Benefits administration software helps organizations plan and administer employee benefits packages and ensure compliance with government regulations. These systems manage employee benefits, such as insurance plans and stock options, and facilitate open enrollment periods through an administrative dashboard.
Organizations also use these tools to view and adjust employee benefits packages. Benefits administration tools frequently offer employee portals and self-service options to enable employees to view, manage, and update personal information and documents.
These systems are most commonly used by HR departments, enabling HR managers to administer benefits packages and encourage healthy usage among employees. Additionally, with benefits administration software, organizations can identify the benefits that provide the most value to employees and reduce overall costs. They also help companies remain compliant with federal and local regulations, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
Benefits administration software can be implemented as a standalone solution or part of an integrated HR management suite. Many benefits administration software providers also function as business process as a service (BPaaS) providers by providing benefits administration and payroll services.
Certain business administration products may overlap with those found in the employee perks software category. However, those products focus on managing benefits outside a standard employee benefits package. Solutions in this category are segmented by a Best of Breed filter to differentiate between products whose core offering is benefits administration and those that do not primarily focus on benefits administration but meet the requirements.
To qualify for inclusion in the Benefits Administration category, a product must:
- Provide a centralized administrator dashboard to visualize benefits data
- Facilitate access to marketplaces of benefits vendors, such as insurance carriers
- Offer a benefits portal through which employers and employees can access benefits plans, update information, and enroll in benefits during and outside of the annual open enrollment period
- Enable administrators to create total compensation statements to share with relevant stakeholders
- Help HR managers check and report on employee and organizational compliance with government regulations through built-in compliance checking and reporting features
