Wellfleet and EIS Survey Finds Workplace Benefits Brokers Demanding Better Technology

A new survey of workplace benefits brokers conducted by Wellfleet and EIS reveals that while brokers are increasingly embracing their roles as advocates for employer clients, they find themselves in an uphill battle with legacy technology. This is important because technology is the No. 1 reason brokers will recommend a carrier to a client.

“Brokers play a critical role in helping to educate and develop benefits strategies for their employer clients”

According to the inaugural Workplace Benefits Broker Survey, brokers’ top six carrier pain points are all IT-related. They include commission structure (52%), billing errors (48%), lack of real-time data insights for the broker and client (44%), time to underwrite the group (43%), and limited plan customization and slow data processing time (42%), respectively.

The survey, conducted to gauge broker sentiment on partner technologies, also examined factors that impact broker satisfaction and their ability to be successful partners with carriers in the current workplace benefits market.

HR Technology News: Social Enterprise Opportunity@Work Announces New Leadership Roles to Accelerate Stars Movement

“Brokers play a critical role in helping to educate and develop benefits strategies for their employer clients,” said James Ocampo, Executive Vice President, Wellfleet Workplace. “What this research makes clear is that too often legacy technology is a barrier to, rather than an enabler of, brokers. This prevents them from taking a more active role in guiding and assisting employer clients.”

The top three factors that influence brokers’ carrier recommendation are technology (59%), financial rating (57%) and the claims submission process (36%). As key advisors and champions of their clients’ needs, brokers recognize the critical roles these factors play in the successful enrollment, education and payment of benefits for their client partners.

“Having a team with more than 300 years of collective experience in the workplace benefits space, we had assumptions about workplace benefit brokers’ sentiments,” stated James Ocampo. “Conducting a survey allowed us to tune in to direct, authentic feedback, so we could move beyond past experiences, expectations and biases. These findings serve as validation for why we started Wellfleet Workplace, while also helping to guide future enhancements for a better broker experience.”

HR Technology News: Canadian Workplace Health Benefits Critical for Employee Retention

“Employers are stretched thin with the management of their current benefits programs, as well as crafting and implementing benefit strategies that resonate with their employees. When you add in a poor technology experience, the pressure HR benefits managers feel grows exponentially,” said Samantha Chow, LAH Markets Lead at EIS. “The survey findings reveal the carriers that are able to provide meaningful solutions are going to excel.“

“Wellfleet’s flexible products, focus on servicing and digitally-forward Lighthouse administration platform powered by EIS,” added Chow, “make the company uniquely positioned to deliver those solutions today and into the future.”

HR Technology News: HR Tech RADAR 2021: Top 250 HR SaaS Technology Companies You Should Follow