Virtually 80% of Fortune 1000 companies intend on having them by the year 2001.
Meeker Sharkey Financial Group states that implementing them has freed up between 25-30% of their HR departments staff to focus on other more strategic and productive activities.
What are these seemingly amazing "things" that are producing such significant bottom line results for companies?
What we´re talking about are online benefits...
What is OnlineBenefits.com?
Few companies´ names could be more suitable to describe the services that they provide. OnlineBenefits.com uses Internet technology to deliver online benefits services to companies. The argument for this drive towards web-based applications is the reduction of redundant work processes and a switch from paper-based administration to the automation of these systems. Therefore, your HR department´s efforts can be re-focused upon strategic business processes instead of time-consuming manual, paper-based administration.
How do Online Benefits´ systems work?
Online Benefits provides companies with a third party, external website to host their benefits data and information. Employees can then access the site either through their company´s intranet or over the Internet. Ideally, OnlineBenefits states that companies should connect their intranets to Online Benefits application over a secure Internet access.Online Benefits hosts the server with the information offsite and connects the internal Web site with the sites of vendors and service providers.
Who is OnlineBenefits.com targeting?
OnlineBenefits.com is targeting small to mid-sized firms. Their original ASP Online Benefits Office is geared to mid-size companies, while HR Complete attempts to target smaller firms with less than 100 employees.
Online Benefits has approximately 40 present clients ranging in size from 35 to 16,000 employees, but ideally target midsize firms between 200 to 5,000 employees. There are also about 20 new clients with implementations in process. By using the Internet to increase the scope and connectivity of communication and information exchange, OnlineBenefits´ goal is provide an alternate solution to redundant paperwork and administration problem experienced by most HR departments.
What does OnlineBenefits.com offer?
OnlineBenefits.com offers two levels of service depending on the size of your company: 1) Online Benefits Office, and 2) Complete HR (which was available February 2000).
Online Benefits Office is geared towards larger companies and is ideally suited for organizations with more than 100 employees. Online Benefits Office is a full service application that comes with an expandable modular base. There are presently 3 modules that can be added to your main application:
Some of the core features of Online Benefits Office include:
- Customizable user interface
- Full Keyword and concept search feature
- Multimedia presentations for learning and development
- All necessary paper-based or electronic documents and benefits forms
- FAQ´s for all benefits plans
- Interactive modeling and tutorial programs to assist with plan selection, account election, retirement planning
Demonstration
When employees first login, they are presented with 5 choices that will guide them through their online benefits path:
Research Center
- Helps you locate comprehensive information about various benefit plans
Life Events
- Provides information to help you navigate through your own life events, such as marriage, births, deaths, retirement, and divorce
Interactivity Center
- Provides tools to help employees develop a retirement plan, calculate their contributions, or conduct a compensation analysis.
Special Offers
- Online Benefits has arranged special offers for their users on quality products and services.
Important News
- OnHealth.com has partnered with Online Benefits to provide users with daily updated health information and also archives any important news.
Let´s first take a look at the Research Center...
Online Benefits call the Research Center the "heart and brains" of their application. Similar to a comprehensive library, users can access the most up-to-date information on benefit plans through online summaries, booklets, FAQ´s, brochures, forms, etc. The most important information is clearly presented on the front page and looks at some of the following topics:
Each of these sub-topics presents a clearly and neatly designed, and well-organized interface. For example, their Medical Plan page outlines the benefits´ vendors used, eligibility requirements and costs for contribution.
Under Life Events, Online Benefits Office provides guides to assist you with your life events decision making, as well as, online resources. Life events are important as with each change, there will be an impact on your benefits coverage and payments.
Online Benefits Multimedia Education Center adds some variety to the information gathering process by integrating video clips that tell you about medical plan enrollment, dental plans, etc. One drawback to this feature is the necessity of using certain applications such as Netshow or Real Video in order to view the multimedia clips. The majority of companies who utilize Online Benefits will most likely have access to systems that enable them to download these tools. On the other hand, the problem similarly arises with e-Learning programs using advanced multimedia clips, as some companies will not have the updated technology to view and use these programs. However, Online Benefits makes downloading these applications available through their user interface.
