Have you ever felt like you’re alone? That no one could possibly understand you and your needs? Well lay down on Dr. Kaiser’s couch and let’s explore those HR Tech concerns. That’s better, your breathing has calmed. Tissue? Would you be surprised to find out that there are others just like you out there? HR and benefits leaders fed up with their systems and the confusing marketplace of alternatives? You are not alone!
Ok, so this conversation is imaginary, but truth be told, we hear very common themes from the employers we’re helping infrastructure their business. After a recent engagement with a mid-market client wanting a replacement to their Benefits Administration system, I thought it would be helpful to share some of the more common employer desires for their next Benefits Administration solution. We see these same goals listed for many of the employer clients we work with.
Common Goal #1 – Employer desires one system to run all HRIS functions, if possible
– While we always start our clients off by looking at single source solutions to minimize frustrating Vendor Management duties, often we recommend our employer clients to break off portions of their infrastructure with high complexity or importance to their identity as an employer to “point” solutions that specialize in that area. Benefits Administration is one of the most frequent pieces addressed this way. Others include ACA Compliance, Time and Attendance, and Talent Management.
- Most of the stand-alone Benefits Administration solutions are usually excellent at working with a separate payroll/HR vendor. That being said, our implementation oversight teams often have to advocate for these vendors to prioritize the connectivity feeds to payroll and HR.
– Sometimes your existing HR, Payroll, or Time technology vendors are able to provide Benefits Administration services as well. For example, to pick the most common vendor in the marketplace, ADP’s WorkforceNow suite is an all-in-one application that’s doing rather well in some of our clients’ evaluations. It has better Benefits Administration functionality than most other all-in-one solutions out there and most telling to our buyers: up until recently their benefits module was strong enough to be sold stand-alone without payroll. Very few other vendors can say that about their benefits modules in the mid-market. It will offer less than the stand-alone Benefits Administration vendor solutions, but will be the most integrated offering.
– Carrier connectivity can be a problem if the vendor isn’t heavily versed in the benefits domain as is the case with many of the payroll vendors who only scratch the surface of benefits complexity. As a great attempt at a proof statement, Paychex offers free carrier feeds to their BeneTrac clients to assure them they understand and can handle the connectivity needs. While it may sound smoother than it actually turns out to be, it’s a great marketing technique.
Common Goal #2 – Ability to customize
– This is a scary word for our teams as most of the dissatisfaction we’ve seen with vendor solutions after the contract has been signed originates from customers’ customizations or ongoing maintenance of those customizations. There are times customizations make sense – but they are very rare indeed – and expectations need to be crystal clear of the ongoing maintenance. We much prefer finding a solution for our employers where “configuration” is possible within the toolset/options included in the standard product (flipping switches vs. writing code).
– The higher-end solutions can accommodate a lot of plan and communication complexity within their solutions without requiring professional services work. Vendors in this space include bswift, BusinesSolver and Empyrean among others. Of course, each will have different areas of strength and a well-researched Business Requirements Document (BRD) can save an employer buyer a whole heap of heartache!
Stay tuned for the other two most common employer goals, which we will share later this week. In the meantime, what are your thoughts on these goals? Are they pretty similar to those of your organization?