The HR Insider

Week of February 15, 2007

Presented by the Rowan University SHRM Club

In this week’s issue we will discuss “Benefits Enrollment: Right Mix of Internal, External Support Drives Satisfaction”

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By Stephen Miller, February 2007

[From SHRM Online’s HR Outsourcing Focus Area]

Communication challenges topped the list of employer concerns during the 2006 annual benefits enrollment cycle, as employers made substantial changes to their benefit plans and sought to involve employees more fully in health decisions, according to a nationwide survey of employers.

Moreover, satisfaction with the benefits enrollment process was highest for employers who used a mixture of internal and external resources to support their employees, according to the survey report, The Shifting Requirements of Benefits Enrollment, by consultancy Watson Wyatt Worldwide.

During the 2006 enrollment cycle, the survey found, 42 percent of organizations using primarily outsourced providers to support employees reported being "neutral" or "unsatisfied" with the process, as were fully half of all firms using only local HR representatives.

Meanwhile, organizations using a blended approach—outsourcing the most troublesome parts of the process and maximizing internal HR resources for other parts—reported a high degree of satisfaction.

"While outsourcing employee support can be beneficial, the right mix of internal and external resources is crucial in determining satisfaction with the process," the report states. "A proper mix of internal and external resources can give employees the support they need and lead to a smoother enrollment cycle."

More Information and Support, Please

Overall, employers reported high levels of satisfaction with the transactional components of benefits enrollment—75 percent reported being satisfied or very satisfied with the completeness and accuracy of elections.

But employers were far less happy with the effectiveness of health-improvement information, decision-support tools, and cost and quality information. Well under half reported being satisfied or very satisfied with those aspects. Moreover:

• 63 percent of surveyed organizations cited employee communications as a top challenge in the 2006 enrollment season.

• 36 percent cited more fully engaging employees as a top challenge.

"Annual enrollment has changed significantly at most companies," says Jeri Stepman, Watson Wyatt’s national leader for health and welfare administration. "It’s moved from a transactional or registration-like process (where the goal has been to automate and to increase efficiency) to an engagement and decision-support process (where the goal is to engage employees as benefits consumers). It’s the difference between, say, using the web to pay your bills and using more sophisticated online tools to model and manage your investment portfolio," she explains.

As for employees, they were most concerned with the growing complexity of the enrollment process and the level of plan changes. Nearly 30 percent of employers reported employee concerns with each of those facets.

The parts of the enrollment process that demand thoughtful decisions—such as contributions to health spending accounts, choosing between different plans, coordination with a spouse’s plans—were also mentioned as significant employee concerns.

"With many companies implementing consumer-directed health plans and health spending accounts, the stakes of these decisions are much larger. Employees need far more help throughout—and beyond—the process," Stepman says. "An effective strategy for sourcing employee support can help meet this need."

INTERNSHIP OPPORTUNITIES

The temporary HR job for now is good for someone who has night classes. It's in Mount Laurel, and you can find it at careerbuilder.com or just call them at 856-439-9339:

Human Resources Assistant
2/17/2007   

Job Overview

Career Fair ‘07

The Rowan University Career Fair took place on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 from

10 AM - 3 PM at the Rec Center.

Next Student Chapter SHRM Meeting

March 26, 2007, 11 a.m., guest speaker TBD

http://www.shrm.org/outsourcing/library_published/nonIC/CMS_020202.asp