In 2010, electronic press release distributor, PR Newswire put out an article on the rapid growth rate (165%) of the percentage of employees that use some combination of Web-based technology to enroll in their benefits, thus reducing the high volume of paper used during the benefits enrollment season. Elena Wu, Group Marketing and Worksite Officer for Guardian Life Insurance later predicted that as it pertains to employee benefits, it will only take another ten or twenty years for the workplace to become entirely paperless. Fast forward to 2020 and Elena Wu’s foresight has come to fruition.  

Online benefits enrollment is no longer a “nice-to-have” solution for brokers to eliminate overhead expenses and streamline manual processes. It has become a “must have” to remain competitive in today’s insurance industry. This is partially due to the buying experiences that consumers’ deal with on a daily basis. Even before the astronomical spike in online shopping caused by COVID-19, companies like IKEA made it possible for you to not only view furniture online but see how it would look in your living room with Augmented Reality technology. So why should your professional experiences be any less convenient?  

In the last few years, brokers that have provided their clients with online enrollment were able to shorten the enrollment cycle by enabling employees to self-enroll in benefits programs, review their benefits data and report life event changes. These employees are also able to choose plans based on eligibility criteria as well as compare costs and coverage of previous elections against new offerings.  

Privacy is often cited as the main barrier to storing private health information in a Web-based environment. However, with Gen X and Y employees becoming increasingly more comfortable with managing confidential information through online banking, this is less and less of a deterrent, especially as government regulation now requires companies to be more transparent with how they use employee data.  

To think that filling out paperwork isn’t an inconvenience to your customer is fine and may not pose an immediate threat to your business, however there’s a reason that Blockbuster no longer exists and Netflix does. With January approaching and many of your clients switching from one carrier to another, how do you plan on accommodating your clients, especially during a time when face-to-face interactions are no longer a viable option?  

About AgencySmart: AgencySmart is an “all-in-one,” cloud-based solution designed for general agents and retail brokers who sell employee benefits, insurance products, financial services, and other industry related products (payroll, HR and consulting) to the commercial and individual marketplace. By combining CRM, Commission Tracking, Quoting, and On-boarding/Benefit Administration technologies, AgencySmart solves the problem of using multiple systems to manage your business.