This chapter contains these topics:
To enroll and maintain employees, dependents, and beneficiaries in benefit plans
Companies provide benefit plans for their employees. Benefit plans vary among companies, organizations, and industries. However, most benefit plans include medical insurance, life insurance, and retirement and investment programs. Additionally, a company can offer various options from which an employee can choose for one or more of the available plans.
To administer a benefits program, you need to be able to identify the features of each plan and maintain current information on each of the employees in your company. Benefits administration consists of the following tasks:
Preparing for enrollment
Enrolling employees
Working with 401(k) fund allocations
Working with dependents and beneficiaries
Reviewing information on employee enrollment
Working with enrollments in single plans
Working with enrollments in group plans
Updating rates
Managing enrollment processes
Once you have added a record for a new employee in the system, you can prepare a personalized enrollment form. The new employee can use this form to select from the benefits available.
Based on how you have set up your benefit plans and the eligibility standards you might have set for employees or groups of employees, you can enroll employees in the plans with the following methods:
Single plan entry
Group plan selections
Global enrollment
You need to maintain accurate and current information to successfully administer benefit plans to all employees throughout your company. You can use the benefits programs to:
Correct or change employee and enrollment information
Link dependent and beneficiary information to employees and their plans
Maintain current rates for all plans
Manage plan changes and open enrollment
You can review information online and in reports about employees, their enrollment, and benefit plans. The information is available by employee and by plan. Because the information is readily accessible, it provides the benefits office staff the information they need to answer employee and company questions about enrollment in the benefits programs. Additionally, the system compiles exception information that you can use to correct errors or omissions. For example, if your company has benefit plans with mandatory participation, you can print a report of all employees who have not yet enrolled.