As the nation’s leading manager of behavioral health and radiology benefits, Magellan Health Services serves the needs of more than 41.3 million members, and we do it with nearly 4,300 employees located in offices throughout the United States.

So how large is the human resources and benefits department for a company with such a critical mission? Not as large as you might think, considering the awesome responsibility we have, both for our members and our employees who serve them. We must ensure Magellan’s employees are well taken care of, and a key to that is adept and efficient benefits administration.

Anyone in HR can tell you how transactions-oriented a benefits department can get, with enrolling, terminating, offering COBRA, managing cafeteria plans and paying claims – just to name a few of the tasks that keep us busier than busy every day.

Before we adopted technology to manage routine tasks, we were buried in reams of paperwork. We just couldn’t accomplish what we needed to get done – particularly the strategic aspects of HR, such as helping employees who need accommodations and analyzing utilization.

Today, rather than processing forms and answering routine administrative queries, we’re responding to more complex questions that require our knowledge and experience. For example, instead of answering questions like “How do I find out if my claim is going to be paid?” we’re explaining why one claim was paid and another denied.

We have more time to deal with strategic issues because technology is handling the majority of transactions – day in and day out.

Remember the Bad Old Days of Manual HR Administration.
Back in the “old days” – just three to five years ago – everything was done manually. We would collect employees’ benefit elections (written on paper), enter all the information in a database, and save the forms and file the paperwork as a backup. The process would take countless hours – time we could have spent on more strategic projects.

Before we implemented the new platform, employee data searches had to begin with Social Security numbers and involved cumbersome payroll and human resources information systems.

But the days of fielding routine e-mails or phone calls (“How much is left in my flex account?” or “How much paid time off do I have left this year?”) are over for us and for other companies that take advantage of automated benefits-administration systems.

Now I quickly track information based on first or last name, worksite or other means. So, when the senior leadership needs enrollment information or wants to know how many employees carry family coverage, our automated system makes it easy. We can answer employee questions quickly or, better yet, show them how to find their own information, such as who is listed as a beneficiary.

Technology Partner Helped Us Slay the Paperwork Dragon.
We couldn’t have made the transition to technology-driven benefits administration on our own. With thousands of employees spread across 20 major locations, we needed to partner with a knowledgeable service provider that would arm our people with information to make informed choices regarding their benefits – without having to constantly seek assistance from HR.

We chose the services of RealLife HR, a provider of benefits management technology in Hunt Valley, Md., whose platform features a suite of professional services and online applications. With this technology, all the information we need is contained on a single site with one point of contact at RealLife HR. The Web-based system is intuitive and easy for all employees to use regardless of their technical ability.

The advantages of the new technology are endless. For example, we ask new hires to go online and enroll themselves – it’s really that simple. The system compiles a list of new hires; two weeks later, our department automatically receives a list of employees who have not yet enrolled in their benefits program.

Next, RealLife HR – not our department – e-mails a reminder to the employees who haven’t enrolled: “Hey, you still need to sign up.” Later, RealLife HR sends us a final e-mail listing those who still haven’t enrolled so we can reach out and say, “If you don’t sign up soon, you won’t have any medical coverage until the next open enrollment period.” That is a tremendous value for a company of our size, and it’s entirely technology-driven.

I couldn’t imagine going back to the old way. With today’s complex plans and compliance we would need to hire at least three people to handle such routine tasks. RealLife HR’s system can be tailored to the employee to make it relevant and appropriate – the employees see only the benefits they are eligible to receive. So, for example, the union employee in Michigan sees only union benefits tailored to his or her situation.

Real-time Reporting Equals Cost-Savings.
The online system has also improved the accuracy of our information and saved us actual dollars via real-time reports. For example, we don’t have to worry about erroneously paying the insurance for an employee who has been terminated, simply because the paperwork hasn’t reached us yet. We know right away when someone has left and can cancel their coverage promptly. The savings for a company our size are significant.

Using RealLife HR, I can generate a variety of reports to monitor situations in real-time and take immediate action. Beyond open enrollment, we use the technology to view data such as new hire enrollment or the number of employees who have waived benefits, or to track COBRA events. At any time we can find out how many people are on each plan.

In earlier years when management wanted to know how many people had participated in open enrollment, I’d say, “I’ll have to get back to you” and then call to request a report. Three days later I would have the information, but it might be too late to take substantial action.

Now I generate key reports in real time. I can find out – every hour if I want to – how many of our 4,300 employees went in and touched the site during open enrollment. The technology helps us resolve a lot of situations before they become problems.

Magellan Employees Give HR Technology Top Marks.
Benefits administration technology has helped our department get high marks from employees.

One feature employees appreciate is live chat on the Web site. If an employee can’t find an answer on the site, he or she types the question in a chat window and someone at the other end – an employee of RealLife HR – instantly provides an answer. In real time RealLife will field questions such as these: Can I come back in and change this during open enrollment? How much would I pay to enroll in family coverage? Would this be covered under flex spending?

An important section of our employee Web site is the employee self-service feature. There workers can check on their salary information and even print out pay stubs from previous pay periods. This technology saves significant dollars.

Because Magellan employees are in the health care and customer-service businesses, they are savvy consumers. Our workers are very vocal when they don’t like something; for the new system, they have nothing but praise.

Technology Distributes Personnel Changes to Multiple Departments
When multiple departments are affected by an employee change, technology plays a critical role. For example, when an employee leaves Magellan, all it takes is one mouse click to send critical information to everyone who needs it. IT knows to take the employee off the e-mail system, security knows to deactivate the security badge, management knows there’s a new vacancy, and HR addresses benefits.

We’ve put all this transaction-free time to good use, kicking off new programs that benefit Magellan employees directly. I’m able to engage my staff in more strategic projects. We have more time to analyze benefit costs and design trends to keep us competitive. We benchmark our programs against other companies. We can cross department lines to become more strategic partners for the entire HR function, not just the benefits department.

We’re also finding time to do both fun and important stuff – employee walking clubs, smoking cessation programs and healthy-eating initiatives to help combat obesity.

For example, in 2005, Magellan launched a walking wellness campaign to encourage employees to exercise. The goal was for each participant to log 10,000 steps a day (approximately five miles). More than 400 employees completed the 12-week program; 175 of them achieved the program goal. The company awarded prizes to the most improved employee and the individual who logged the most steps. Magellan also recognized the office with the highest rate of participation. Programs like these can be administratively challenging; before we automated routine HR transactions, we didn’t have time to implement them.

These programs will ultimately impact our bottom line through healthier and happier employees. And to those of us in HR, a focus on helping our employees is a lot more gratifying than dealing with transactions and paperwork.