Another sub-section to the Interactivity Center enables employees to set up mock benefit plan scenarios and model them after their own life events using Online Benefits Office´s modeling and calculating tools. This will help employees make informed and more realistic decisions with their benefits plans.
Under Important News, Online Benefits has daily updates to benefits information and any important changes. The company can also use this section of the site to post company-specific information such as holiday schedules, employee handbooks, and policies and procedures. Online Benefits has partnered with OnHealth.com to provide employees with daily health news.
Special Offers is a section of the site where employees can go to find discounted products and services offered specifically to them through Online Benefits. Specials can include discounts on partners products and services.
Pricing
Prices across online applications vary but are usually calculated by a per-user-per-month arrangement. The average individual pricing is around $5 per user per month with a one-time only implementation fee that varies but is usually less than $10,000 depending on the size of the company.
However, for more specific information, for as little as $750, you can set up Complete HR to post your employee benefits information. (This application is designed for companies with under 100 employees and will include in the near future, a small business, HR information module consisting of hiring, interviewing, and training advice.)
Overall Evaluation
One useful feature is the ability to conduct comprehensive searches across all of their pages. This can save lots of time and headache instead to having to search each page trying to find information that you thought you might have seen.
Another benefit to the Systems part of their application is the ability to integrate with virtually any company´s pre-existing ERP. Online Benefits states that their systems are compatible with both stand-alone and ERP systems which greatly increases the flexibility, versatility, and attractiveness of their HRIS´ implementation.
If you work with a company that requires daily employee data integration with your HRIS, Online Benefits recommends downloading or transferring your data on a weekly in stead of daily basis. This will improve security issues but may leave you data slightly out of sync until the next transfer.
On the business side, Online Benefits would benefit with an increased and broader range of affiliate partners to add to their e-Merchant listing. As companies are beginning to use benefits, not only as a part of compensation, but also as incentives, increased diversity in their employee offerings would only increase their appeal to potential firms.
Their Multimedia education center is a unique feature to their benefits application, and provides some diversity and variation to the whole benefits education process. As aforementioned, my only concern lies in the fact that the ability to view these interactive clips requires updated technology and systems, as well as a fast Internet connection, each of which may be less accessible to certain companies.
OnlineBenefits points out that as you compile the information for your site, there are several detailed steps that must be followed in order to implement their applications properly. For example, you will need plan summaries, contracts, cost information, etc. to answer all the set up questions involved. Nevertheless, they make it as easy as possible by creating an easy to understand interface with easy to use drop down menus.
If you work for a small company with less than 100 employees, my recommendation is to take a look at their application, Complete HR, for smaller companies. Registration process is simple, can take about 20 minutes depending on the availability of your benefits information, and is extremely affordable, usually starting at $750.
Keep in mind that, by excelling at benefits provision, Online Benefits provides only a partial solution to the online HRIS issue. On top of managing and facilitating your online benefits, you may also want to consider registering for an online HRIS to manage your employee personal information.
About the company
OnlineBenefits, Inc. was founded in 1997 and is located in Uniondale, NY (Long Island). Some of their affiliate partners include:
- CVS.com
- Barnes & Noble.com
- Petsmart.com
- Proflowers.com
- LendingTree.com
- Furniture.com
- EbioSafe.com
Prior to founding Online Benefits, Alan Cohen had managed a benefits brokerage and has worked closely with insurance companies.
Company Contact Information
OnlineBenefits, Inc.
Corporate Headquarters
333 Earle Ovington Blvd.
Suite 210
Uniondale NY 11553
(516) 414-7000
Toll Free: (877) HROnWeb I (877) 476-6932]
info[at]online-benefits.com