Tools used to help automate certain business processes have been available to employers for some time now. There are numerous platforms, systems, modules and applications that manage processes in manufacturing, logistics, finance, customer relationships and more. But, what about automated HR solutions to support both administrators in human resources and the entire employee base they support?
These are available too, but many employers are not making these automated tools a priority. This is a problem because:
- Many HR processes are still being handled manually, which makes key processes such as managing any time sheets or compliance reporting requirements too time-consuming.
- Employees want and need their information instantly. Whether that be PTO approvals, managing/viewing their selected benefits or accessing employer policy documentation when needed.
- Missed potential on utilizing crucial data sets to improve key processes in both Essential and Strategic HR Management initiatives
Benefits brokers can partner their sales offerings with automated HR solutions to help enhance their clients’ HR processes significantly while also boosting their yearly revenue. Breaking through to employers and the appropriate stakeholders will be the biggest challenge. However, once the value is shown that there is a need for these HR solutions, the revenue earned will be fruitful and long-lasting.
What are Automated HR Solutions?
There are a variety of automated HR solutions that can be implemented to improve processes and workflows that help both HR administrators and employees to get back to the work that matters most to them. Like the IT department, the HR department receives tons of service requests such as inquiries about PTO, time and attendance updates, documentation, benefits and retirement information and much more.
So, what happens when those requests start piling on and the response time is slow? Those asking for these requests may get frustrated and might spend most their time trying to get an answer immediately, which results in less time spent on more productive initiatives for the business. Another example of this may be the number of hours spent on time sheets or processing payroll by administrators in charge of these tasks. As there are many pain points to running HR processes, they can be eliminated with automated solutions.
Below, you will find the following HR solutions that will help automate key processes and workflows for businesses of all sizes.
Essential automated HR solutions
“Essential” HR modules are considered as core products that businesses need in order to run smooth operations for both administrators and employees. Some examples of these HR Management solutions include:
- Core HR—Employee Self-Service (Portal), Workflow Management, Electronic signing capabilities, Surveys, Reporting and Employee Record Management
- Benefits Management
- ACA Compliance
- Payroll Processing
- Time and Attendance
Strategic automated HR solutions
“Strategic” HR modules are used to enhance and round out the business in several ways to support employee growth, learning and more. Some examples of these Talent Management solutions include:
- Applicant Tracking System
- Onboarding
- Performance Management
- Learning Management
- Succession Planning
Why do my clients need automated HR solutions?
Your clients may be utilizing spreadsheets currently to manage a lot of their processes, or they might be utilizing HR applications that don’t meet their requirements to be successful at their job. There are many, many reasons why your clients need HR automation, though for the purpose of this article, we’ll focus on some modules that directly coincide with your benefits business.
The key is connecting your clients’ pain points to specific features of modules that would help them meet their scalability needs and other requirements while also helping them to improve their processes, saving them time and money too.
What Automated HR Solutions do my Clients Need?
In order to meet your client’s scalability needs, it’s essential to identify what HR solutions they should have as a baseline.
1. Support Open Enrollment with Benefits Management
As your business revolves around traditional and/or voluntary benefits, assisting with compliance information, advising how to minimize costs, offering education to employees and much more; it only makes sense that you can easily connect your core offerings with an automated benefits management module.
A strong benefits management application allows administrators to easily track and manage employees during the Open Enrollment Process. The module will keep employees up-to-date on required due dates, allow them to educate themselves on benefits easier and when all selections are made, it should be able to transfer selections to the appropriate carriers at a click of a button.
Benefits Management features that HR administrators and employees need include:
- One central system that can be accessed anytime, anywhere, allowing administrators access to benefit related information 24/7
- Employees can compare, analyze and check plan costs prior to enrollment
- Employees can print consolidated benefit statements at any time
- Rules-based eligibility engine to ensure employees only see benefits they are eligible to enroll in
- Reconcile premium bills
- Provides state-of-the-art security for your data
- Allows for easy approval and management of employee benefits
- Electronic Data Interface (EDI)files converted from benefits data and changes are automatically sent to carriers
- Benefit deductions integrated with payroll processing
2. Support company-wide transparency with Employee Self-Service
An Employee Self-Service, or Portal, falls under the Core HR category of automated HR solutions. This application makes it easy for employees to engage directly with their personalized HR-related data. For example, a Portal allows for employees to clock in/clock out easier, gives them access to their benefits selections to review, access to their paystubs, company documentation and PTO requests.
