Looking ahead to continued growth that could bring 100 more stores online, appliances and electronics retailer hhgregg faced an avalanche of paperwork when it came to benefits enrollment for employees in multiple states. Empowered Benefits delivered an online benefits enrollment and BenAdmin solution that meets business requirements and allows for expansion without increasing work for its internal IT resources or HR and benefits department.
Because of impending growth, a retail workforce that experiences higher turnover, and the geographic challenge of multiple stores in multiple states, hhgregg could no longer enroll employees in benefits through traditional paper-based systems or inflexible enterprise platforms. Add to that the reality that updating and changing employee status information that affects benefits had become extremely cumbersome for store managers as well as headquarters staff.
hhgregg’s HR and benefits leaders began looking at employee benefits communications systems that would include online benefits enrollment as well as employee benefits administration.
“We have one HR department, in our Indianapolis headquarters,” notes Alison Caskey, hhgregg Benefits Administrator. “As we move into states further away, it becomes tougher to communicate changes to our plans. Also, if an associate has a change in status, we’ve relied on forms to be completed and faxed to our office, which pressures our store managers as well as our office here in Indianapolis to ensure accuracy and timeliness.”
There was an acute need for hhgregg to show how benefits selection affects associates’ payroll deductions. hhgregg offers a flexible spending account that required complex calculations for employees who are hired midyear as well.
The bottom line: hhgregg needed an online benefit enrollment and BenAdmin system that could help associates, store managers and benefits managers acquire and process information quickly and efficiently.
Empowered Benefits implemented a BenAdmin enrollment system during open enrollment that alleviated the hurdles of providing benefits to a widespread workforce. The whole solution was delivered through an integrated Healthx wellness portal.
“We needed to make the process as error- and omission-proof as possible,” adds Caskey. “The Empowered Benefits solution requires all associates to claim a smoking status and fill out beneficiary information for the company-sponsored life insurance benefit. In addition, for each voluntary benefit, the employee had to choose ‘enroll’ or ‘decline,’ which creates an electronic record so there’s never any doubt about an election choice.”
The online employee benefits administration portal also serves as an important communications link to employees. It provides simplified plan summary explanations and links to detailed information. In addition, the associate is able to see summaries of enrollment for each dependent and rates for each of their elected benefits.
With more than 4,000 employees (and plans to add significantly to that number), seven different benefits plan offerings, each with a full set of online benefit enrollment forms, hhgregg has experienced a huge savings in paper and printing from the outset. The company will save a significant amount of staff time spent on clerical work and will not have to add significant resources during its planned growth. hhgregg also has experienced a savings in paying claims after termination because of the automation of carrier data feeds.
“With this BenAdmin system, we’ve put all of our associates’ HR and benefits world right at their fingertips — payroll, forms, benefits, links to websites,” says Caskey. “They can educate themselves at their own pace. The fact that it’s web-based is extremely practical as well, because many of our sales associates have limited web access at work, but can access the portal at home, when they have time to focus on their choices. Finally, it takes a huge burden off of the store managers and our staff here in the home office to keep up with handwritten forms.”
