Everyone Benefits from an Employee Portal
Not so long ago, it was only large corporations that could even consider setting up self-service portals for their employees. But now, thanks to the outsourcing model, companies with only a handful of workers are taking full advantage of employee portal technology.
They’re saving everyone involved – employees, the HR department, management – significant time, money, and effort.
Perhaps best of all, by reducing paperwork and speeding access to important information, such employee portals are helping companies to boost employee satisfaction and loyalty – and, in turn, productivity. Here’s how:
LESS WORK
Think of the employee portal as your HR department embracing the power of e-commerce. That means eliminating the tedious filling out and shuffling of paper forms and having to decipher employees’ scrawl. And it means no re-keying of data into a computer. In addition, most follow-up phone calls are done away with, as well.
Instead, workers can visit their company’s employee portal via any web-equipped computer or hand-held device and gain direct – and entirely secure – access to a wide range of useful work-related information all on their own, with practically no need for anyone in HR to get involved.
INSTANT ACCESS
Employees can view insurance benefits, 401(k) plans, company policies, you name it, all with just a few clicks of their mouse. And they can browse or print out any number of important documents, such as the employee handbook. Likewise, should their employer decide to make it possible – and many do – employees may enter and update their HR-related data all on their own. They can change their withholding status, enroll for new benefits, or update time and attendance records.
Naturally, all of this employee portal activity is controlled with the latest in security techniques. Each employee can be assigned his or her own, unique log-in ID and password for authorizing entry to the portal. In addition, the HR department can specify exactly which data and documents are to be made available to each particular employee.
MORE PRODUCTIVITY
Clearly, this kind of employee portal pleases its users. They no longer have to waste time filling out form after form or waiting on hold when calling HR for, say, an explanation of their medical plan. Moreover, the people in HR are freed to devote their time and energy to productive tasks, as well. It’s win-win for everyone.
How to Attract More Customers With Content Marketing
Are you looking to attract prospects, convert them to customers and keep them coming back? Then social media and content marketing are a match made in heaven.
The key to success is to make the connection between content marketing and social media.
Let’s look at the content needed to get your marketing to that lucrative intersection.
#1: Attract Prospective Customers
The first question on a prospect’s mind when considering a purchase is, “What solutions are available?”
Your goal is to create awareness and make sure that your solution meets the buyers’ need when they’re ready to make a decision.
According to data from Google and Shopper Science’s Zero Moment of Truth report, consumers in 2011 consulted an average of 10 sources before making a buying decision. That’s up 100% from five sources in 2010.
The number of sources a buyer consults before making a decision doubled year over year.
Successful businesses are communicating with prospects on social networking sites and directing them to the material the prospects need to make an informed decision. How are they doing this?
One way is to create informational articles.
Social network users are constantly sharing, curating and consuming informational content. Often, the headline or a short description of the content appears on the social network together with a link to view the content on a company website.
Businesses need to share this informational content and have it written for prospects who are in research mode, learning about the solutions that are available.
Charles Schwab, a financial planning company, distributes links to resources via social networking sites and makes them available for prospective leads who reach out via social media.
Read More (Source: Russ Henneberry, Social Media Examiner)
How online HR/Benefits administration can benefit your business
As companies grow, the demands on human resources departments also increase. To satisfy demands, employers have to be aware of the advances in self-service technology in HR that can increase productivity and create real cost savings.
HR departments can see tremendous benefits from technological innovations such as online HR/Benefits administration.
“Online automated HR/Benefits administration is attractive to companies with a sizable work force — generally 200 or more employees — because at this size, HR departments can become bogged down with daily administrative activities,” says John Galley, president of EBenefits Solutions, which is part of the UPMC Insurance Services Division. “Automation of these activities via the Web can eliminate these daily tasks for HR departments so that they can focus more of their time and energy on strategic initiatives that have a greater business impact. Online HR/Benefits administration also saves companies money, while increasing efficiency and security.”
Smart Business spoke with Galley about the benefits of online HR/Benefits administration and why it matters to employers.
