Survey Shows Many Benefits Managers Feel Swamped

By Staff Writer

March 10, 2002 at 07:00 PM

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U.S. employee benefits managers are hoping new technology and new approaches to buying benefits will help them cope with increasing workloads, according to results from an informal survey conducted by John Hancock Life Insurance Company, Boston.

Hancock found that 33% of the participants feel busier these days because of cutbacks in benefits and human resources department staffing.

Many of the other respondents are feeling swamped because their duties have expanded, according to the survey.

Fifty-eight percent of the benefits managers want to increase efficiency by introducing or expanding use of employee self-service technology, and 37% believe self-service technologies are essential, Hancock reports.

Meanwhile, 56% of the benefits managers are interested in reducing the number of insurers and other vendors they use, and 48% would like to use benefits that address more than risk.

More than half of the managers want to see insurers themselves help with technology: 55% are interested in benefits that include benefits management software, the survey reports.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Life & Health/Financial Services Edition, March 11, 2002. Copyright 2002 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.

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