What perceptions come to mind when you think of ‘human resources’?

The ‘Bobs’ from Office Space? Gary Irving from Silicon Valley? Toby Flenderson from The Office?

Though we know the common stereotypes of HR being out-of-touch and antiquated aren’t at all accurate—it’s no secret that human resources has traditionally been on the tail end of innovation. This lack of innovation has led to a benefits experience that’s riddled with cumbersome manual processes, unnecessary errors and a lot of confusion for employees and administrators… until now.

Employee benefits administration, in particular, is totally broken—but we’re on a mission to fix it. Before we dive into our revolutionary new program, let’s take a step back and explore how we got here.

Industries Disrupted by Tech

We mentioned employee benefits have traditionally been slow to adopt new technology. What industries are paving the way for disruption? 

Travel
Boutique travel agencies have given way to digital planning sites like Airbnb, Tripadvisor, Trivago, etc.

Transportation
Taxis have given way to ridesharing apps. The autonomous vehicle market will grow from $54B to $557B in 2026.

Music
Music has experienced an extreme shift from physical to digital sales and music festivals have grown to provide an immersive experience.

Retail
Retailers shut 2,870 stores in the first half of 2019. Consumers spent $142.5 billion online during Cyber Weekend in 2019.

The shared goal among all of these companies? To deliver a better interaction at every touchpoint. 

Consumers expect more from companies today. They expect to be delighted when interacting with technology and they expect information to be in real time. 

Sources: Adobe, BBC News, Allied Market Research

How They Did It

You’re probably familiar with at least a few of the companies we just mentioned, and the innovation in their particular space is admirable. But how did they do it?

Self-Service
From airline check-in to grocery store checkouts, self-service is now the first choice of consumers.

Speed
Claims paid in 3 seconds by peer-to-peer lending companies, meals delivered in minutes by tech companies connecting customers to restaurants.

Why The Benefit Administration Industry Is Broken

How do employee benefits compare? As it turns out, not so great. 

The benefits industry has historically been plagued with manual, time-consuming processes that result in discrepancies, timing issues and administrative burdens for human resources. HR teams report spending one week per month manually reconciling carrier-provided bills, batch EDI files create data discrepancies and timing errors, and manual EOI processes create administrative hassle and risk for employees. 

Additionally, the cost of providing benefits continues to increase. The average family medical premium has increased 54% in the last ten years! Employers typically pick up 70% of that cost. 

On top of that, HR teams are expected to deliver more than ever. The average company offers 15 different benefits. 75% of HR professionals indicate that their workload is increasing, and HR professionals now dedicate less than 20% of their time on strategic business initiatives. 

Despite all of these efforts, employees are more disengaged than ever. The employee shopping and enrollment experience is disjointed and confusion is rampant. 96% of Americans don’t understand basic insurance terminology, and the average employee spends only 18 minutes shopping for and enrolling in benefits.