Relative to other HR services, the application of intelligent automation in benefits administration is lagging, but is slowly making progress.  With respect to RPA, Conduent and Alight are among the first movers, with both using bots for manual calculations in pension administration. In addition, Alight has deployed bots for low-level transactional work that is typically offshored, and in[...]

  Over the last few years, developments around the participant experience for benefits administration services have been focused on helping employees become more effective consumers as they make their benefit selections (the “consumerization” era). In 2016, the next stage of evolution of the participant experience emerged as suppliers shifted their focus to utilization (the[...]

Following several years of growth, the HR outsourcing market continues to ride the crest of the wave, and is gearing up for a prosperous 2017 following investments across all service lines. We will shortly be publishing an in-depth blog on HRO predictions for 2017, but first I take a quick look at what happened in 2016 to lay the foundations for things to come, specifically in payroll services[...]

In the third and final blog in the series examining the benefits administration market, I take a quick look at what health & welfare (H&W) services vendors have done recently to improve the participant experience. Historically, choice within employer-sponsored health plans has been limited, and the need to provide an engaging participant experience was non-existent. Employers’[...]

NelsonHall’s Targeting Benefits Administration Services market analysis report, which will be published later this month, finds that the top driver for organizations outsourcing benefits administration is to improve the participant experience. Accordingly, both retirement and health & welfare (H&W) services vendors have been investing heavily in their respective areas to enhance [...]

Over the last few years, the global benefits market has continued to evolve as vendors have launched offerings to address the needs of multinationals. Essentially, there have been two main approaches: Providing global brokerage and consulting services Providing a global technology offering with optional local administration services. The global brokerage and consulting model has been [...]

Though we’re only just into fall, the nature of activity in the Benefits Administration market in 2015 provides important pointers to key strategic focus areas in 2016. In the U.S., the emphasis will continue around Health & Welfare (H&W) services, stemming from the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In 2015, tier two H&W specialists such as Businessolver and TASC launched ACA reporti[...]

It seems like yesterday that the concept of a private health insurance exchange was novel: it’s hard to believe that active exchanges have been available from benefits consultancies for three years, and that retiree exchanges are nearly 11 years old. Here’s a quick update and review of how the private exchange landscape has changed in this short time. Active exchanges are mu[...]

Barely two months into the year and there has been lots of activity across the benefits administration market, including new contracts, contract expansions, and M&A activity.  Contracts have come out of the U.S. and Europe, including the U.K. and the Netherlands. U.S. activity has come from both the private and public sectors, with deals ranging from as few as 800 employees to mor[...]

By Amy Gurchensky, Liz Rennie and Gary Bragar With total HRO service growth in the high single digits in 2014, service providers are growing both organically and inorganically to meet clients’ needs. The primary reasons for M&A and partnerships across HRO service lines were to enhance service delivery capability (60%) and support geographic expansion (40%). Here we take a closer look [...]

By Amy Gurchensky, Liz Rennie, Gary Bragar 2014 was a busy year for HRO with ~60 partnerships, mergers and acquisitions combined. We now take a look at what to expect in 2015 and beyond for each HRO service line, including service offerings, market developments, and growth. MPHRO driven by continued shift to cloud-based platforms The Multi-Process HRO (MPHRO) market will grow with a mi[...]

Last week, Mercer released preliminary results from its annual national survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans 2014, which discussed health benefit cost expectations for 2015.  Some of the key findings of the survey included: Health benefit costs per employee will increase ~3.9% on average in 2015 or ~5.9% if employers make no changes to their health plans for 2015 Around 32% of em[...]

Companies today are increasingly looking to Wellness programs as a means of meeting their business objectives. It’s a two sided-approach and benefit. First, the cost of employees missing work due to sickness, diseases and stress-related illnesses can be significant in terms of healthcare costs and productivity. Per Towers Watson, employer healthcare costs are expected to increase 4.4% [...]

Overall H1 HRO M&A activity is up year-over-year, and acquisition activity has increased in nearly all service lines except learning.   While learning M&A activity was high in H1 2013, this year, M&A activity in H1 2014 was strongest in the benefits administration market, and it’s occurring in both the U.S. and U.K. as vendors strengthen their DC contribution capability.&[...]

NelsonHall’s annual HRO Market Forecast, 2014-2018, provides a forecast for the global HR BPO market by service line and geography. It includes:  The HR BPO market size for 2013 and the forecast through 2014 to 2018 The HR BPO market size and forecast for North America, specifically covering the U.S. and Canada; EMEA including U.K., France, Germany, Italy, Nordics &[...]

Following a flurry of benefits administration activity in H2 2013 that focused on contract awards for corporate health exchanges for active employees, the first quarter of the year seemed to be just as busy for providers in both the U.S. and U.K. This is a strong stark contrast to H2 2013, when much of the activity in Q1 was focused on DC administration. Private sector activity outpaced pu[...]

2013 proved to be an exciting year in benefits administration.  In the U.S., much of the focus was on corporate health exchanges for active employees while the U.K. was focused on auto-enrollment (AE).  Specific highlights of the year in the U.S. included: Aon Hewitt: added 15 clients to its corporate health exchange (total number of clients is at 18) Mercer: added 52 clients [...]

Per NelsonHall’s blog of December 12, 2013 was a healthy year for HRO, with overall contract activity up ~37%. We now take a look at what we can expect in 2014 by HRO service line. MPHRO We predict the Global MPHRO market will grow at mid-single digits CAAGR through 2017 The Shared Service Transformation segment will continue to grow mainly as a result of contract expansions and ren[...]

Recruitment Process Outsourcing Last week, I zeroed in on specific market activity within the payroll, learning and RPO service lines. Today, I am taking a closer look at H1 2013 activity in benefits administration and MPHRO and considering what we should expect in H2 2013 based on NelsonHall’s recent HRO Confidence Index. Benefits Administration Contract signings aside, t[...]