A benefits program that embodies service excellence can help employers attract, retain and support employees. But what does “service excellence” really mean? And how can employers build, maintain and measure such a program while managing challenges like benefits complexity, spiraling costs and administrative overwhelm? To answer these questions, we must first understand that service excellence is not a static target – and it continues to evolve along with employee (and consumer) expectations.
The Evolution of Service Excellence
Service excellence is the ability to consistently meet and even exceed the expectations of benefits administrators and end users across all stages of the benefits lifecycle. This definition has evolved from offering employees a range of benefits and providing support, largely transactional, to delivering a benefits experience that looks and feels like familiar consumer experiences. This shift has fundamentally impacted the scope of service excellence, with today’s consumers expecting:
- A much wider range of health, wellness, and lifestyle benefits.
- A connected and personalized digital experience.
- Guidance and support to choose and use their benefits optimally.
In short, they want to be able to consume health and other benefits as easily as they do anything else — from consuming entertainment to purchasing groceries — using their preferred channels.
Key Barriers to Service Success
Most employers want to deliver an outstanding benefits experience to employees. As we’ve said many times, such a benefits program is a clear competitive advantage for attracting and retaining employees — and can also be a great way to ensure employees remain happy, healthy and productive. Yet barriers often stand in the way:
- Program complexity. Employers are offering more (and more varied) health and voluntary benefits than ever before, creating additional decision and engagement points throughout the benefits lifecycle that have the potential to erode service levels if employers aren’t set up to simplify the benefits experience for employees.
- Administrative burden. Many HR and benefits teams are stretched to breaking point and struggling to handle the administrative load of maintaining a comprehensive benefits program – and that may include providing outstanding and consistent service.
- Rising health care costs. As this problem continues to worsen, employers are under pressure to make every dollar spent on benefits count, while employees may struggle with health care costs in a variety of ways that can impact benefits and services experiences.
The question is: how can employers deliver an outstanding benefits experience to employees while overcoming these barriers and freeing up HR resources for more strategic work that will ensure the program remains exceptional for the long term?
Answer: they need help. By partnering with a benefits administration provider that understands service excellence, employers can deliver an outstanding benefits experience that meets or exceeds employees’ expectations while controlling costs and minimizing administrative burden.
What an Outstanding Benefits Experience Looks Like
Before mobile technology changed the way people access and consume information, the way to demonstrate a broad and integrated benefits program may have consisted of a paper benefits guide and a series of links on a webpage. Today, employees expect a connected benefits experience that provides tailored guidance based on their needs, preferences and life stage.
In other words, an outstanding benefits experience creates awareness precisely when it matters. For example, an employee might receive specific prompts following knee surgery to help them properly rehabilitate and recover — including guidance on how to select in-network care providers they may want to consider.
This is a win-win for employers and employees, because it can help maximize the ROI from benefits and solutions by supporting optimal health outcomes. And it can also contribute to a happy, healthy workforce that feels valued, has good health and performs optimally… all while potentially reducing unnecessary costs caused by poorly chosen or delayed care.
The Role of a Benefits Administration Partner
The role of a benefits administration partner is to deliver excellent service to two audiences:
1) The employer’s HR team
HR teams are the benefits administration partner’s direct customers and should expect excellent service in technology supporting their objectives and human support as needed. This should:
- Reduce the manual burden on HR at every stage (enrollment, decision support, employee guidance and advice, data collection, management of point solutions, etc.).
- Support strategic decision-making (e.g., deciding which benefits to offer, understanding the employee population’s needs, determining ROI for solutions, etc.)
- Help maximize ROI for the benefits program by ensuring every dollar spent on point solutions, benefits and other initiatives is justified by employee engagement and usage and that it provides a tangible benefit.
2) The employee population (in collaboration with the HR team)
Covered employees are customers to internal HR teams and the benefits administration partner. Here, the benefits administration partner supports HR teams in delivering an outstanding benefits experience that helps attract and retain employees and maximize the positive impact of the employer’s benefits program — both in terms of ROI and employee outcomes. This includes delivering:
- Outstanding digital benefits experiences that make it simple and convenient to choose, use and manage benefits using the individual’s preferred channels.
- Personalized, real-time guidance and prompts that maximize health, wealth, and wellness outcomes for the individual based on their personal needs, situation, and life events.
- Readily available human support from benefits and customer service experts to help employees with thorny challenges and concerns.
Employers and HR teams should expect to receive an excellent level of service at every stage of their journey with a benefits administration partner — including presale and sales, implementation, day-to-day client management, ongoing benefits administration, employee support and service, and regular customer success reviews.
To learn more about assessing the right service and support model for your organization, download the guide Expecting Service Excellence from Your Benefits Administration Partner.
