What benefit technology do your employees wish they had – and what’s next for the industry? HRM looks at current and future top trends.
Health benefits have become a standard part of most organizations’ compensation package, but are you falling behind in offering employees the latest benefit approaches?
“We’re finding more and more employees are looking to engagement with insurance carriers in an electronic manner. Gen Y are saying ‘I don’t do paper,’ “ Wayne Millar, Sun Life AVP of product development for group benefits, said. “We’ve seen is that those that leverage tech to interface are more satisfied with their plan design.”
Technology lets employees get faster access to healthcare providers, and get repaid quickly instead of mailing in a claim.
“A lot of studies highlight that many Canadians live paycheque to paycheque and can’t afford to be out of pocket so they don’t get the treatment,” Millar said. “If we can make it really easy to submit the claims and process them quickly, so they’re not out of pocket for a long time.”
The bottom line is healthier, happier employees who are more productive at work.
Millar also stressed the importance of maintain existing options. Many employees will not want to change over to electronic claims.
So what’s next in benefit tech? Millar told HRM it’s going to be all about mobile within the next three years.
“The notion is that mobile health leverages the inherent smart phone capabilities such as GPS, barometric pressure, pedometers, near field communications,” he said. “I’m in Vancouver today so if the barometric pressure was about to change the smartphone would know ‘Wayne’s in Vancouver, the barometric pressure is about to change, he’s at risk of a migraine’ and send an alert.
“I would project within the next three years we’ll see a wide range of these being used within the group benefits to prevent problems instead of just reacting.”
“We’re finding more and more employees are looking to engagement with insurance carriers in an electronic manner. Gen Y are saying ‘I don’t do paper,’ “ Wayne Millar, Sun Life AVP of product development for group benefits, said. “We’ve seen is that those that leverage tech to interface are more satisfied with their plan design.”
Technology lets employees get faster access to healthcare providers, and get repaid quickly instead of mailing in a claim.
“A lot of studies highlight that many Canadians live paycheque to paycheque and can’t afford to be out of pocket so they don’t get the treatment,” Millar said. “If we can make it really easy to submit the claims and process them quickly, so they’re not out of pocket for a long time.”
The bottom line is healthier, happier employees who are more productive at work.
Millar also stressed the importance of maintain existing options. Many employees will not want to change over to electronic claims.
So what’s next in benefit tech? Millar told HRM it’s going to be all about mobile within the next three years.
“The notion is that mobile health leverages the inherent smart phone capabilities such as GPS, barometric pressure, pedometers, near field communications,” he said. “I’m in Vancouver today so if the barometric pressure was about to change the smartphone would know ‘Wayne’s in Vancouver, the barometric pressure is about to change, he’s at risk of a migraine’ and send an alert.
“I would project within the next three years we’ll see a wide range of these being used within the group benefits to prevent problems instead of just reacting.”
