Human Resource Outsourcing

How can you use technology to streamline employee benefits?

Employee benefits refer to monetary or non-monetary perks and benefits offered to employees in addition to their salaries. With the rising focus on employee experience, employee benefits packages have become a critical factor for attracting and retaining employees. Studies indicate that 60 per cent of the employees feel demotivated in the absence of effective wellness programs.

However, designing a great benefits package is a time-consuming and resource-intensive task. Besides, businesses cannot afford to offer a one-size-fits-all kind of benefits package. The employee benefits package needs to be tailored according to the specific needs of individual employees. This makes the task of designing a benefits package more complicated.

Employee benefits technology is the solution that simplifies the task of HR professionals. It enables HR teams to achieve more while reducing administrative burden and uncertainty. The technology streamlines transactional processes, ensures compliance and mitigates risks. It helps HR provide customised benefits packages to employees thereby boosting employee experience. It also helps create a positive reputation for the brand.

These are just some reasons why HR teams across the globe are increasing their investments in employee benefits technology. Data shows that 69 per cent of HR professionals are considering boosting their investments in technology to enhance their employee benefits administration. 

Top technologies driving digital transformation in employee benefits administration

• Big data: Data analytics provides employee data that can be used to build personalised benefits packages. Insights on aspects like detailed claims utilisation patterns and strategic benchmarking help optimise the employee benefits packages according to the unique needs of employees.
• Robotic process automation (RPA): RPA automates all low-skill manual tasks, which help reduce errors and boost speed. It relieves humans of tedious tasks so that they can perform more strategic tasks.
• Artificial intelligence (AI): AI bots gather and analyse large volumes of data and provide insights to HR professionals. These insights help HR professionals build employee benefits packages according to the preferences of the employees. Further, AI-powered chatbots can quickly resolve any queries employees might have regarding benefits packages.
• Cloud computing: Cloud computing provides scalable solutions while minimising costs in areas such as hardware, software, maintenance and security.
• Mobile apps: Benefits mobile apps help provide employees instant information about their benefits package. Employees can access information like coverage details, plan documents, ID cards, account balances, claims and more at a time and place of their convenience.

Difficulties in leveraging technology

No doubt deployment of employee benefits technology offers several benefits, but it comes with its own set of challenges.

• Technology expertise: There are several automation tools available to HR professionals but they may lack the technical knowledge to identify the tools that are best suited for them. Also, certain HR professionals may lack the technical know-how for deploying tech tools.
• Security concerns: HR teams work with sensitive data that are vulnerable to data breaches and other frauds. Therefore, businesses need to ensure regulatory compliance and take other measures to prevent cyber attacks. This could be challenging for HR teams without the support of experts.
• Limitations in customisation: Not all tools have features to facilitate customisation according to individual employee needs. Creating customised packages can be difficult and time-consuming.
• Negative impact on employee experience: Not all employees in an organisation are tech-savvy. Hence, employees with limited exposure to technology may find it difficult to use the platform leading to dissatisfied employees.
• Expensive: Tech tools for employee benefits administration are expensive to procure and maintain. Therefore, a business must conduct a cost-benefit analysis to assess if implementing technology provides the required ROI.

How employee benefits administration outsourcing can overcome challenges

The most effective strategy to implement employee benefits technology is employee benefits administration outsourcing. Your outsourcing partner takes over end-to-end employee benefits administration tasks and you benefit from the experience of your outsourcing partners. Your outsourcing partner will deploy the best technologies to streamline employee administration tasks. Hence, you can benefit from employee benefits technology without directly investing in it. Employee benefits administration outsourcing therefore works as a cost-effective solution.

How can Infosys BPM help?

Infosys BPM works as an employee benefits administration outsourcing partner. We help businesses streamline their benefits administration processes with the help of the latest technologies. Our professionals help clients build customized employee benefits packages for individual employees which attract and retain top talent.