HR teams invest countless hours into choosing and promoting benefits to their workforce. Yet employees routinely struggle to decode their offerings during
Is it time to make a radical shift in how employers approach their open enrollment strategies? At Businessolver, this meant getting
The tech company is using AI to provide a personalized virtual benefits assistant for workforces 24/7. The
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For an easier open enrollment, introduce AI and ChatGPT Employees are taking their burning work questions to ChatGPT How AI frees up recruiters to focus on people first Can AI solve the mental health crisis? AI is closing the generation gap in the workplace
"There's a notion within this space that everyone has to be a benefits expert, even employees, and that just isn't reasonable," says Kimberly Dunwoody, vice president of member experience at Businessolver. "Benefits is a very complicated space, and what AI allows us to do is help employees cut through that noise."
Sofia, which Businessolver has been using since 2017, carries company-specific information on what benefits are available to employees and at what cost. The tech is now integrated with ChatGPT, allowing employees to have conversations about their benefits with a platform that has already been informed of their options.
"[Sofia] understands the difference between accident insurance and hospital indemnity insurance; she knows what kind of coverage and deductibles your medical plans have and what those out-of-pocket expenses will be," says Dunwoody. "She's able to make sense of all that information and match up those benefits to lived experience."
This is a much-needed resource for employees struggling with their healthcare options today: According to Businessolver, 86% of employees are confused by their own benefits, and MetLife found that 53% of employees wish they had personalized benefit recommendations.
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When employees have an AI tool at the ready, they can avoid costly mistakes and get the best care possible. Dunwoody shared one instance where a user of the platform recalled being previously airlifted from the ocean after a surfing accident, an added expense that his parent's health plan couldn't cover. When it came time for the same individual to choose his own health benefits, he could tell Sofia about past accidents, tailoring his options for enrollment. In this case, adding hospital indemnity insurance at $6 per month, which helps pay for hospital stays, was a no-brainer.
However, Dunwoody stresses that open enrollment cannot be the only time employees have help navigating their benefit plans. If employers truly want their workers to effectively engage in their benefits, they need constant support — another area where AI can pick up the slack.
"We noticed that Sofia gets a lot more usage after regular office hours in the U.S. and on the weekends," says Dunwoody. "Sofia is in your pocket on a mobile app, so if you're at urgent care, you can ask questions in real time."
Enabling employees to take advantage of these benefits the second they need them can answer the questions at the core of many HR teams' mission: Are a company's benefits positively impacting employees, or is it a waste of an already limited budget? It's worth investing in tools that help employers and employees determine how far their current offerings go, Dunwoody underlines.
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Those same tools can also help employers understand which benefits are actually benefiting marginalized demographics in the workplace. For example, if a Black employee is enrolled in the best possible benefits they can be, utilizes those benefits over the course of a year, and still finds them lacking more than their white counterparts, then there's an obvious problem. For Dunwoody, benefits engagement and DEI go hand-in-hand, and tech can provide much more specific insights than employee surveys sent out just once a year.
Dunwoody asks employers to rethink how employees connect with their benefits and consider how new technology can bridge knowledge gaps that have long plagued workers. AI like Sofia and ChatGPT are ultimately learning tools, and employees have every right to learn what their benefits can do for them, she says.
"Oftentimes, what employers miss is that their employees all have a vested interest in their benefits, and they have a vested interest in their employee experience," says Dunwoody. "So it's really important that the employer is able to showcase to employees all of the value they bring to the table."
