It may be accessible, but is it useful?

The engagement of internet-accessible employee benefits tools continues to grow exponentially. Some firms have begun touting “web only” solutions as a viable alternative to more traditional approaches to employee engagement. As a leading provider of technology solutions for group benefit needs and with all the interest in online enrollment and HR administration tools, we thought it would be interesting to research how accessible web-based platforms really are for employees.  How much are your clients (and their employees) really using these platforms? Is the focus on web-based tools truly driving efficiency or is it also creating barriers for employees who have low levels of comfort with and access to technology? ContinuousHealth recently tracked employee and employer login data for our entire employee benefits technology suite of systems. Prior to pulling the data, we had certain predispositions about the results: As a technology company, we know that not everyone is comfortable working with software that they do not use regularly.  We refer to these types of systems as “single transaction platforms.” For these types of systems, we assumed employee web access would be fairly low, and employer access would be moderate to high. While we are proud of our systems, we realize many of our clients never walk through the technology, but those who do find it helpful and, in the words of one consultant, “slick.” But what is the real level of web access to our systems?  Who is really logging in, and how can we make our products better, knowing those results?

As we began to review the data across the several platforms we offer, using the employee and employer access from your clients’ projects, the results surprised us. First of all, let us be clear, ContinuousHealth has always been of the mindset that “all access” is achieved (like a brand marketing campaign) by using nearly every available medium and mode to reach employees. For both compliance and effectiveness reasons, HR applications can’t settle for 80% response rates. For us, web access has always been an “and” option as opposed to an “or” option. Having said that, let’s look at web access across a variety of platforms and needs.  

Employees and internet accessibility

We first took a look at employee access of our benefits administration platform, individual insurance coverage system and our dependent verification technology. Across all client platforms, we show fairly low levels of access by employees.

Only 17% of the employees going through dependent audits log into the website, and just 5% actually upload documents to the portal to move forward in completing the process. You may have heard of dependent audit companies that advertise a web-only verification. They state that “98% of people have access to the internet.” That may be true of companies with a predominantly white collar workforce, but we find that, even among that population, most people don’t have the ability to turn a hard copy document, such as a marriage certificate, into a soft copy document. Our employee login data shows that internet access is still not the best way to identify ineligible dependents with minimal business disruption - especially if you want to reach high penetration rates. By offering an all-access platform, we typically see response rates in the 97-98% range. Achieving this consistently with a web only solution is next to impossible without a high degree of HR involvement.

In our benefits administration and individual coverage technology, 39% of all system logins are employees logging in to enroll or complete surveys for assistance with individual medical insurance. This is a good bit higher than we predicted, and it’s an argument toward the need for online enrollment options. 3-5% of all errors in enrollment are caused by manual keying in of enrollment requests, and this can be reduced by allowing employees access to the system.  The fairly high number of employee logins shows that online enrollment is accessible and a highly utilized option, viable for moving most companies to either an online employee or enroller-assisted option.

Employers and internet accessibility

The data showed, though that most vital is employer accessibility to technology.

For our benefits administration and individual coverage technologies, we found that 46% of all logins were employers logging in. This includes assisting employees with the technology, reviewing enrollment, and viewing statistics. The number is much higher than expected.

Employers also have access to our dependent verification technology, a system that we pride ourselves in for our intentional user-friendly, “single transaction” technology. We recognize that employers may not be logging in every day, so the system shouldn’t be software that you must learn. Instead, it should be user-friendly enough that employers can understand the first time logging in. That said, although we built our system with ease of access in mind, we were still surprised to see how many of our employers, your clients, are accessing it—80% of the employers who are going through dependent audits with us have logged in to the website, either to review statistics or download reports.

The details

Substantial money invested in giving employees access to web applications for human resources administration will only pay out if employees really do utilize these systems. Employees should receive non-web based communications and resources in addition to any internet access. Any time you’re trying to get employees to do just one thing, in this case provide documents or manage benefits, you have to offer options beyond online accessibility.

Enroller-assisted online portals are good options, and crucial to the success of human resources technology is quality access for employers. As employers manage their employees, for large and small companies alike, it is vital that the employer feels connected to the data, and, thus, to their employees.

For your clients

Rest assured – options that are exclusively manual and paper-based are bad. There are too many employees with access to the web to be tied down to old ways of doing business. But when you evaluate new approaches, keep an eye on reaching everyone.  

You know better than we do what your clients need, but these are the important questions to ask, and important adoption data to know, as you consider the next steps as their advisor.

This article was first featured in the April 10th edition of our e-newsletter, Directions. If you'd like to receive that weekly email, contact directions@continuoushealth.com. (Your email will never be shared, sold, or otherwise distributed, and you will receive only the type of content for which you sign up.)

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