Employee Benefits Administration

What is Benefits Administration?

Benefits administration is how your HR department develops and manages benefits for your employees, typically with the help of HR software. It is part of the larger process of managing employees. Benefits administration also includes deciding which benefits to offer employees, including voluntary benefits, setting rules for eligibility, open enrollment and transferring data to carriers.

What does a Benefits Administrator do?

Your company’s benefits administrator is responsible for directing and planning the day-to-day operations of your company’s group benefits programs. He or she provides customer service to all employees, designs benefit plans, investigates new benefits, improves existing programs and supervises and monitors benefits administration.

About the Employee Benefits Security Administration

The Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor that educates and assists nearly 154 million workers covered by employer benefits. The EBSA provides direct assistance to workers that helps them understand their plans, beneficiaries and service providers. The EBSA’s goal is to make sure plan participants understand their rights under the law and are able to recover any benefits they may be entitled to. This knowledge allows benefit administrators to better understand and comply with the law.

5 Essential Steps in Benefits Administration

1. Decide which benefits to offer

Today’s employees are putting more value on benefits rather than salary because of the advantages and flexibility those benefits provide to them and their families. Popular benefit packages include a mix of traditional and voluntary benefits that provide numerous avenues of coverage to help employees offset health costs

2. Manage benefit costs

Benefits should motivate employees while staying cost-effective for both employers and brokers.Look for an employer-based plan that balances cost and coverage. Typically an employer covers 70% of the medical, dental and vision costs of a plan. Choosing a bundled payment could save on costs.

3. Administer benefits efficiently

Managing benefits administration requires keeping a lot of balls in the air. For example, communication must remain open, compliance needs to be met during open enrollment and

?selections need to be sent to the appropriate carriers. If all of these tasks are performed through manual workflows, you could be setting yourself up for serious issues.

4. Maintain compliance

Benefits administration requires knowing all of the compliance rules and regulations set by the federal government, including. These regulations cover medical authorization, labor laws and financial stipulations.

5. Align benefits to your employees’ needs

Your benefits program shouldn’t exist in a vacuum. Employee benefits should adapt over time. For example, as the demographics of your employees change, so should your benefits. Younger employees want student loan repayment and paid leave for new parents. Older employees want a good retirement plan. The key is to research what your employees want, through surveys, to offer a benefits package that resonates with the majority of your employees’ needs and where they are in their lives.