Supernova Award Category
The Problem
The company was using a paper-based health care and voluntary benefits enrollment and management system for its approximately 1,400-1,500 employees. The process wasn’t efficient and introduced risk from potential errors, which could result in costly catch-up payroll deductions for employees or worse, potential lack of health care coverage for an employee and his or her family member. In parallel, the company was implementing a new outsourced benefits support staffing model, which would rely on accurate, accessible information if the new support model were to operate efficiently.
The Solution
An IT and infrastructure leader, NEC appreciated a core competency in data management, analytics and cloud elasticity. They found a similar competency in Benefitfocus through the Benefitfocus - SAP SuccessFactors partnership and embarked on an enterprise benefits management platform. NEC digitized its HR practice to support broader business strategy and guide employees to the most effective benefits plan fit.NEC considered several benefits management solutions and, based on recommendations from HRIS partner SAP, the HR team at NEC decided on SAP U.S. Benefits Management by Benefitfocus. The key reason was the technology platform’s seamless integration with SAP SuccessFactors’ EmployeeCentral, along with the Benefitfocus scalable, cloud-based data exchange capability with insurance carrier vendors. NEC had confidence in the combined companies’ competencies to easily transition NEC from its paper-based system to a convenient self-service technology platform.
The results
More than moving from paper to digital processes, the transition supports the industry-wide consumerization of health care and benefits, driven by technology and the need for companies to curb rising health care costs yet provide competitive coverage for their workforces.For NEC’s majority population of U.S. employees who are over age 35 with average tenure in that population of more than 17 years, care was taken to ensure a smooth transition. The company combined robust technology with personalized support, augmenting the new system with on-call outsourced benefits specialists.With an enterprise benefits management platform, NEC realized extensive HR service-level improvements across the company and its insurance carrier network. The self-service online benefits enrollment and management system enabled a lean online enrollment and benefits administration. HR staff gained greater visibility into data transmission to and from insurance carrier partners. This level of data transparency enabled better resource allocation within the HR team. Nearly 90 percent of process waste that resulted from the former paper process was prevented by technology, freeing HR professionals to handle the 10 percent of issues that required their attention.The technology enabled the HR team to place the right information in front of the right people in a timely fashion, reducing manual intervention, encouraging informed decisions and ensuring appropriate coverage for its employees.
Metrics
The leading metric was efficiency. NEC reduced, by up to 40 percent, the duration to transmit new-hire benefits eligibility information to the insurance carrier—from 9-12 days down to 3-5 days. The company also reduced the one out of every two manual interventions needed to process new hires down to an occasional intervention—a rare issue that occurs when an employee’s benefits are needed within the 3- to 5-day period previously mentioned.Secondarily, benefits management technology reduced the number of passed pay periods to effect benefits payroll deductions by nearly 100%. What once took as much as three pay periods to manually enter from paper document into and electronic system now occurs within 3-4 days of hire. At most and in rare circumstances, only one pay period may pass. Additionally, the speed and precision by which data is transferred from NEC to its insurance carriers enable weekly data transfer and ensure that employees have accurate payroll deductions in a timely manner. HR administrators avoid expending non-value added time to prorate premiums, and employees avoid payroll shock of steep deductions to make up for delayed deductions.Finally, compliance with document management was greatly simplified. From ensuring dependent verification eligibility to proof of marriage, employees now have a self-service tool to easily upload documents using their cell phones or by attaching a file, and administrators have visibility to the documents.
The Technology
SAP U.S. Benefits Management by Benefitfocus; enterprise benefits management platform
Disruptive Factor
Given the makeup of the organization, NEC was concerned about adoption. Thanks to the software’s simplified user interface and Amazon-like benefits shopping user experience, adoption wasn’t an issue after employees became more comfortable using the new system. NEC proactively established the benefits assistance center (BAC) to give employees additional telephone support from a benefits specialist who is familiar with the system.
Shining Moment
Within just four months, the technology and automation enabled NEC HR professionals to focus on plan design and ensure the right fit instead of making sure employees and dependents have coverage. They drastically reduced calls and increased confidence that their carrier is providing the plan services to which they agreed.