When it comes to benefits administration, it’s probably one of the last reason’s that you would consider a PEO, but it very quickly becomes one of the best and preferred perks of the partnership.
You see, if you’ve been handling your HR needs on your own, you know that the process of selecting and rolling out benefits for your staff is no easy feat. Instead, the process is one that essentially lasts for a full calendar year, from renewal to renewal!
Now read on to learn how a PEO can take control of the whole process and make the benefits process perfectly painless!
Determining usage
One of the most important factors when selecting your benefits is understanding what types of perks your employees are most likely to use and are most likely to value.
Striking out solo and crunching these numbers on your own could be a full-time job in and of itself, but at Abel HR, we keep track of what’s resonating with our clients so that we can make the best choices for the next benefits open period.
Picking the perks
Using the data on which perks our clients love most, coupled with our knowledge about trends in the benefits market, we start shopping for new benefits mere weeks after we roll out the new ones! We assemble all of the information and make a list of what we’re looking for in the next year and then we interview dozens of benefits providers about what they can offer, what “add ons” they can provide, and what price they’re willing to strike the deal at (more on that in a minute).
Price check:
As we touched on above, one of the biggest perks of working with a PEO is that you have us to do your negotiating! Not only do we handle the whole process, but we also have considerably more clout than the average business owner because we used our combined pool of client employees to negotiate for the best price.
A benefits provider is far less likely to let a big fish like Abel, which counts thousands of employees, get off the hook without a fight than it would a small business with just a handful of employees. Not only that, but we typically find that they’ll toss in a lot of extra perks to further sweeten the deal and try and get us on board as clients, which we of course pass along to you at no extra cost.
Roll out
If you’ve managed the benefits administration process in the past, you know it’s no walk in the park. Here at Abel HR, we use our HR information systems to determine benefits eligibility (based on federal and state requirements), gather all the data we need to start the enrollment process, and then start the process of rolling all the information out to your employees.
We are the ones that will handle all the postings to notify them of various deadlines along the way and will even be the person that chases them down when said deadlines approach and we still haven’t heard from them. We’ll also make sure that everyone gets the information on the plans that they need and host various information meetings, webinars, and other sessions to make sure that everyone has all the information that they need to make the best benefits selection decision for their unique needs.
Hand holding
One of the biggest problems our clients have cited with the benefits process is that they’re left out in the cold once the benefits have launched! At Abel HR, we know that questions arise, especially in those first few weeks as employees grapple with the changes, and we pride ourselves in being available to help answer questions and troubleshoot the issues that invariably arise.
In short, we intercept all the questions that would normally fall to you or if you have one, your beleaguered HR rep, and leave you to focus on the more important aspects of running and growing your business.
Have you struggled with benefits administration in the past? Or have you ever felt like you might be losing key talent to the larger companies that can offer the crazy perks packages? Give us a call today and we’ll let you know how we can help you out this coming benefits season.
