When I was in grade school in the 1970s, my best friend lived around the corner from my house.\u00a0 The only thing that separated our houses was our neighbor\u2019s fence.\u00a0 My friend\u2019s father worked for Western Union, and one day he proposed to setup old teletypes in each of our rooms and run a wire between them so we could communicate to one another without using a telephone.<\/p>\n
This was before Steve Jobs got Xerox to demo its graphical user interface (GUI) to his development team at Apple and the \u201cdeal of the century\u201d where IBM contracted with Bill Gates and Microsoft to build the PC operating system which became the precursor to Windows.\u00a0 This was before the internet, before cellphones, before Google and Amazon, before Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Snapchat.<\/p>\n
When I recently related my story to two teenagers they looked at one another and almost simultaneously said, \u201cthe first text message.\u201d\u00a0 They\u2019re right.\u00a0 Though my buddy\u2019s father had the idea of texting some 40 years before it came to be, I doubt that he was the only one who had it.\u00a0 The world works that way sometimes; ideas come about and are nurtured collectively.\u00a0 The airplane and automobile are probably the two of the most prominent examples.<\/p>\n
Ideas aren\u2019t that different from the physical universe.\u00a0 Stars and planets form because gravitational forces attract individual particles until they eventually form a larger mass.\u00a0 Similarly, ideas such as personal computing, the internet, email and texting coalesced collectively overtime.\u00a0 If you look back at the history you can see how the different elements fell into place.<\/p>\n
We would have ended up here no matter what because so many people had the same or similar ideas about bringing the power of computing to the masses.\u00a0 A similar wave is gaining momentum in employee benefits management and compliance administration.<\/p>\n
The Agony of Benefits and Compliance Administration<\/strong><\/p>\n Compliance is becoming more complex as regulators require that companies collect more information from employees and provide more specific information to them.\u00a0 Companies must keep meticulous records for reporting and potential audits by various government agencies.\u00a0 The cost of non-compliance can be exorbitant.<\/p>\n Over the past few decades, large companies invested heavily in systems that would manage benefits enrollment and employee information but the cost of this technology was beyond the reach of small and mid-size companies until now.<\/p>\n A wave of new benefits management and compliance systems are now available for employers of any size.\u00a0 The capabilities of these systems vary.\u00a0 Some are proprietary and somewhat closed systems while others feature open application programming interfaces (APIs) that work with other proprietary systems like payroll and insurance companies.<\/p>\n So how can these systems can help your company?\u00a0 Read on.<\/p>\n Onboarding<\/strong><\/p>\n The bulk of employee information is collected during the new hire process.\u00a0 It\u2019s at that time the employee completes an I-9, W-4 and most likely a direct deposit form.\u00a0 That is also the time when companies are required to provide employees with the greatest number of required federal and state disclosures.\u00a0 In addition, the employer may have forms and policies of its own, like an employee handbook, they want employees to receive and review.<\/p>\n The cool thing is that some of the benefits management systems include the ability to complete these tasks and onboard employees with almost no paperwork.\u00a0 There are other advantages.\u00a0 Some systems don\u2019t allow the employee to advance to the next step until the employee completes the required task, ensuring that no task is missed.<\/p>\n Some onboarding tasks, such as the I-9, require that a hiring manager review the information provided by the employee for accuracy and completeness.\u00a0 Some of the available systems include work flow for management approval of different tasks.<\/p>\n Required employee notices and company specific documents can be provided in electronic form during the onboarding process as well.\u00a0 These systems can be set to require that the new employee open and review the document before advancing to the next task.<\/p>\n All of this is captured for easy organization and storage for later use such as potential audit compliance.\u00a0 Using an employee benefits management system to onboard employees shouldn\u2019t just be something \u201cwe\u2019d like to do\u201d but \u201csomething we must do.\u201d<\/p>\n Benefits Enrollment and Management<\/strong><\/p>\n These systems can also simplify ongoing benefits enrollment and management, including open enrollment.\u00a0 The bulk of information provided to employees during open enrollment can be intimidating and difficult to navigate through.\u00a0 Many of these systems provide a customized employee experience that provide an easy and intuitive way for employees to review the benefits available to them and make elections.<\/p>\n Employees can see the benefits available to them and a cost breakdown of their benefits by payroll period.<\/p>\n A handful of these systems feature APIs that connect to insurance carriers and other third parties allowing for paperless enrollment.<\/p>\n When employees need to make a change, download a form, or view their benefit elections, they can log back into the system, and the system can be set to alert HR of any employee\u2019s request for approval and processing.<\/p>\n Compliance and ACA Reporting<\/strong><\/p>\n With all this information in one place, companies can easily pull reports and be prepared for audits.\u00a0 Some employee benefits management systems feature extensive reporting capability.<\/p>\n Since 2015, large employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees have been required to file reports with the IRS detailing offers of coverage to full-time employees.\u00a0 This can be a tall task for payroll companies that do not have access to all the required information to complete the forms.\u00a0 Some of the employee benefits management systems offer the capability to file the forms directly with the IRS electronically.\u00a0 The advantage of these systems is that all of the information needed for filing is in the system.<\/p>\n What I Just Told You<\/strong><\/p>\n Employee benefits management systems can simplify your life in many ways.\u00a0 The cost and capabilities of these systems vary but are now reasonably affordable for small to mid-size companies.<\/p>\n My friend and I didn\u2019t get the teletypes because our neighbor wouldn\u2019t let us run a wire along his fence, but, as you know, the story didn\u2019t end there.\u00a0 An employee benefits management and compliance system that solves your needs is no longer out of reach.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for an employee benefits management and compliance system or would just like to learn more about them and how they can benefit your business call me at (952) 237-6956 or email me at mdmowski@comprehensivbenefitservices.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is a revolution underway in employee benefits management and compliance that most companies are unaware of.\u00a0 Innovation in employee benefits management and compliance is growing by leaps and bounds.\u00a0 Technology is being brought to bear on what were previously paper-intensive processes.\u00a0 Within a few years, management of employee information will be almost completely paperless.\u2026 Read More 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<\/a>Until recently, most companies managed benefits enrollment and compliance with paper forms.\u00a0 Lots of them.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t unusual to provide a packet to new hires about half the thickness of a telephone book.\u00a0 File cabinets were stuffed with employee information, much of it outdated and obsolete.\u00a0 The information was not centralized and was often susceptible to theft and loss.<\/p>\n