What to look for in HR and benefits technology

Even for a department that’s learned to always expect the unexpected, the past few years have been, well, unexpected for HR teams. From constantly shifting workplaces, to the Great Resignation, inflation, and multiple healthcare pandemics, HR has had to think fast and constantly be on their toes.

Though things are starting to feel a bit settled - teams are falling into hybrid, remote, or in-office patterns, the Great Resignation seems to be slowing, and organizations have developed new health policies on vaccinations- but one issue continues to loom. Inflation.

Inflation rates saw all-time highs this year, and some economists are even throwing around the possibility of an impending recession. This means that on top of everything else, cost-savings is at the forefront of everyone’s mind—from employers, to employees, to more specifically, HR teams. Much of the work HR teams do can have an impact on employee and organizational financial wellness; specifically, benefits can be one of the most important financial decisions employees make each year. Benefits choices will dictate how much employees spend on healthcare for the year, and benefits decisions also have a direct impact on organizational costs, like payroll tax, total employer-sponsored healthcare costs, and employee turnover rates. With the cost of employer-sponsored healthcare predicted to skyrocket in the coming year, many organizations are beginning to look to benefits technology, like decision support tools, that can create positive financial outcomes for employers and employees.

With any tech purchase, it can be hard to sort through the noise and figure out exactly what you need out of a technology solution—so we’ve put together a checklist of 7 key elements that the right benefits technology partner should offer. And as a shameless plug (I am on the marketing team after all) I’ve also included examples of how Nayya’s benefits decision support tool can check these boxes for you.

The right benefits technology solution will…

1: Educate

The right solution should offer comprehensive, personalized benefits education. The choices we make during open enrollment have a direct impact on our health and finances for the remainder of the year—and studies show that 63% of employees are not confident when selecting benefits. The solution you partner with should not only educate employees on what plans and products are available to them, but also why they should consider enrolling in certain plans. Personalized benefits education can go a long way in giving employees the confidence and understanding to enroll in the right plans.

How does Nayya do this?

Nayya walks employees through a (less than 10 minute) questionnaire that gathers information about everything from family structure and commuting style, to health and financial background, to preferred providers, and more, to understand exactly what an employee needs out of their benefits. From there, Nayya cross references the employee’s profile with the available plans to suggest the best possible plan for that employee. On top of providing a personalized benefits recommendation, Nayya also explains why each plan is best for you. For example: maybe you have a rambunctious 5 year old who’s frequently taking trips to the E.R. for broken bones and stitches, enrolling in your company’s accident plan can save you money the next time they need to visit. Or maybe you have a favorite dermatologist that you visit each year for preventative annual skin screenings, you should enroll in this plan because it has that provider in-network.

When it comes to retirement and pre-tax savings, Nayya can help employees understand how much money they should contribute each month to best reach their goals. Looking to have a lavish lifestyle when you retire in 25 years? Based on how much you have saved in your 401K now, we recommend bumping your contributions up to 8%. Or, you chose a High Deductible Health Plan, this means you’ll have to pay X before your coverage kicks in, you should invest X% into your HSA account (that you have access to with a 401K!) so you can easily cover copays, deductibles, and other health costs until you hit that high deductible.

2: Communicate

Your benefits solution should be able to communicate with your employees, regardless of device type, language, or visual impairment. Everyone deserves to feel confident in the decisions that they’re making during enrollment. If your employees speak different languages, are on-the-go and only have access to mobile devices, or are visually impaired, your solution should adapt to the needs of the employee. Personalized benefits recommendations should come hand in hand with a personalized benefits enrollment experience.

How does Nayya do this?

Nayya meets accessibility standards and is WCAG AA 2.1 compliant. The enrollment journey is compatible with screen readers in both English and Spanish, so that any employee regardless of any degree of visual impairment, can leverage the technology and get personalized recommendations. For employees on the go, Nayya can also be used for benefits enrollment on mobile and tablet devices.

3: Integrate

There’s nothing worse than bringing in new technology, only to realize it doesn’t work well with the current systems and solutions you have in place. When evaluating a benefits tool, you should make sure that the solution can integrate with your enrollment platform, and any BenAdmin or HCM tool that you’re using. When bringing in a benefits tool, it’s key to look for a tool that can enrich, not replace your existing approach. Lastly, you’ll want to make sure implementation is a simple process. Ask yourself, can the solution be easily implemented with minimal overhead? Open enrollment is already a busy time, and you want to make sure the tool you bring in will make your life easier, not cause you to spend a significant amount of time customizing or building the tool to work the way you need it to.

