Health and related benefits are a must for your construction organization. According to SHRM, 88% of employers say they’re extremely or very important for their workforces, and for good reason. Benefits allow workers to provide healthcare for themselves and their families and often the type of benefits offered can attract candidates to your company and retain the ones you have. 

Almost half of employees chose their current employers due to their benefit packages, and over half stayed with their employers for the same reason, according to one report. What’s more 40% of employees would leave their employers for another who offered better benefits even if their salary stayed the same.  

With benefits being so important, the way your annual process is handled should be just as important. 

HR tech is a huge factor in implementing an annual enrollment process that runs smoothly and one that frustrates your employees. 

Leverage HR Tech for a Streamlined, Error-Free Process 

Annual enrollment is a multi-week, process that if done by hand, can frustrate your staff and employees. Paper-based or outdated enrollment systems are not only slow but increase the risk of errors. Even if the accuracy rate of humans is 96%, that still leaves your margin of error too high. Think how agitated even one or two employees will become if they miss the enrollment deadline, leaving them with gaps in their coverage, or if they choose a plan that doesn’t fit their needs or budget all because your manual processes came up short.  

Doing things the old way can not only frustrate employees but make them feel like annual enrollment is a waste of time, instead of an essential benefit. You don’t want mistakes affecting your employees’ coverage or your compliance. 

Moving to a digital solution minimizes the risk of missed deadlines and bad choices while streamlining processes and delivering superior experiences for employees and management alike. Connecting benefits systems with payroll and employee resource planning systems (ERPs) helps make your process even more efficient while strengthening transparency, regulatory compliance and the overall success of your benefits program. 

Lower Costs by Offering Multiple Choices 

Your employees are all different, with different plan goals and objectives, so why would you offer a one-size-fits-all plan? Without choices, your employees won’t get the coverage they need, and they’ll walk away from annual enrollment dejected and frustrated. According to Voya, to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse workforce, 84% or employers offered their employees a combination of both traditional health plans and high-deductible health plans in 2024. 

Offering multiple carriers and plans not only allows employees to choose their best coverage but can increase competition from carriers. This competition helps keep costs low, driving down premiums and a variety of plan designs gives workers more affordable choices. The benefits of offering multiple plan choices are real. 

When employees feel they have more choices that match what they’re looking for in a benefits package, they feel cared for by their employers. Plus, when you have the right health coverage, you’ll be more inclined to take advantage of your options, keeping your employees healthier and happier. 

Benefits management software can provide the opportunity to assign and track benefit plans within a package to their respective providers. HR managers can work with multiple carriers and automatically present their packages to your employees, so everyone gets the opportunity to choose a plan that works best for them. 

Help Employees Choose the Right Plan 

It can be difficult to understand which plan works best for your family or budget. In fact, 73% of employees want more education on company benefits. It’s also a decision that your employees will want time to discuss with their families. Including self-service tools can help employees choose their best plan, on their time, without the need for back-and-forth with HR. 

Guidance tools, such as decision aids, comparison charts and personalized recommendations, can help employees better understand their options and make informed, cost-effective choices. These tools also offer administrators visibility into enrollment trends, costs and plan choice, providing essential analytics for next year’s annual enrollment process. 

Next Steps 

There’s still time to update your annual enrollment process. By leveraging modern HR technology, offering diverse plan options and providing decision support tools, you can transform what's traditionally been a stressful, confusing experience into an empowering one. 

As you plan for your next annual enrollment, consider these improvements not as costs, but as investments in your workforce's future and your organization's competitive advantage in today's challenging labor market. 

Contact us to learn more.