دليل المشترين

Table of Contents

• What is Benefits Administration Software?
• The advantages of Benefits Administration Software
• Typical features of Benefits Administration Software
• The cost of Benefits Administration Software
• Considerations when purchasing Benefits Administration Software

What is Benefits Administration Software?

Benefits administration software helps human resources (HR) departments deliver employment benefits efficiently and conveniently. Employees and HR representatives can manage various insurance elections, 401(k) plans, retirement contributions, paid time off (PTO), and other perks in one secure location. Companies can also track spending and ensure compliance with benefits eligibility regulations.

The advantages of Benefits Administration Software

Benefits administration software offers the following advantages:

• Manage all of your employees' insurance benefits: Every qualifying event in your organization presents a new opportunity for your employees to modify their insurance. The larger your company, the more challenging it can be to track changing premiums, new start dates, and evolving terms and conditions. Benefits administration software provides tools to make these tasks simpler while automated processes increase data accuracy.
• Gather talented professionals: Offering great benefits helps companies attract high-quality employees. Distributing those benefits using intuitive, reliable software helps keep those employees happy.
• Provide insurance coverage for former employees: Companies can use most benefits administration software to extend health coverage to former employees covered by the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA). When employees retire, separate from the company, or have certain other qualifying events, they can often choose to remain on their company's health insurance plan for a specified period. Benefits administration software can make this process easier.
• Organize retirement benefits all in one place: Companies can use benefits administration software to set up and manage retirement plans and pensions. Some of these benefits can remain on a company's books for decades, outlasting the employees who first set them up. Having a trustworthy tool helps ensure correct and timely benefits delivery over the long haul.

Typical features of Benefits Administration Software

Most benefits administration systems offer similar features, regardless of buyer industry:

• Benefits dashboard: Give employees online access to view the status of all their benefits in one place. This access increases employee confidence and saves time answering common questions.
• Online benefits enrollment: Manage human resources workload by providing an online portal to allow employees to review benefits details, schedule PTO, enroll in 401(k) plans, and set retirement and benevolence payroll deduction amounts.
• Insurance enrollment: Set up and manage employee insurance coverage, including health, dental, life, and disability. Use an online portal to collect elections during annual open enrollment and after qualifying events.
• Reporting and analytics: View and monitor pertinent metrics such as enrollments, costs, family and medical leave (FMLA) statuses, etc.
• Compliance reporting: Collect data and compile reports to comply with Affordable Care Act (ACA) requirements. Manage required COBRA benefit continuation for former employees who choose to remain on company benefits plans.
• Provider management: Select benefits providers and track their rates, contract terms, and renewal offerings.

The cost of Benefits Administration Software

Most products in this market are priced on a per user, per month basis. Pricing can be divided into three pricing tiers based on the starting prices:

Price ranges*:

• $4 - $7
• $7 - $46
• $46+

*The pricing included is for the entry-level/lowest priced offering found on vendor websites on October 12, 2020. These ranges correspond to the 25th, 75th, and 100th percentiles of pricing information gathered from vendor websites of sample products.

Considerations when purchasing Benefits Administration Software

Selecting the right benefits administration software is almost as important as choosing the right benefits. Here are a few considerations to keep in mind:

• Many benefits administration solutions are delivered as part of a larger HR software suite: For example, many HR software platforms offer benefits administration as a distinct feature alongside other optional HR tools such as payroll and workforce management. This approach allows organizations to select from a menu of operations they want to perform in a single HR platform, which offers convenience and scalability.
• Benefits administration software should include all your offerings: While most benefits administration software provides the same core features for common employee benefits, specialized benefits may only be available from niche or best-of-breed platforms. For instance, if your company offers health savings accounts (HSAs) or flexible spending accounts (FSAs), look for a benefits administration solution that includes those specialized features.
• Mobile and online access continues to be a priority for employees on the go: For example, employees like the option to request PTO right when they're scheduling events on their smartphone calendars. Benefits system access through an app or a mobile-friendly web portal makes this process fast and easy. Similarly, online access provides a convenient way for employees to share and discuss benefit enrollment options with their families outside the office. As a result, more and more benefits administration software platforms are embracing mobile and online access to system features. Mobile and online access tends to be more common among cloud-based software solutions than among on-premise solutions.