Prudential: Companies Using Technology and Mobile Devices to Manage Benefits

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hand touching screen According to Tapping the Potential of Technology, the fourth in a series of research briefs from The Prudential Insurance Company of America’s (Prudential’s) Seventh Annual Study of Employee Benefits: Today & Beyond,three-fifths of employers – primarily those with more than 500 employees – report using an administrative platform to manage their benefits programs. And the majority (62%) of those rate the use of their platforms effective while another 37 percent rate it highly effective.

“Platform integration is seen as beneficial by many Benefits Managers as the key to enhancing capabilities and driving results,” said Joseph M. Hayes, VP of Information Systems at Prudential Group Insurance. “About half of all those who do not have an integrated platform for all benefits say an integrated platform would make benefits management easier.”

Other findings include:

  • 53 percent of those using an administrative platform say it is integrated for all employer-paid and voluntary benefits
  • 21 percent have only employer-paid benefits on the platform
  • 52 percent of employers have an enrollment platform and more than half (59%) are integrated for all employer-paid and voluntary products
  • A whopping 73 percent of companies with more than 10,000 employees use integration
  •  Of the employees whose companies don’t have an integrated platform, 52 percent believe it would be easier to have all of their benefits on the same platform
  • Nearly 30 percent of brokers report using tablets to access benefits marketing material and plan information
  • 20 percent are using mobile phones to access the material and 20-25 percent wish they had access to such resources

“We’ve also seen some innovation in the ways brokers are using technology, from accessing leads and marketing and sales material, to claim processing and a variety of reporting systems,” Hayes noted. “We’ve learned that 44% are either currently submitting or wish they could submit Requests for Proposals (RFPs) through a tablet or smart phone.”

By Shala Marks