How does Nayya do this?

Nayya is a benefits decision support tool that can truly enrich, not replace your existing approach to benefits. Nayya is integrated with some of America’s largest carriers, BenAdmins, and Brokers. This means that employees stay within your ecosystem while using Nayya, for an all-in-one benefits experience.

4: Feel Familiar

Benefits enrollment is already a stressful, confusing time for employees. The last thing you want to do is bring in a technology for them that’s clunky, hard to follow, and tricky to understand. To ensure your users are getting the most out of the platform, it’s important that your platform feels familiar to users, and mirrors technology that they’ve used in the past.

How does Nayya do this?

Nayya’s intuitive, step-by-step experience is reminiscent of the TurboTax platform (which is used by over 40 million folks per year). Similar to how TurboTax takes the confusing, uninspiring process of doing your taxes and makes it a simple walkthrough that can turn any person into a tax-filing expert—Nayya simplifies the benefits experience with a step-by-step, easy to follow enrollment journey.

5: Personalize

If the tech solution you're looking for is making any sort of recommendations (like decision support tools), it's critical that these are hyper personalized. It’s not enough to simply say, “Employee X, you’re in your mid-20s with no kids and you’re single, so you should pick this plan.” Each employee has unique health and financial factors that make up their life, and decision support should take this into account. Does employee X have any preexisting conditions? Single or not, they could be planning a pregnancy. Do they need fertility benefits? How do they commute to work? If they bike, they might want accident insurance, if they take the train, commuter benefits may be important to them.

How does Nayya do this?

Nayya sees each employee as an iceberg, and knows that beneath their visual demographics, there is so much more that makes up each person. Through Nayya’s 10 minute questionnaire, it gathers information that makes up everything below the surface, from pre-existing conditions, to health history, to student debt, and more to understand the full picture. By cross-referencing data from over +200M claims, +6K networks, and +3B external consumer data points, Nayya leverages AI to suggest a personalized benefit recommendation based on an employee's lifestyle, habits, finances, and health history.

6: Be Secure

There’s nothing more personal than an employee’s health and financial information. A benefits technology platform should uphold the highest standards in data privacy and security. Employees should feel confident that when sharing their information, it is not visible to anyone but themselves.

How does Nayya do this?

Nayya ensures that any personal information you provide when enrolling in benefits through Nayya is not seen by employers, Nayya employees, or anyone else. When taking your Nayya questionnaire, you can feel confident supplying your personal information and knowing that it will not be used for anything other than recommending you the best possible benefits.

We uphold the highest standards in data privacy, security, and accessibility by following SOC2, HIPAA, and CCPA compliance measures, such as:

• HIPAA
• WCAG AA 2.1
• SOC2
• ADA
• CCPA
• Data Security Audits

7: Deliver ROI

Last and certainly not least, any technology solution that you partner with should deliver tangible ROI–if it isn’t, what’s the point? Any benefits platform should be delivering clear ROI for the organization, HR team, and employees. ROI can come in a few different forms, from cost-saving, to time-savings, and more specifically for HR, employee retention, increased participation in benefits, and more.

How does Nayya do this?

Nayya delivers clear ROI to every party involved. Nayya decreases admin time spent by HR teams — creating benefits education, answering questions, and supporting employees takes up a lot of time. Nayya saves on average 120 hours per HR team by mitigating common questions and reducing the amount of admin work associated with benefits education, communication, and participation. Nayya delivers cost-savings to employers by migrating employees to the right plans and increasing participation in pre-tax programs like FSA, HSA, HRA, and 401K accounts— to date Nayya has saved employers over 17 Million in payroll taxes. For employees, Nayya makes sure that no employee is overpaying for benefits and that the care they need is in network with the plans that they choose—on average, Nayya saves $1300 per employee household per year. For HR teams, Nayya increases benefits participation by over 25% across the spectrum of medical, dental, vision, voluntary, ancillary, wellness, and digital health benefits. And finally, Nayya creates happier employees who are more likely to stay at their job— with ~32 NPS score, Nayya increases benefits satisfaction which leads to a more satisfied workforce, leading to improved retention and talent attraction. What more could you want?

As you evaluate tech partners, it’s important to ensure that the partner and solution will be providing everything you need as an HR team, and everything that your organization and employees need. Benefits technology can be the game-changing solution you need this open enrollment season, make sure the solution you choose checks all the boxes.