared that we can get a sense of how much a company cares for its people by reading through their benefit’s guide. When your customer is your workforce, we have to remember they no longer compare you to a competitor — they compare to the best service they’ve ever had from anyone.

Need help with your employee benefits plans offerings? We encourage you to reach out to an Alliant employee benefit representative and explore more ways we can help simplify the complex through our brokerage and consulting services and subsidiary companies.