There was a time in the not-too-distant past when the main method benefits brokers and agents used to engage clients was a face-to-face meeting. In a break room. Remember? Well, that time has passed like optional health insurance…

Technology has made a profound impact on the benefits industry, and it’s sure to change the way brokers and agents do business for decades to come. New gadgets, websites, tools and apps are unveiled in the marketplace almost every day. Brokers and agents would be wise to adapt. Ignore new technology and ignore yourself out of a living.

Emergent technologies are allowing brokers to do a host of tasks—such as enrollments, education and communications—previously done on paper with some degree of tedium.

New tech also is helping brokers and agents save clients money, guide employee decisions and provide more information about their options than ever before. Brochures and pamphlets have literally gone online as employees turn to social media, apps, mobile devices and tablets for their information, while the Internet provides loads of tools, calculators, estimators and updates.

The areas of the benefits industry where new technology has made the greatest impact are health care, retirement and administration. But technology also has affected the way brokers and agents communicate with clients.

“There are some industry leaders who are on the cutting edge, there are some laggards, and then there’s some folks in the middle,” says Brian Heinke, senior vice president and retirement plans specialist at TrueNorth Inc. in Denver. “If you’re not willing to change, you won’t be in business that long.”

Going mobile

In health benefits, online tools have changed the way employees interact with their plans. Now, any employee can go online and make decisions about her coverage, locate a doctor, schedule an appointment and even fill prescriptions. Plus, online forums allows companies and providers a way to inform participants about the particulars of their program selection or changes in coverage.

Dave Tolve, administration product leader for Norwood, Mass.,-based Mercer, says his company’s “plan comparison tool” helps employees compare health plans by showing key factors such as out-of-pocket-expenses, deductibles, co-pays and other plan features.

Online tools, Tolve says, also help employees select plans that fit them best. For instance, some of his clients’ employees have opted for the cost savings and choices made available by high-deductible plans, which also helps the employer cut costs.

“There’s a shift to more consumerism,” Tolve says. “With a high-deductible plan comes a whole new level of consumerism in terms of an employee shopping for services. There’s also been a lot of technology [that helps] employees select a plan and use their benefits throughout the year.”

Tolve says online applications have positively affected workplace wellness programs by reducing the cost of taking surveys and enrolling in programs.

Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, now provide participants with a new level of independence and convenience. Gone are the days when employees had to check their health plans with the aid of a computer or handbook—it all can be done from a handheld phone or tablet.

“It’s especially true when they’re at a doctor—they have to remember what their co-pay is, what their deductible is and how much they’re going to pay out-of-pocket,” says Scott McCormick, a founder and director of client services at Float Mobile Learning in Morton, Ill. “If the company has made mobile available, an employee can log into their benefits account and they can tell the person at the counter that their co-pay is $50 and check it right away.”

Technology solutions also have found their way into the retirement savings game. Parts of gap analysis now show up in online retirement accounts. Employees can simply log on and see balances, adjust their contributions or manage their investments.

“Research has shown that the three things people want to see the most is their account balance, their contribution, and then how it translates to a monthly income,” Heinke says. “Individuals also want to be able to customize it.”

Though employees are growing more comfortable managing their own accounts, benefits brokers and agents will still be needed. They can be expected to answer employee questions or provide guidance, which likely will be shared over a social media site or text message or even an instant message.

“Technology allows employees to look at their plan and make changes on their own,” McCormick says. “Employees can change funds—almost everyone offers that. If someone has an eye on retirement they can use a calculator to understand what they need to retire. You plug in your age, your potential return, your Social Security benefits, and the calculator provides you with what your life might be like when you retire.”

For compliance reasons, digital retirement communications must be sent via email. But Heinke points out that some providers are starting to utilize texting to update employees on their account balance, for example, while some messaging also is being handled through social media outlets, including Facebook and Twitter.

Technology has impacted benefits administration as well. Some vendors and providers provide tablet computers to rooms full of new hires so they can sign up for benefits online. Others have foregone paper statements in favor of e-communications. Mercer developed a tool that will help human resources professionals and benefits administrators determine whether part-time workers qualify for health care benefits under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Organizations across the United States are using social media and mobile devices to send information about plan changes, open enrollments and new benefits available to employees.

Organizations with broad national and international footprints benefit from the advanced communication tools by being able to communicate with everyone in their organization, and in multiple languages. And for companies with schedules that include shift work, technology helps employees interact with their plans or hear about their changes at any time of day.

Sources at ADP they try to make life as easy as possible for employees, which in turn makes life as easy as possible for employers. For example, ADP developed a tool that allows employees to view their W-2 statements on a mobile device. “We were blown away by how many people were using the application,” says Don Weinstein, ADP senior vice president of product management.

Addressing the generations

Some older employees are still likely to favor an in-person meeting for retirement or signing up for health care, but they’re beginning to adapt to emerging technology. Younger workers are much more interested in online interactions and communications.

“To anybody who provides benefits information to employees, the future of information delivery is mobile devices,” Tolve says. “There’s no way around it. You can’t look at it as if it were a nice addition to what we offer. It’s the future and it’s changing the way we do everything.”

With more than 1 billion mobile devices on the planet, it’s easy to see why they’ll come to dominate.

“The reality is, everyone has a smart phone,” Weinstein says. “It’s become pervasive.”

Industry insiders say it’s worth taking stock of an organization’s workforce to get an understanding of how employees like to receive information and their comfort level with technology. Brokers and agents are likely to find that employees cover the complete range of preferred communications and enrollment methods, even in organizations as small as 50 employees.

“The younger generation is all about the technology,” says Eric Pete, regional vice president of sales, service and employee benefits at OneAmerica. “Everything is easy. It’s online. It’s texting. The generation that’s been working for 25-30 years, they’re sometimes reluctant to make that change and embrace a technology. Four or five years ago, it would have been much different than now.”

Looking into the future

Look into the future, and it’s easy to see that technology will continue to radically alter the way employees and participants interact with their benefits. As new technologies emerge, it’s safe to say someone is going to figure out how to use them to make benefits better and offer more value.

Organizations are aware of the trend, and some are waiting to see how it shakes out. And Obamacare isn’t making anything more clear, either.

“We are at a dynamic time in our industry where we have to solve for education and communications areas where we’re not even aware of what we’re going to solve for yet,” says Brad Cillian, director of supplemental benefits solutions at IMA in Denver. “We’ve seen a movement in our block of business where employers are in a wait-and-see area…We’ve got a small employer that’s leaning toward an exchange so they aren’t going to buy a benefits administration system for their benefits if they’re uncertain how their medical coverage is going to look like even a year from now.”

ADP’s Weinstein says some new technologies aren’t too far away from becoming reality, and his company is already thinking about how to take advantage.

“The next wave that hasn’t hit yet will be more social and crowd-sourced decision making,” Weinstein says. “One of the most common examples is ‘people like me.’ What do people like me do? What type of benefits plans do people like me opt for? Most people, when they’re making decisions about their health insurance, aren’t looking to blaze new trails. They’re looking for a good, mainstream choice. There’s data out there that could be made available even within the four walls of the company.”

So go ahead, embrace the brave new world. And when you do, here’s a text you can send to your competitors who haven’t. It’s just four letters: LMAO.

Instant Insights /

OMG! The benefits of technology

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