Home • Articles • News

A partially outsourced model may be more effective for organizations that are in the Level 3 or Level 4 stages of their life cycle. There may be certain areas which are better served internally and others more cost-effective if managed externally.

For example an organization may wish to retain certain HR administrative functions and outsource the specialty areas. For example, an organization may decide to manage their own health and safety function, facilitate in-house recruiting, manage payroll and workers compensation programs. An organization may utilize a benefits broker to assist in benchmarking and annual cost analysis.

General programs offered by a broker are as follows:

• Employee benefit plan communications

• Benefit claim resolutions

• COBRA compliance

• Consolidated billing services

• Open enrollment assistance

• On line benefits administration

• 401(K) and retirement plan analysis

• HIPAA Information Assistance

• ERISA Compliance

• 1-800 employee benefits hotline

• Schedule A and 5500 reporting

• Plan analysis and cost effective evaluation

It is important  when choosing a cafeteria approach that prevention is kept in mind that the best approach is to manage  lawsuit risk and frivolous litigation. If HR is approached as a strategic function in terms of cost/benefit analysis, and maximizing shareholder value this approach can lead to significant profitability.  These profits provide the dollars to create programs to help attract, retain, and motivate employees. It is imperative to have an outsource team who positions themselves like a business partner and is sensitive to both the strategic and financial mission of the company.