Despite the valiant efforts of HR professionals everywhere to convince them otherwise, most companies continue to group their HR teams under the “operations” banner. In too many organizations, HR is seen as a necessity but not a value driver.
Of course, you know that’s a mistake. It’s right there in the name: human resources.
Most companies would say (correctly) that their people are their most valuable assets. And who is responsible for ensuring their companies have the best people and empowering those people to be productive, satisfied, and healthy? Human resources.
HR teams help companies save money, generate revenue, compete for talent, and grow. One area where you can demonstrate this immense value is benefits spending.
According to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers, employee benefits account for 31% of the average civilian employer’s total compensation costs. If you can bring this number down while helping your company compete for and retain top talent, you just might make it plain to everyone else what you already know: You and your HR team are heroes.
Decision support can help.
Your Secret Weapon for Controlling Costs: Benefits Decision-Support Software
Decision-support tools guide employees through choosing benefits by helping them forecast their needs and compare plans.
The best decision-support tools tailor unbiased, data-driven recommendations for each employee. Employees can see quickly and clearly how various plans stack up against each other and can make their decisions confidently, secure in the knowledge that their family’s needs will be met for the lowest possible cost.
Leading decision-support tools, such as PLANselect, reduce the agonizing task of choosing benefits to mere minutes. Drawing on a database containing over 200 million data points, tools like PLANselect employ cutting-edge analytics to accurately project each employee’s benefits spending, while keeping the intrusive questions to a minimum.
The results get right at the bottom line: How much will each plan cost (including premiums, deductibles, and copays)?
In short, offering a decision-support tool to your employees is like offering one-on-one assistance from a benefits expert throughout the enrollment process. The only difference is your employees can use the tool on their own time from wherever they like.
(This was just a quick overview of decision support. Read our complete guide for a deeper dive.)
How PLANselect Makes HR Teams Look Heroic
There are at least five ways decision support can help your company save money, improve employee satisfaction and productivity, and win the war for talent:
1. Reducing Employee Over-insurance and Migrating More Employees to Lower-Cost Plans (Including HDHPs)
Health insurance is complicated, and rather than puzzle through confusing benefits guides and working out difficult calculations, many employees simply default to the plan that seems to offer the best coverage.
But when employees choose more coverage than they need, it can cost them and their employers. This is why HR teams have been promoting HDHPs so heavily in recent years. For certain employees, such as younger employees with no health issues, HDHPs offer excellent value. Plans like HDHPs can put more money into employee paychecks and considerably reduce a company’s benefits spending.
Unfortunately, it’s no easy task convincing risk-averse employees to switch to an unfamiliar health plan, not the least because some employees suspect there’s a “catch.”
A decision-support tool can help ease employees’ concerns about HDHPs and other unfamiliar plans by providing a sense of neutrality (because the most reliable decision-support tools are neutral) and translating plan differences into stark, easy-to-grasp numbers. You can even pair your decision-support tool with entertaining, informative explainer videos designed to demystify health coverage.
Companies that use PLANselect for decision support typically see HDHP migration improve by 20% or more.
2. Encouraging Employee HSA Contributions
Health savings accounts (HSAs) let employees set aside pre-tax dollars to cover medical expenses. When paired with qualifying health plans — typically HDHPs — HSAs can eliminate the risk of high deductibles. Because they carry over year to year, HSAs also help employees save for future health costs.
As we explained in a previous article, HSA contributions benefit employers, as well, namely by reducing their FICA tax burden.
But like HDHPs, employees often have a hard time recognizing the benefits of HSAs and opt not to contribute or don’t contribute as much as they should. (Maybe it’s the letters.) However, with the proper guidance, employees are willing to give HSAs a chance. In one survey, 62% of employees said they would use tools to help them decide how much to set aside in an HSA if their employers offered them.
Decision-support tools can help employees understand whether investing in an HSA is right for them and recommend a savings amount. HSA contributions (along with FSA contributions) typically increase significantly when organizations offer decision-support tools like PLANselect.
3. Improving Financial Wellness
Financial stress is one of the top contributors to burnout, which can kill productivity, increase absenteeism, and drive turnover.
Decision support promotes financial wellness (and, therefore, reduces stress) among your workforce by helping employees reduce their health insurance premiums. With the money they save on healthcare, employees can contribute more to their retirement accounts or pay bills.
(As you’ll learn below, your decision-support tool can also promote your company’s retirement benefits.)
It’s essentially like giving your employees a raise, while spending no more than the cost of the decision-support tool (typically a few dollars per employee).
4. Raising Awareness of Voluntary Benefits
So far, we’ve talked a lot about healthcare benefits. But decision-support tools can also boost enrollment in and usage of voluntary benefits.
Benefits like childcare, wellness programs, student-loan repayment, and even pet insurance can fill gaps in traditional health plans — often for free. Employees aren’t always aware of these options, however.
A decision-support tool like Flimp’s BENEFITchoice can be customized with your company’s unique mix of benefits. Employees who use the tool quickly learn which benefits can help them and their families.
Not only does this lead to higher utilization rates, but it increases employee satisfaction. With more of their everyday challenges under control (thanks to your company’s well-chosen voluntary benefits), employees are more focused and productive. They may be more likely to stay with your company longer.
5. Winning Back Time for More Valuable Tasks
You and your HR team dedicate countless hours each open enrollment season to creating and delivering benefits presentations, answering the same questions over and over again, sending out newsletters and plan information, and reminding employees about their impending deadlines. Throughout the year, you must repeat the process on a smaller scale for each new hire.
And yet, despite all this time invested, employees still don’t get what they truly need to make better choices: individualized attention. With a benefits-enrollment tool, you can provide just that, freeing your team up for tasks that generate more value, such as recruiting and onboarding top talent.
(Using a decision-support tool is just one way to save time and improve efficiency during open enrollment. Find several more tips here.)
Gain a Seat at the Table With PLANselect
Decision support can help your HR team earn the recognition you’ve long deserved at your company. By encouraging enrollment in lower-cost plans, showcasing the value of your employee benefits package, and streamlining enrollment, decision support can directly impact your company’s bottom line and competitiveness.