Through automated processes, employees can get instant feedback to the requests they make through their portal. Administrators of the system are given an apparatus to configure specific rules and customization for each individual employee in their database.
Employee Self-Service features that HR administrators and employees need include:
- Access to features and content that matter most to employees
- Allow employees to compare, analyze and check plan costs prior to benefits enrollment
- Allow employees to view the value of their compensation package with Personalized Total Compensation Statements
- The ability to submit their time information, including clocking in and out
- Allow employees to request time off and check time-off balances
- Employees can submit an expense report to their manager for approval
- Allow employees to easily view and print check stubs, W-2 and ACA forms
- Track employee goals and allow them to revisit throughout the year
3. Support the new employee experience with Onboarding
An automated onboarding module will help your clients create the perfect “welcome to the team” experience for new employees being initiated into the company. In addition, it will keep them engaged throughout their first six months to a year at their new place of employment. The module allows administrators to set up a unique experience for them based on the job role they accepted, who they will be working with, specific training and much more.
Onboarding features that HR administrators and employees need include:
- Configurable onboarding pages
- Access to a dynamic online library with forms to meet compliance
- I9 and W4 form support
- Direct deposit and pay card set up
- Digital signage tools
- Acknowledgment of policies
- Custom data fields for managers and new hires
- Reporting and analytics to improve the process over time
Integrating with other automated HR solutions and more
You are now equipped with three easy avenues you can speak about with your clients. As you learn about their pain points, you will be able to clearly identify to them about the other areas of their HR processes that can benefit from automation while supporting business objective in the process.
An example of this would be utilizing the three module examples of above to create one seamless integration with each other in order to share data internally and externally. In addition, these modules can be integrated with other HR, ERP, and third-party platforms, systems, modules and applications through established integrations. You could recommend to clients the benefits of adding payroll, or ACA Compliance to complement their current Benefits Management module come tax season.
Or, what about how onboarding, performance, learning and succession modules that can integrate with an employee portal, benefits management, time and attendance and payroll to really use their data efficiently? This is another benefit of utilizing the integrated modules discussed above.
All of your clients have different pain points, scalability needs and requirements. By asking simple questions about their pain points in specific processes, you will be able to ignite conversations on improving them to go along with your core offerings.
Arcoro’s Automated HR Solutions
Many employers encounter issues when it comes to managing employee benefits, navigating ACA compliance, working through Age-Banded benefits and sending crucial data files to appropriate carriers. In turn, this motivates them to look for cloud-based, automated modules to streamline these benefits management efforts for administrators and employees. By incorporating this, it helps to create workforce harmony and promotes higher levels of communication, transparency and engagement throughout.
Benefits brokers can help solve these problem-areas for their clients by partnering their offerings with the Arcoro scalable, cloud-based human capital management (HCM) platform via the full suite, or a la carte modules for those who only need a few components of HR Management technology. The platform corrals all data into a single, secure location that promotes efficiencies to both end users and administrators by automating manual tasks and workflows, reducing the need for paper, customizing impactful reports, therefore saving hours of time, money and more.
Benefits brokers win by bolstering their overall sales and by providing their clients with technology that scales to meet the needs of their ever-changing requirements. By providing clients with these HR Management modules, over time, they will continue to want to use it, as well as add more modules to improve other areas of their HR operations.
Find out more about how the Unum Voluntary Benefits Widget increased sales for Arcoro’s partner, Alexander & Company, by clicking here!
The full platform provides cloud-based modules in the following areas of HR Management that brokers can use leverage specific areas of HR processes that their clients have not modernized yet.
- Core HR
- Employee Self-Service (Portal)
- Workflow Management
- Reporting
- EZ Sign (electronic signature)
- Employee Record Management
- Surveys
- Benefits Management
- ACA Compliance
- Payroll Processing
- Time and Attendance
- Talent Management
- Applicant Tracking System
- Onboarding
- Performance Management
- Learning Management
- Succession Planning
