Ask any Human Resources staffer how much time he or she spends every day answering simple questions from employees regarding their benefits. For most HR personnel, this repetitive function of acting as a telephone help desk to answer simple questions is a big part of their day-to-day work, taking time away from other tasks. An online employee benefits portal can be an inexpensive venue for providing answers to frequently asked questions. One HR professional recently mentioned that benefit questions “come in groups,” with certain questions cropping up as the result of a particular benefit change, or just because of the time of the year. An employee benefits portal allows HR staff to update the frequently asked questions list on the fly, emailing answers to these “questions of the week” to employees before they even ask—heading off dozens of potential calls and helping the HR team use their time more productively.

Nothing can make a benefit change absolutely seamless. But if you’re adding a new benefit, or changing an existing benefit, an online employee benefits portal can  help.  Instead of sending the employee handbook out to print again, an employee benefits portal allows you to update the information electronically.

Along with providing the ability to communicate benefit changes more quickly and efficiently, an employee benefits portal allows employers to communicate more cost-effectively. Because employees can be directed to their benefits portals to  enroll in their benefits,  execute plan changes, and moniter their accounts,  valuable HR staff time is saved. The cost of printing benefit communications can be substantially reduced as the electronic portal becomes a primary method of employee benefit communication.

 An employee benefits portal can provide employers with important fiduciary support.  If the portal  is used as a manadatory enrollment vehical, the employer can provide the same consistent and complaint information to each employee.  Some portals even test benefit comprehension and save the results to add a level of company protection against potential employee claims.  For example, if the stock market were to decrease sharply leaving employees with significantly less retirement money, having proof that your employees successfully passed the 401(k) investing risk section of the enrollment experience may become important fiduciary support for the company.

It’s a fact that different individuals learn differently. One individual may learn better by reading material on a page; another individual may learn better by listening to a presentation. Benefit portals allow for multimedia learning experiences that cater to many different learning styles. Although benefit portals may be a significant part of your company's future, they should not be expected to completely replace traditional communication mediums like print or employee meetings.  They are designed to provide a total system of benefit communications that suits the needs of all employees. 

One exciting feature that some benefit portals offer is the ability to track the effectiveness of the communications.  In cases where  education is mandated by legal statute, this kind of tracking provides a valuable record to show that employees have indeed received and reviewed the appropriate information. Most exciting to most companies, however, is the ability to track Return On Investment (ROI) and understand the exact cost-to-benefit ratio of their communications program.

For most companies, benefits are a widely disparate bundle. The 401(k) materials look and sound nothing like the health plan materials; and in no event are there any communications surrounding how one benefit relates to another--for example how to compare different health plans when the company offers a choice.  Benefit portals allow for this kind of educational bridge and can provide a consistant benefits brand to help unify the presentation of widely disparate benefits . This not only increases the perceived value of these plans, it allows for more effective employee utilization of them overall.

Many companies are beginning to look at the option of installing HSA plans—a new, lower-cost option for health insurance. For these companies, an online portal is critical to help communicate  the important but sometimes complex features of this money saving plan.  As new benefits like HSA plans come along in the future, employee benefit portals may prove critical in educating employees and helping them make important changes.

Employee benefits portals are an idea whose time has come. As the Web becomes a more and more important communication tool for companies to reach out to their employees, these portals will provide education, transactions, and more—allowing HR professionals and small business owners to focus their time on more valuable tasks, and allowing employees to find the answers they need in the way that suits them best.