In this edition of Executive Perspectives, Matthew Brown, VP of Design and User Experience at Benefitfocus, shares his thoughts on where the benefits industry is headed, employee expectations and how technology is fundamentally changing the employee benefits experience.
Q: Where do you think the benefits industry is heading within the next five years?
A: New entrants to the market, including vendors offering innovative benefit programs, technologies and point solutions, have complicated the employee experience. There’s an opportunity to create a cohesive and interconnected experience that enables employees to benefit from new solutions in a user-friendly way. At Benefitfocus, we want to help employers create seamless experiences and help employees engage with tools and products designed to help take care of their holistic wellbeing.
At the same time, employers need to control costs. By providing employees with the optimal tools and information via an intuitive user experience, we can help them make the best decisions based on their needs — which ultimately is intended to improve the outcomes for everybody.
Q: What kind of experience do employees expect when engaging with their benefits?
A: There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. Employers are providing for multi-generational workforces with different preferences. We find that older employees are often comfortable handling their benefits over the phone, while younger employees expect intuitive digital experiences on their mobile devices.
One solution is an omnichannel approach. Employees can then choose their preferred means of engagement or even jump between channels — and everything should work together.
Forcing employees down channels they don’t like is self-defeating because it can harm engagement. If employers want to maximize the ROI of their programs, omnichannel can be very effective.
Q: Why should the benefits experience matter to employers?
A: This is a happy case where altruistic and business objectives require the same approach. Employers want employees to have the benefits, coverage and support they need when things go wrong or they need a helpful resource.
But if the experience is awkward or doesn’t provide value, employees won’t engage and won’t have the coverage or knowledge they need to maximize health and financial outcomes. Poor user experiences can lead to worse health or financial outcomes for employees and more waste for employers — benefits programs provide less ROI, employee retention can suffer and benefits programs may be seen as less valuable.
Q: To what extent are expectations set by everyday consumer digital experiences?
A: They definitely are, and taking inspiration from popular services is a great way to maximize usability. We examine interactions, patterns and commonality so we can design familiar user experiences and leverage a common interaction model across our platform.
Benefits are complex and can be poorly understood. Our job is to simplify the experience so employees understand what they’re choosing and how those choices have the potential to benefit them.
If a tool looks or feels confusing, that can instantly harm engagement. An intuitive and attractive User Interface (UI) is a good first impression — but it has to be followed up with a thoughtful User Experience (UX) from start to finish to maintain trust and engagement throughout enrollment and using benefits.
Q: What differentiates great UX from bad?
A: Following web accessibility standards to accommodate the various needs of our customers is table stakes. Beyond this, it’s about creating and tailoring experiences that are personalized for individuals.
We have a lot of data about people. We have an unprecedented opportunity to provide personalized guidance and lead individuals through choosing coverage, managing their benefits and maximizing the value they receive.
Q: How has our relationship with Voya Financial improved our ability to provide outstanding user experiences?
A: Being a Voya Financial company, we now have access to new categories of data and understanding. This is helping us build a complete picture of the individual across their benefits, including health and financial wellness. From there, we can customize experiences using a detailed picture of the individual — not just an “average” person.
At the same time, we're able to create experiences that sit a layer above our current applications allowing our users to easily complete their task at hand by updating data as needed across all systems within a unified guided journey.
Q: Who are the “users” you build experiences for, and how do their needs vary?
A: We’re building user experiences for several categories of people, including employees, brokers, benefits administrators, health plans and our service center staff, who provide direct service to employees.
Each of these groups needs access to the same data, but they have very different needs. The user experience for an employee who interacts only a handful of times per year naturally has to be different from an administrator who uses it daily.
Q: How is AI changing user experiences?
A: AI is very good at drawing insights from large datasets and can provide personalized support in real time. It can be used to help guide individuals through a common life event, arm them with relevant information and even recommend products and services proven to be effective in their circumstances.
AI can also recommend information or products for life events that are “high probability” for an individual. For example, if they’re in their 20s, it could be birth or marriage, while older employees might be interested in preparing for retirement.
This leads to a better and more intuitive user experience across channels and means employees can have their questions and challenges resolved more quickly with fewer interactions.
The information provided does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information and content herein is provided for general informational purposes only and may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information.
Artificial intelligence (AI) may pose inherent risks, including but not limited to: issues with data privacy, intellectual property, consumer protection, and anti-discrimination laws; ethics and transparency concerns; information security issues; the potential for unfair bias and discrimination; quality and accuracy of inputs and outputs; technical failures and potential misuse. Users of AI-based technology and tools should take these risks into consideration prior to use of the technology.
Benefitfocus.com, Inc. and its affiliated companies (collectively, “Benefitfocus”) is making available to you the Personalized Decision Support tool offered by SAVVI Financial LLC (“SAVVI”). Benefitfocus is a Voya Financial(“Voya”) business. Voya has a financial ownership interest in and business relationships with SAVVI that create an incentive for Voya to promote SAVVI’s products and services and for SAVVI to promote Voya’s products and services. Please access and read SAVVI’s Firm Brochure, which is available at this link: https://www.savvifi.com/legal/form-adv. It contains general information about SAVVI’s business, including conflicts of interest.
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