Administrative strategies that work

Having the right people in the right place doing the right things at the right time “ for the right people

Does this sound familiar?

Memo to HR:
œMake sure you design and manage Benefit Programs that protect our employees` health and well-being to boost productivity, recruitment and retention “ but do it at lower cost, manage it with a leaner team, and find ways to be more effective.

All we need now is the theme to œMission Impossible playing in the background, right?  
Just how are you supposed to do all that?

What administrative strategies can help your Human Resources team achieve these seemingly conflicting objectives?  

Effective HR team managers are finding that one of their most powerful allies to help them can be their Benefits Advisor.

What is your Benefits Advisor`s role?  Are they primarily just the clearing-house broker for the insurance plans you put in place?  Or are they a trusted advisor who helps you create and implement the initiatives to achieve your company`s Employee Benefit goals?

Your Benefits Advisor`s role

Imagine if your Benefits Advisor provided proactive Cost Control designs using Self-Funding and Wellness strategies to help you gain control of both your costs and benefits usage  information.  Both of these strategies in turn help you implement initiatives that can significantly improve the health, well-being and productivity of your employees.

Now imagine if your Advisor also provided an employee Advocacy call center which they operate in-house, for which your employees each get a card with contact information.   Imagine if your employees could simply call that toll-free number to get answers to any benefits-related question they may have, including claims and provider services-related issues.  How much could this service alleviate the time currently spent by your HR team members fielding these questions, and how much could it eliminate employee frustration?

What can Technology do for you?  For example, would online benefits management help your team streamline the detailed enrollment and updating process each time you add or remove an employee?  Shouldn`t your Advisor be helping you find and implement the best possible technology solutions to bring added efficiency?

What about Compliance issues?  How can you sustain a lean team and still keep up with the myriad of new health insurance regulations for companies of all sizes?  What if your Advisor had a full-time Compliance Officer who sent you regular email alerts to keep you up to date?  

Benefits Education and Communication both demand a lot of your HR teams`s time and talents.  Imagine if your Advisor helped you design, initiate and sustain an efficient, proactive education and communication strategy that boosts employee understanding and appreciation of their benefits, across all demographic and generational lines.  

Generational Impact

The Benefits Edge: Honing the Competitive Value of Employee Benefits, written by Dr. Ron Leopold, M.D., MBA, MPH of MetLife, talks about what the MetLife annual survey of benefit programs in America has found out about how the different generations in your workforce think about and interact with their employee benefits.  From the post-WWII Baby Boomers to GenX of the 1980`s to today`s social media Millenials, the generation your workers come from heavily impacts how they view work and their benefits.
(You can order your free copy of the book at  www.whymetlife.com/thebenefitsedge)

So how will this translate to your HR administrative strategies?  Who among your employees is going to tend to want to understand and use their benefits in the best possible way?  Who will be comfortable with using technology to manage their personal benefits, and who won`t?  What education strategies will work best for the different generational groups that make up your employees?  Who should provide that education?

We have asked a lot of questions in this section to stimulate ideas and fact-finding.  Implementing effective administrative strategies for your team is up to you; but your Benefits Advisor should play a key role in helping you do it.

Contact us today to find out more about how Beneflex can help you.

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