Benefits brokers and HR benefits managers, you’re stressed, and for good reason.

So maybe you didn’t catch these new or redesigned HR and benefits-oriented products or announcements recently. Here they are, just in time for open enrollment.

#1: Help with open enrollment

Open enrollment can be confusing for employees, many of whom can't even define what "deductible" means. (It's true -- someone, somewhere, has studied this and counted the number of people who don't understand the concept.) PlanSource, a provider of cloud-based benefits and human capital management software, has created what it calls "an Open Enrollment Communications Kit" to help with this challenging time.

The kit is for brokers, human resources teams, and benefits professionals who need to communicate benefits information to employees.It includes examples of daily emails and text messages, customizable posters, flyers and postcards in a variety of themes, educational videos and messaging templates.

A sample timeline can help with marketing a communications campaign from beginning to end of open enrollment. The kit can be seen in a webinar you sign up for. Access it at the PlanSource website.

#2: Managing the hiring, onboarding, and benefits process

Isn't it gratifying when computers can actually take on duties you find tedious? Unless you find the onboarding and data entry process extremely interesting and life-affirming, of course. Software from Flock helps manage HR, benefits, and compliance, and now it's adding an applicant tracking system from Greenhouse for hiring, onboarding, and managing employees.

The partnership will let HR import candidate information into Flock, with the goal of streamlining the hiring and onboarding process. The HR platform is available for small to midsize businesses and insurance brokers can subsidize or sponsor the benefits administration module. Learn more at the Flock website.

#3: 5 ACA plans to be offered to Arizona residents

Okay, technically it's not a solution. Still, someone you know might want to know that five different Affordable Care Act plans will be available during open enrollment from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona (BCBSAZ).

The five include EverydayHealth, Portfolio and SimpleHealth. Members who enroll in the plans use their primary care provider to coordinate their care. The ACA plans will be offered in 14 of Arizona's 15 counties, and, as you know, open enrollment runs from November 1, 2016 through January 31, 2017.

To help find the right plan, Blue Cross Blue Shield is pointing Arizonans toward their local broker or to Cover Arizona.

#4: Online benefits administration

This is the year of partnering in the benefits industry. Employee benefits, HR and payroll provider BenefitMall is partnering with EaseCentral to offer additional online benefits administration.

The goal is to help with completing enrollments in a timely way. Brokers will now be able to choose between EaseCentral's all-in-one software solution and BenefitMall's online benefits administration system, EmployerFocus. Learn more at the BenefitMall website.

#5: New option to enroll employees in voluntary benefits

Did we mention partnering? Yes? Transamerica is partnering with Maxwell Health to expand enrollment options for key employee benefits.

The partnership will enable Transamerica to offer help to employers in streamlining enrollment, administration, reporting, communication, and engagement processes, while allowing benefit advisors to browse, compare and quote benefits in an intuitive way. To learn more, see the Transamerica website or call 866-872-6726.

#6: New ACA compliance and reporting solutions

Affordable Care Act reporting is pretty darn fun. Still, there's probably something else you'd rather be doing, like going to the dentist for a root canal. This newly designed product from SyncStream Solutions offers both Affordable Care Act compliance and reporting.

The new solutions were designed to meet compliance requirements through a guided workflow that marries employer data with ACA analytics to achieve ACA compliance and provide the assurance of auditability.

SyncStream's product offers employee tracking and ACA full-time status determination, generates the proper forms to meet IRS requirements, populates IRS indicator codes based on business logic, and normalizes employer data in to ACA-compliant language, among other features. For more information, visit the SyncStream Solutions website.

Instant Insights /

6 new solutions for benefits brokers and HR managers

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