Employee benefits technology trends in 2021 

Technology is evolving at a breakneck pace and ushering in advancements in almost all areas of work. Circumstantially, employers are increasingly banking on technology to provide benefits and educate their employees about the variety of choices on offer. 

Such advancements in technology are significantly paving the way toward making the work of the HR department as benefits administrator more data-driven. This helps employers offer benefits packages suited to their kind of workforce while retaining and grooming their top in-house talent. 

Here we look at employee benefits technology trends and innovative employee benefits that resonate well among employers.   

How employee benefits technology trends are helping reshape the employee benefits space?  

Personalization 

Businesses understood long ago that one size does not fit all. Following this notion, employers are always keen to roll out benefits that cater to and appeal to employees’ specific needs. For instance, employers can offer employee benefits insurance through an online portal without taking the traditional route.

The employee can answer a series of questions on the portal and be offered a personalized insurance plan that suits their individual needs. This can help streamline the entire process while ensuring the employee feels better about their choices. This, in part, becomes one of the employee benefits technology trends. 

Empowerment 

Technology is beginning to play a significant role in the way employees make their decisions when it comes to benefits. With the pandemic, when regular medical service is out of bounds for many individuals, companies are offering the avenue of telemedicine to their employees.

This empowers employees to make their own choices when it comes to using employee benefits. This type of corporate support is not limited to healthcare alone. More companies are offering benefits in the form of meditation, yoga, and counselling sessions to employees by integrating such services into the HR portal. This helps empower employees to make informed choices without restraining them from opting for only one kind of benefit. These can be part of employee perks for small businesses. 

Improves Efficiency 

Earlier, companies were used to maintaining their data using paper-based records, this included employee benefits. Today, as the benefits’ administrator, HR is equipped to work from a technology platform to identify and process the benefits without any hassle correctly.

An increasing number of companies seem to be localizing data onto an administration platform and integrating it with service providers and payroll to enhance efficiency. This approach helps minimize the processing time of benefits to the delight of the employee. It can be called employee benefits technology news. 

Streamline Benefits Experience 

The online route to employee benefits keeps the employee in more control while exploring their options. Technology has come far enough to incorporate guidance mechanisms for employees while they explore their benefit options. Administrator platforms are known for incorporating chatbots to provide answers to simple questions the employees may have. This kind of technology intervention also frees HR to pay attention to their core functions. Overall, it boosts employee morale as the user experience offered by such systems makes employee benefits highly desired by the workforce. 

Easy Compliance 

The amount of data generated from benefits administration is significantly large, and this has to comply with the existing laws of the land. Adhering to the process can be a complete nightmare. Incidentally, integrating all that data into a digital platform makes it much easier. Employees can themselves take ownership of their data and can be easily assisted by HR in remaining compliant.

For instance, if the employee has a milestone event, such as marriage, childbirth, or divorce, they can simply enter the details into the portal. The HR person will get a trigger notification for initiating an event. This increases compliance, and the employee remains clear of experiencing any lapses in coverage due to gaps in data. Moreover, it eases the pressure off the administrative team and employers. In one way or the other, it can be called as one of the employee benefits technology trends. 

Flexibility 

In many cases, when the employee is offered an employee benefit, they may or may not be in a position to avail it at the moment. Back in time, this used to be a potential bottleneck. For instance, if the company is offering counselling sessions to an employee and if they are keen on a chosen therapist, the company should ensure to make changes on the technology platform to reimburse the employee for their counselling sessions. Such a degree of flexibility was unheard of in the past when changes to employee benefits were a cumbersome exercise. In a way, it becomes one of the employee benefits technology trends. 

Every company today understands the value of talent. They will go to a considerable extent to ensure talent is retained, groomed, and developed within the company. Employee benefits happen to be a trusted manner in which employee retention is executed. Today, companies have realized that technology can be an active partner in ensuring that employee benefits are extended hassle-free, where they feel empowered to make their choices.