Relative to other HR services, the application of intelligent automation in benefits administration is lagging, but is slowly making progress.  With respect to RPA, Conduent and Alight are among the first movers, with both using bots for manual calculations in pension administration. In addition, Alight has deployed bots for low-level transactional work that is typically offshored, and in[...]

  Over the last few years, developments around the participant experience for benefits administration services have been focused on helping employees become more effective consumers as they make their benefit selections (the “consumerization” era). In 2016, the next stage of evolution of the participant experience emerged as suppliers shifted their focus to utilization (the[...]

The gig economy has been a recent trending topic. While the concept of gig workers is nothing new, the attention being paid to it is, especially since this is an area whose growth has been facilitated by the digital marketplace. Here, I take a quick look at the challenges gig workers present for HR. Gig workers present a challenge on several fronts, especially when it comes to managing[...]

  Equifax Workforce Solutions’ 2017 client forum was themed “Expanding Horizons”, and here I take a quick look at three areas in which Equifax is expanding its HR solutions.  Expanding Verifications Business Equifax’s verification services business is expanding beyond the U.S., launching first in Canada, followed by the U.K., and then Australia. Curre[...]

NelsonHall’s latest Benefits Administration Services NEAT vendor evaluation included customer interviews to ascertain current satisfaction levels and future expectations across a range of criteria. Below is a selection of some of the findings from our interviews with benefits administration customers.   Principal issues & operational priorities Some of the more prominent issue[...]

Last week Aon Hewitt announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to sell nearly all the businesses within its Outsourcing segment (including benefits administration, HR BPO, and Workday cloud HR services) to Blackstone. Initially, it may appear that this is a step backwards from some of its prior acquisitions, including Hewitt in 2010 for benefits administration, Exult in 2004 for HR B[...]

In the third and final blog in the series examining the benefits administration market, I take a quick look at what health & welfare (H&W) services vendors have done recently to improve the participant experience. Historically, choice within employer-sponsored health plans has been limited, and the need to provide an engaging participant experience was non-existent. Employers’[...]

In this, the first of three blogs on the current benefits administration outsourcing market, I take a brief look at what’s been happening in H1 2016. Benefits administration accounted for ~40% of HRO contract activity in the first half of 2016, with a heavy emphasis on renewals and contract extensions. Approximately 90% of contracts were from private sector organizations, with a stron[...]

For the last year, Fidelity has quietly been operating Fidelity Health Marketplace, a private benefits exchange, for a small number of SMEs in Massachusetts and New York. Fidelity Health Marketplace is a natural progression for Fidelity, which has been providing H&W services to large market organizations since 1995. Fidelity Health Marketplace is a one-stop shop that assists companies with [...]

The recent merger of Willis Group and Towers Watson has created a global advisory and brokerage firm valued at $18bn. The deal was met with raised eyebrows by several financial analysts, who argued that Towers Watson shareholders were being short-changed in a deal with significant strategic risks, all for the benefit of revenue synergies and the tax savings that will result from moving its tax hea[...]

It seems like yesterday that the concept of a private health insurance exchange was novel: it’s hard to believe that active exchanges have been available from benefits consultancies for three years, and that retiree exchanges are nearly 11 years old. Here’s a quick update and review of how the private exchange landscape has changed in this short time. Active exchanges are mu[...]

Concerns have been expressed about the future of the traditional benefits administration market with the advent of private health insurance exchanges: will the market move from a B2B model to a B2C where benefits administration as we know it will disappear?  Rest assured, while the benefits administration market will undergo some transformation, it will not disappear entirely for the follo[...]

Last week, Mercer released preliminary results from its annual national survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans 2014, which discussed health benefit cost expectations for 2015.  Some of the key findings of the survey included: Health benefit costs per employee will increase ~3.9% on average in 2015 or ~5.9% if employers make no changes to their health plans for 2015 Around 32% of em[...]

Following a flurry of benefits administration activity in H2 2013 that focused on contract awards for corporate health exchanges for active employees, the first quarter of the year seemed to be just as busy for providers in both the U.S. and U.K. This is a strong stark contrast to H2 2013, when much of the activity in Q1 was focused on DC administration. Private sector activity outpaced pu[...]

2013 proved to be an exciting year in benefits administration.  In the U.S., much of the focus was on corporate health exchanges for active employees while the U.K. was focused on auto-enrollment (AE).  Specific highlights of the year in the U.S. included: Aon Hewitt: added 15 clients to its corporate health exchange (total number of clients is at 18) Mercer: added 52 clients [...]

Per NelsonHall’s blog of December 12, 2013 was a healthy year for HRO, with overall contract activity up ~37%. We now take a look at what we can expect in 2014 by HRO service line. MPHRO We predict the Global MPHRO market will grow at mid-single digits CAAGR through 2017 The Shared Service Transformation segment will continue to grow mainly as a result of contract expansions and ren[...]

Recruitment Process Outsourcing Last week, I zeroed in on specific market activity within the payroll, learning and RPO service lines. Today, I am taking a closer look at H1 2013 activity in benefits administration and MPHRO and considering what we should expect in H2 2013 based on NelsonHall’s recent HRO Confidence Index. Benefits Administration Contract signings aside, t[...]