Better, faster, and more efficient systems are always the goalof managers leading a team or corporate environment. The same istrue for HR managers who struggle with the most efficient ways todeliver benefits and better engage with employees.

A new survey shows that employers are doing just that and haveincreased their spending on benefits-related technology in the pastfive years. In fact, according to the Guardian Workplace Benefits Study, 50 percentof employers expect further increases in spending over the nextthree years.

Demographics seem to be playing an important role in thedecision-making. Responding to millennials' preference forintuitive and personalized engagement, 75 percent of employersare beginning to improve end-to-end user experiences and arelooking at improving self-service platforms (as compared to 61percent who were thinking about doing so back in 2014).

“Our lives increasingly revolve around new technologies anddigitization, and this study confirms that benefits technology isreshaping how employers think about their benefits strategy,” saidMarc Costantini, executive vice president, Commercial andGovernment Markets, at Guardian. “A multi-generational workforce—along withmounting pressures on employers to contain costs, simplify theirbenefits, and stay compliant—are prompting employers to make this apriority.”

The research, conducted last spring, consisted of two onlinesurveys: one among 2,000 benefits decision-makers and another among1,700 workers. The latter showed that three in four millennialswant education and access to their workplace benefits to be easier.Also, 42 percent use artificial intelligence to find answers totheir health-benefits–related questions.

On the employer side, 58 percent say managing employee benefitshas become increasingly complex. Yet 67 percent of employers withdigital capacity say enrolling employees is very efficient,compared with 44 percent of paper-based employers. This has alsoincreased spending needs of employers, according to the study.

Overall, with the increasing need for digital benefits adoptionand more benefits-related technology, employers will requiregreater support in developing these strategies. According to thestudy, “Identifying and implementing more holistic human capitalmanagement (HCM) technology solutions will be a growing priorityfor U.S. employers in the next five years.”

From: BenefitsPro