06 May 2020

How a global online benefits administration system can save time and money

Every organisation is unique with its own products, services, workplace culture and core values, however most medium to large organisations share similar challenges. One of those challenges is administering employee benefits and total reward programmes across multiple offices, cities or even countries, not to mention multiple time zones and even multiple languages.

Plain and simple, today, the only way to manage your global benefits is through the implementation of an online benefits management system.

Clear advantages

There are many advantages to using an online benefits management system for both the employer and its employees, yet convenience is the most obvious one.

For the employee, being able to log into a personalised portal to enrol in new benefits, view payslips, make appointments and view all employment information in one place, is incredibly convenient. And with 24/7 access on any device, it provides greater self-service and independence.

For the employer, managing your workforce from a single source means greater management. A global online benefits administration system streamlines processes, makes enrolment into benefits simpler and communication more effective.

On the implementation of their online benefits management software, Caroline Roque, benefits and compensation manager at Eurosport France, commented: “We were in need of one single go-to place for all employee information and benefits. Our scope was also to decrease the number of questions to the HR department.”

All-in-one integration reduces administration

Of course, to save time and money, it’s essential that any online benefits management system can manage multiple applications. In other words, your global benefits administration technology must allow for the setup of APIs so that existing systems, such as payroll, can be integrated and multiple applications can “talk” to each other while being managed from a single source.

Automation and integration of existing systems helps reduce administration, as does enabling employees to enrol in their preferred benefits directly in their portal. What’s more, automated benefits processing leads to better governance in how companies manage and track data, thus reducing data compliance risks such as GDPR.

Any online benefits administration system worth its salt should provide administrators with a single dashboard overview of their global workforce. This dashboard should assist HR with strategic benchmarking, custom analysis and reporting, so that decisions around employee benefits and reward strategies can be made on actual data, not estimates.

How much time can automation save?

WorkMarket’s 2020 In(Sight) Report suggests that if the conventional work week is 40 hours, automation would save employees a staggering six weeks of time per year, and an incredible nine weeks of time for business leaders.

Just think of the time and money you could save through the use of an online benefits administration system, and how that time and money could be reinvested in personal and professional development.

On the decision to implement an employee portal as a way to create greater employee self-service and reduce administration, Niels Kater, HR analytics & application management specialist at Adecco, shared: “We made employees aware that the portal is the beginning of all processes. We tell employees to look in the portal to find information about any changes to their salary or change in hours. We made them aware that every HR question can be answered in the portal.”

Learn more about online benefits management by downloading our whitepaper, Global Online Benefits – How to Effectively Manage Employee Benefits.

This article is provided by Benify.