Speed Up the Benefits Renewal Process: Go From Implementation to Payroll in 30 Days

When the holiday season draws near, most people are busy counting down how many shopping days are left. But in the business world, the end of the year means counting down to another important deadline—the fast-approaching due date for benefits renewals. 

Each year, companies are given the opportunity to evaluate their current benefits package and assess if it’s still meeting the current needs of their employees and budgets. This is the reassessment stage and the first stage of this yearly process. Next is the presentation stage where they’re presented with the coverage and pricing options. Then follows the selection stage that involves choosing the benefits plan package and determining their premium. Now there’s typically a two-week to four-week window of open enrollment where employees select the plans that best fit their needs. The final step is the completion or implementation stage. This is often where the process can get bogged down. 

While your company is busy preparing for the upcoming benefits renewal deadline, you might be wondering if there is a way to speed up the implementation process? And if so, is it possible to go from implementing the new employee benefits plans to payroll in 30 days and complete the process before the end of year deadline with time to spare?

Benefits Renewal Pain Points

Here are a few common procedures in the implementation process that could be slowing your company down. 

1. Manual Data Entry of Benefits Information

Every employee’s benefits information has to be integrated with payroll. If your HR is spending time manually entering all of this information for each employee into the proper entry format or spreadsheet, it often wastes valuable time and leaves you vulnerable to human error. In a research article on human error by business professor Raymond R Planko, he stated that when entering information into a simple spreadsheet, the probability of human error is between 18% and 40%.

2. Managing Benefits Administration and Payroll separately

Of course, all of the employee benefits information needs to be deducted from payroll. 

And, if your benefits administration and payroll software programs are two separate entities, your data is having to be entered twice. This means the HR department is doubling the amount of time on this task and increasing the chances of errors leading to incorrect paychecks. 

A way to solve both of these issues is by finding a partner that can help you integrate your payroll and benefits administration. By using one platform for both systems, all of the changes made to the employee benefits information are automatically updated in the payroll software. This makes the process seamless and allows the updates to be reflected in the next paycheck. 

So, is it possible to go from implementation to payroll in 30 days? The answer is yes. Working with a partner that offers an integrated platform can streamline the final implementation phase. Plus, they can also assist in finding the best benefits plans and with the open enrollment stage. Overall that partner can help create a better experience with the benefits renewal process for you and your employees.

If you’re interested in speeding up the implementation stage and making the overall benefits renewal process more efficient, we have a team of experts ready to jump in and get to work.