Why would an employer want to make use of online HR/Benefits administration?
For many companies, the HR function has become more complex, difficult and time consuming. Oftentimes, more strategic initiatives can be squeezed out by the daily demands and volumes of administrative issues that must be addressed because they affect the work force every day. Fortunately, solutions are available.
The advantages of online HR/Benefits administration to an employer are many. Massive amounts of paperwork associated with benefits and payroll can overwhelm an HR department. There is a need to handle a number of documents that need to be filled out, signed, dated, reviewed, entered into various internal and external systems, such as carrier databases and the employer’s payroll/HRIS (Human Resource Information System) platform, and then filed. But online HR/Benefits administration can automate much of that process for employers.
Online HR/Benefits administration frees staff from duplicate paperwork, prevents errors and places all employees’ files in the same system, making it easier to access and retrieve. Other databases, such as a carrier system or payroll/HRIS platform can then be securely updated in an automated fashion via an electronic exchange.
Read More (Source: Smart Business Online)
4 Things You Need to be Doing on Social Media — Now
By now, if social media isn’t a critical element in your online marketing strategy, it should be. Having a presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can add value to your product, to customer service and ultimately to your brand.
But simply having an account and broadcasting company news isn’t enough. To attract and keep customers — and to build a strong brand online — business owners need to be active on social media. They have to provide valuable information and engage with their followers.
Here are four things businesses should be doing on social media in order to grow the brand online:
1. Engage with followers and provide customer service.
Your customers are engaging with your brand wherever they are — including over social media. Don’t miss this opportunity to listen to what they’re saying to and about you, and to provide the best customer service.
Why is this so important? Responding to customer questions and resolving issues over social media shows everyone who’s following you — and potentially anyone who is online — that your company cares about its customers, potential customers and goes the extra mile for people.
Related: 10 Tips for Using Twitter Like a Pro
Tools like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck can be handy for monitoring mentions of your brand over social media. As for when and who you respond to, set the tone early. If you reply often, people will expect it. If you don’t reply a lot, people will see that as well and might stop engaging with you as often.
2. Crowdsource ideas.
Use social media as a marketing research tool. Just as people can reach out to you, follow you and stay connected with you, business owners can do the same with their customers. Social media is a two-way street.
Say, for instance, you’re getting ready to launch a new product. You can ask your fans and followers what they think about specific details like which colors they prefer or what types of features they want. Not only can you get real, valuable market research at no cost, you’re involving the consumer in decisions. Asking customers for their opinions can help show that they matter, and when they see their ideas become a reality, ideally you create brand and product champions.
Read More (Source: Scott Levy, entrepreneur.com)
Benefits Portal Builds Direct Relationships
Not only is self-service technology helping employer-clients control benefit administration costs, it might also be insurance carriers’ missing link to employee consumers once they leave the workplace.
This potential is not lost on MetLife, a large New York-based provider of non-medical group benefits with accounts at more than 3,500 organizations. To better service the needs of close to 17 million employees working at its client companies, MetLife embarked on an effort five years ago to build an online employee benefits portal called MyBenefits.
By all measures, the online self-service portal has been a hit. Recently, MetLife announced that the one-millionth employee had registered to access accounts online through MyBenefits.
The portal enables employees to log in-either from work or from home-and get answers to frequently asked questions, learn about plans and coverage specifics, obtain price quotes for certain products, and enroll in dental benefits, critical illness insurance, long-term care, life insurance, auto and home insurance, disability insurance, and banking services.
Users can also check their claim status for certain products, locate a dentist who participates in a MetLife preferred dentist program, or learn about retirement savings options. A popular feature is service e-mail, such as e-alerts that notify employees of claim updates.
The first iteration of the MyBenefits portal was launched in June of 2000, according to Sachin Shah, vice president of MetLife Workplace Solutions. MetLife has upgraded the portal several times since that initial launch, with the most recent upgrade taking place in 2003. Shah estimates the site is being accessed an average 800,000 to a million times a month, and transaction activity has been almost doubling each year.
