According to this article, Clinging to paper-based administration hinders potential wellness savings, which appeared recently in the Employee Benefits News, the increased availability of automation & technology are helping to make employee wellness programs more affordable and accessible for small companies.  However, according to the article, in order to take advantage of this shift, many small companies will need to stop “clinging” to their paper-based administration and move towards more automation, which often requires an up front cost and learing curve that’s in the end well worth it.  Here’s an excerpt:

The slow shift to automation among these employers, bswift CEO Rich Gallun says, “comes down to two reasons: inertia and lack of management attention and budget. People get used to doing things a certain way and many benefits people believe when they personally process the administrative paperwork well they are doing a good job, so rather than automating the process they continue to do it ‘like it’s always been done.’”

However, Gallun says that for the “laggards,” the switch to automating HR/benefits administration “it’s only a matter of time, because benefits automation is becoming a standard way of doing business.”

It also can help employers maximize the savings from wellness programs, which according to bswift are in place at 100% of companies with more than 500 employees. The study shows that among these employers, 62% use health risk assessments and biometric screenings.

“HRA’s themselves do very little to reduce health care costs or change employee behavior, but they are a step to identifying health conditions and risk factors,” Gallun says. “Biometrics are even more accurate in identifying health conditions and risk factors.”

So what is your company waiting for?  Why not be progressive with your approach, get ahead of the curve and spend the time and money up front now to automate your employee benefits and wellness programs, which will more than give you the requisite ROI over the longer term?

Simple, fun, affordable, and self directed online employee wellness program options like DailyEndorphin’s make it a no-brainer for even small companies to now start or complement their wellness programs today.