Yes, we've said it out loud. Generally speaking, employees don't care about their core employee benefits until they need them. Even worse, employers don't think much about employee benefits until open enrollment rolls around. So, here's the $64,000 question: How do employers fix this lack of engagement around benefits? Because they need to fix it, and benefit advisors can help.
Organizations spend a great deal of money on technology to make work more efficient — and this includes the expense of benefits administration platforms. The online publication Intelligent CIO reports that while spending on workplace technology declined in the last year, companies are still spending $1,000-$3,500 on software tools per employee annually, on average. Looking more closely, a company with 10-100 employees has a total SaaS spend of $250,000-$1 million on 50-70 apps.
But too many employers aren't using these apps and solutions to get maximum ROI, especially from their spend on employee benefits. It's time to take stock by asking — and answering — a few key questions:
- How is the organization truly using its benefits platform? Is it just for enrollment?
- What about other tools like Slack, Teams, or Google Chat? Are those being used to communicate about benefits? To solicit year-round feedback? To drive engagement that's more active than passive?
- Are organizations encouraging 1:1 meetings between managers and team members? To what end? Are benefits part of those conversations?
Starting with these questions can help address the problems that lie at the core of the reality that no one seems to really care about employee benefits until they're forced to deal with them. But, once we start to care, to pay attention to the ins and outs of employee benefits throughout the year, it will lead to greater employee engagement, better use of benefits, and greater ROI for the business.
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