Much has been written about the “new normal” of work. That includes remote work, automation, flexible schedules and digital transformation. Across industries, the concept of digital transformation has become a hot topic. But what does it mean and how should you be leveraging technology to manage your employee benefits more efficiently?
At Colonial Life, we support clients by providing the tools needed to move from old-fashioned to digital-first.
“The good news for human resources professionals – and especially plan administrators – is they can manage benefits more efficiently using tools that already exist,” said Kathi Price, Client Success Director at Colonial Life. “We’ve empowered our customers to make employee changes, reconcile invoices in real-time, pay their bills and access plan documents online through the Colonial Life for Clients portal. It replaces spreadsheets, paper files, mailing checks and various other processes that used to take significantly more time – and money.”
A digital transformation for your benefits administration does not mean a wholesale replacement of people with technology. Rather, it’s about using digital tools to streamline processes, simplify common tasks and provide employees with more time for complex issues that require people to problem solve and understand situational nuances.
That makes digital transformation particularly critical for the Human Resources department, who have a plethora of common tasks – making employee changes, processing premium payments, etc. – as well as a steady stream of questions regarding employee absences, performance management and more.
In an April 2022 article titled HR Faces Tough Choices as Digital Transformation Redesigns Work, the Society for Human Resource Management outlined how HR workloads across the United States were projected to jump 9.3 percent in 2022. Furthermore, HR leaders would need to overcome an 8.9 percent productivity gap and a 9.5 percent efficiency shortfall during the year. This will require a shift in how many organizations view technology and what role it can play in saving time and reducing errors.
With HR teams facing new realities of labor shortages, remote work and multi-generational workforces, the value of digital tools is simply too great to ignore. As SHRM pointed out, HR teams are being tasked to do more with less. Finding efficiencies and leveraging tools like the Colonial Life for Clients portal are vital to success.
“Businesses everywhere are rapidly moving to digital ways of working,” said Tim Arnold, President and CEO of Colonial Life. “Our customers expect the same of us. That’s why we enable our clients to access the information they need, when they need it, on practically any device and at any time.”
Start your digital transformation by using the tools you already have available. Log into the Colonial Life for Clients portal to make benefits administration simpler. Haven’t registered yet? Now’s the time.
