Researching, enrolling and updating benefits continues to be a top task of employees on the corporate intranet (after directory, search and news which continue to be amongst the top visited areas regardless of company and industry). Yet, most benefits programs are outsourced and hosted by outside vendors.

According to a report on the BenefitNews.com highlighting the research of Forrester (EBN/Forrester Research 2005 Benefits Strategy and Technology Study), nearly one-quarter of companies in a recent survey plan on implementing a benefits portal in the next two years.

In Five steps to implementing a benefit portal (a very good article), France Lampron highlights the key five steps to implementing a portal:

Step 1: Determine organizational readiness.

Assessing the readiness of your organization will allow you to put the proper timeline in place for the implementation of a benefits portal. Does everyone in the organization have access to a PC? If you have a manufacturing plant, do you have kiosks or PCs in a private area for employees?

Step 2: Review the current benefits processes.

Whenever you consider moving any process to the Web, start with a review of the current process. Look at one process at a time by gathering the forms, the rules and reviewing the workflow to decide if there is room for improvement. If you are going to upgrade the process, now is the time. On the other hand, if your current forms are up-to-date and efficient, it is a good idea to use them for your online templates.

While a comprehensive benefits portal will address everything from open enrollment to vacation time it is open enrollment that typically drives HR to seek a technology change. Be sure to select a benefit portal that supports your organization's open enrollment.

Step 3: Think about what you need from the system.

Whether you build or buy the technology to support your benefit portal, you want to gain an interactive, secure, portal that you can update in the HR department. These are the kinds of questions to ask each vendor (or your company's IT department, if it plans to build the application):

·         Is it easy for the benefits department to make changes to the system, or do you need IT to make changes for you? Being able to make changes to the system without having to go to the IT department is a huge benefit, since in most organizations, IT is a very busy resource.

·         Will you be able to modify the system's terminology to match your company's? It's important that a new system has your company's benefit language - not the language of the technology company.

·         Are the elections "good" when the employee has completed enrollment or election changes, or will it require a benefits administrator to review the form? The most positive employee experience is when there is feedback that the elections are valid and accepted.

·         What does the system offer in terms of confirmation statements? Does it print them out for individuals? Does it interface to your ERP system?

·         Will it support optional benefits like education, health club benefits, etc.?

·         What kind of reports does the system offer? One of the major benefits of Web-based, portal technology is the real-time nature of information. There should be a number of real-time reports indicating, for example, who has completed enrollment and the percentage of employees signed up for each benefit provider. A good system will also let you write your own reports quickly and easily.

Step 4: Work with your IT department.

Once you have a strong understanding of what you would like from a functional point of view, it is time to meet with IT. The IT department is a key component to the success of this project, since it will host the new application or build the portal for you. In addition, IT offers a wealth of information, including how employees in your organization have accepted other portal projects; what it will take in terms of technical support and training; security concerns if you are allowing employees to access the portal from home, and technology issues in terms of linking with the organization's ERP system and outside benefit vendors. Ask IT for suggestions about how to deal with employee passwords for the portal and what to do when employees forget their passwords. IT can also help you determine who will be responsible for staffing technical support when the system goes live.

Step 5: Plan education and roll-out.

Your IT department can also help you with advice on training employees on the new portal. If they have implemented portals for other departments, IT can tell you what to expect. Many organizations have rolled out their new portals prior to open enrollment and had classes at the same time as they review new benefit packages. Making the portal as easy to understand as possible and offering online help as well as a call-in number during business the hours that the portal is available are very important. Keep this in mind, especially if you allow employees to access the portal from their homes.

In conclusion, organizations that have implemented a benefits portal wished they had done it sooner. The time savings, reporting capabilities and improved employee experience outweigh the adjustment period to a new technology. Many organizations are able to work ROI numbers into a purchase due to the fact that they no longer need to hire temporary help during Open Enrollment. In addition, the technology and the experience to implement benefits portals have increased over the past five years. The technology is stable, secure and cost-effective. There are a number of vendors with excellent tools and experience offering software and services to small to mid-sized organizations. Isn't it time that your organization took advantage of this technology?

Common Benefit Portal Functions At a minimum, a portal should accommodate the following:

·         Benefit plan information and forms

·         Online open enrollment

·         Signature forms for medical waivers

·         Online new hire and newly eligible enrollment

·         Online enrollment as a result of work and life qualifying events:

·         Changes within 30 days of hire or benefit eligibility

·         Return from leave notification

·         Marriage, divorce, birth or adoption of child

·         Change in spouse's employment status

·         Change in child's dependent status

·         Change of address or relocation outside of HMO service area

·         Downloading of a total compensation statement generated with information obtained in real-time from your HRMS system

·         Quick links to all benefit provider Web sites

Advantages of a Benefit Portal

·         Forms are never lost

·         Forms are always available to employees

·         HR can update forms online

·         Incomplete forms are a thing of the past