5 reasons why companies need a unified employee benefits platform

The importance of a unified employee benefits platform

It’s no surprise that juggling multiple point solutions for each employee benefit is inefficient, costly, and creates frustration. With vendors changing annually and confusing, outdated interfaces, employees don't fully understand or use their benefits. The problem runs deep damaging the employee experience, productivity, and talent retention/attraction. All of this leads to low satisfaction and wasted investments. On top of this, there's also a huge administrative burden for HR teams managing implementation, ongoing support, and changes across disparate systems.

As companies grow and needs evolve, duct-taping new point solutions together reaches a breaking point. Leveraging a unified, flexible benefits platform is crucial. 

There’s a better way…offering a unified employee benefits platform. 

About one-third have taken action to bundle services into one package from a single vendor, while another third is planning to do so. - WTW 2023 Benefits Trends Survey

5 reasons to bundle benefits

The evidence is clear. Many companies are taking action to provide a consolidated offering and single touchpoint. As a pioneer in the flexible benefits domain, we have a unique perspective on how and why to offer a unified employee benefits platform–specifically, Lifestyle Spending Account (LSA), HSA, FSA, HRA, COBRA, and Commuter benefits. Below are 5 reasons why consolidating benefits works…

1. Simplifies the employee experience

Rather than hopping between different portals, employees access all benefits through one intuitive system. This simplifies navigation and support. You don't need to waste time hunting for logins or deciphering how to use a clunky interface. Workers can easily understand options, make selections, and get assistance through a single access point.

2. Reduces administrative burden

HR teams benefit from a single point of contact for vendor management, strategic planning, and changes. Setting up new benefits options, managing ongoing administration, and updating systems is streamlined. The demand of coordinating various vendors, systems, and renewal timelines lessens significantly. HR can focus on more strategic initiatives versus administrative chaos.

3. Lowers costs

Consolidating systems significantly reduces the expenses associated with managing multiple vendors and solutions. No more paying for overlapping features and services. Renewals are also more seamless and cost-effective when working with one reliable partner versus various solutions. The cost of vendor management, contracting, and procurement inevitably lowers with less time spent on procurement.

4. Increases flexibility

A unified system makes it easy to redistribute funds as business needs evolve. With a single platform, dollars can shift between benefits options without the hassle of completely changing providers. Point solutions lock you into vendor contracts that limit agility. Having an integrated system provides a greater ability to optimize spending.

5. Scales easily

Adding more point solutions becomes unwieldy over time. A consolidated platform allows you to expand offerings and support more employees as your company grows. Legacy systems can't scale with evolving business needs. Modern platforms provide the flexibility and expandability required for future success.

Recognizing the benefits, it’s essential to have a flexible benefits provider with the right infrastructure in place to support a consolidated program whether including one or all LSA, HSA, FSA, HRA, COBRA, and Commuter benefits. And, as business needs ebb and flow, the technology should be customizable and scalable. We’ve created a checklist of the must-haves for providers to help you discern bad from good.

Delivering a better benefits experience

Transitioning to a modern, unified benefits platform is crucial for streamlining administration, reducing costs, and improving the employee experience. As needs rapidly change, legacy systems with fragmented point solutions can’t keep up. Partnering with a next-gen provider delivers a simplified, scalable solution that evolves with your business- ultimately delivering simplicity, savings, and strategic advantage.

For more information on how you can check all the boxes, <span class="text-style-link text-color-blue" fs-mirrorclick-element="trigger" role="button">schedule a consultation</span> with one of our experts. We’d be happy to help you.

We've included a checklist below which you can download here.