Technology has enabled HR departments and employee benefits consulting services to streamline their enrollment processes. Many organizations seek to use modern solutions such as Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) to simplify enrollment, mitigate human error, and create a more transparent experience for their employees.
HR managers and leaders who struggle to communicate benefits to employees or keep administrative costs down may be able to use an HRIS to save time and engagement in their open enrollment workflows while minimizing human error.
Why Open Enrollment is Often a Challenge for HR
Open enrollment allows employees to gain control over their health plans, but it also involves administrative labor for HR departments, including paper forms, spreadsheet tracking, and data entry. Traditionally, every insurance handoff increases the company’s risk of human error, leading to missed information, improperly calculated benefits, and other costly mistakes.
One miskeyed birthday can result in delayed benefits, inaccurate payroll, and more, frustrating employees, complicating compliance reports, and causing even more work for HR. Many HR leaders struggle to explain multiple benefits plans to employees without the right system in place. Yet, with health plan costs rising yearly, employers and HR leaders must strategize their health plans and communicate changes with their employees.
How an HRIS Simplifies Enrollment
An HRIS automates the risky aspects of open enrollment by replacing manual data entries with streamlined, error-reducing workflows. Integrated platforms improve the plan selection process with clearly communicated new hire requirements and benefits. For example:
- As employees select their plans, the system automatically validates their eligibility, calculates their plan costs, and mitigates the risk of inconsistent or incomplete data entries.
- Without the repetitive HR tasks involved with conventional open enrollment processes, HR teams can focus on information flow, transparency, and implementation speed.
- A powerful HRIS connects employees to their benefits without them needing to request them; as hires are onboarded, they automatically receive notifications.
- Before a qualifying life event, such as a child’s birth, the system updates eligibility and triggers the relevant enrollment without further HR intervention.
This automation simplifies benefits communication by syncing enrollment with essential changes and reducing administrative workload throughout the coverage process.
Features to Look For in a Benefits-Enabled HRIS
When aligning an HRIS to their benefits workflow, HR leaders should choose systems that can handle multiple benefit types and empower them to communicate directly with carriers for efficient processing. The right system can form a foundation between teams, employees, and providers.
Feature #1: Full Array of Benefits Support With Carrier Connectivity
The HRIS should handle the same benefits the organization offers, including medical, dental, vision, disability, life, and supplements. The HRIS should also connect seamlessly with insurance providers to eliminate the traditional manual document upload process, which creates a lag between the assignment and receipt of benefits.
Feature #2: Employee Self-Service and Real-Time Access to Benefit Information
A modern HRIS allows employees to review their plan details, find costs, and make confident choices in their enrollment with as few HR support tickets as possible. Self-service portals facilitate their flow through the benefits pipeline, but it’s not a one-time solution. They should provide continued access to connected systems, including account summaries, plan options, and benefits details.
Feature #3: Maintenance, Updates, and Year-Round Accessibility
While HR leaders scramble to put together the paperwork for traditional open enrollment, teams equipped with an HRIS can process deductions, life events, and policy updates in just a few minutes. This turnaround time also allows employees to view their information, report mistakes, and make updates in real time, further reducing HR paperwork and preventing misinformation.
Continued accessibility means that employee data remains accurate without HR intervention. Especially during renewal season, the lack of a service backlog keeps admin costs low and employee communication high.
Feature #4: Long-Term Gains in Efficiency and Employee Satisfaction
While an HRIS provides operational upgrades, it also upgrades the organization’s benefits culture. With self-service access to benefits, payment, and event information, employees feel more in control of their plans. By recognizing their benefits, they’re more likely to use them, leading to higher engagement, smarter healthcare decision-making, and higher satisfaction.
Partner With Professionals in Employee Benefits Consultation
A modern HRIS can transform open enrollment from an exhaustive manual process into an automatically distributed self-service ecosystem that employees can use to get transparent help with their plan signups, benefit reminders, and more. This takes pressure off employees to choose a plan; HR executives and teams no longer need to rely on error-prone manual application processing to survive each renewal season.
Our advisors at New City Insurance recognize the need for modern companies to develop error-free open enrollment processes that take the pressure off their administrative HR costs. Contact us today to learn how an HRIS can provide automated benefits communication that keeps employees engaged in their plan enrollment without increasing document labor or manual errors.