There were three primary considerations in launching the portal, says Shah. First, customer companies were anxious to reduce processing burdens incurred by benefits administration.
“Our employer customers-plan sponsors, or HR offices-needed to promote more self service, and reduce the related costs of the administrivia with benefit programs,” he says.
The ability to lower administration costs has been a key selling point to employers, he adds. “In our business, things that we can do to provide employees a better way to manage their benefits, without having to call the HR office, are real winners. It takes work from employers, who would otherwise be getting phone calls and inquiries.”
Second, organizations are gradually reducing their financial stake in benefits plans. “Employers are beginning to cost-shift to employees, and that cost shifting continues to grow, certainly on a dollar basis, because costs in aggregate for medical programs in particular have gone up,” he explains.
“That cost shifting has required us to work with employers to begin to provide much more information to employees, and get them to become more aware of, and educated in, benefits offerings.”
Third, Shah says, there’s a strategic shift occurring in the benefits administration marketplace. “Employers are getting out of the benefits administration business,” he notes.
“Strategically, the marketplace is moving toward a world in which we have two customers – the employer, and more importantly, the employee. Making a sale to the employer is no longer a guarantee of revenue, as it was in the past. It’s just a point of entry. Ultimately, making the sale to the employee, and keeping the employee as a customer, has become our driver of revenues and earnings.”
Read More (Source: Joe McKendrick, Insurance Networking News)
Boss Saves New Employee At Euless Office « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth
Jeff’s non-profit organization, Mission CPR was in the news when an employee who attended one of our free CPR demonstrations saved their employee.
Read the CBS article and see the video here!
Boss Saves New Employee At Euless Office « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth.
The benefits of an intranet to business
What is Intranet?
Intranet is a network based on the Internet that is accessed by the employees of an organization. An Intranet provides easy access to internal files and documents to the various employees of the organization, from their individual workstations. Sharing of data, made possible through the Intranet, not only helps in saving time of employees, but also allows employees from various levels to access data. It also contributes to a paperless office.
Benefits of Intranet
Most of today’s modern businesses are adopting intranet technology due its competitive advantages in dealing with the corporate information essential for any business.
Communication: Intranet is extremely useful for communication and collaboration between the employees for successful functioning of any business organization. Intranet provides this to businesses in the form of tools like discussion groups, Intranet forms, and bulletin boards. Using intranet tools help in conveying and distributing necessary information or documents among the employees of an organization. This results in easy communication and sound relationship between the employees and top level management. Today, many business houses working on projects use intranet tools, discussion forms, chats, emails, electronic bulletin boards, etc. that help in communicating between different departments of an organization.
Read more (source Brent Barnhart, Buzzle.com)
We are proud to roll out our latest non-profit project
Empty Bucket Ministries is one of our latest reduced or no cost sites that we have developed. We are committed to always working with at least one non-profit organization that we believe in and want to support as much as we can.
“Thanks so much for all your hard work on our site. I absolutely love it!
You guys have been an absolute DREAM to work with! I cannot express to you how truly appreciative we are. I know we wouldn’t be where we are without God placing people in our path like you guys! I’ll send people your direction if they are looking for web services.” ~ Brittany Hall, Empty Buckets Ministries.
Rockstar Technology Sponsors Par for the Kids golf tournament
The boys and girls club of Arlington Texas hosted the annual Par for the kids golf tournament and Rockstar Technology was proud to sponsor a hole. Special thanks to Anthony Porter of Fort Worth Trucking, a web design client and friend for inviting us to get involved.
The New Rockstar Technology You Tube Channel is Live!
The Rockstar Technology You Tube channel and this Blog will be where you can keep up with the latest web design and marketing news and information. We will post articles and updates tot he Blog and often link to videos from the You Tube channel on various topics.
Look for videos like we have there now on Internet Marketing for Benefit Agencies – a recorded session anyone can benefit from but directed to our great benefit and insurance professionals we work with.
http://www.youtube.com/user/RockstarTechnology?feature=mhee
