Streamlining HR: A wrap-up of our Benefits Plus webinar

If you skipped our recent webinar on Benefits Plus (B+), you missed a game-changer for HR administration in Canada. But here’s the good news: we’re summarizing the highlights below – including an exclusive April promotion that could save you 30% (or more) while we take the benefits paperwork off your plate for good.

Our experts, Stefani Milenkovski (VP of Benefits Experience) and Lauren Kadet (VP of Group Benefits Sales), walked us through how Employment Hero is solving the biggest administrative headaches that keep business owners and HR managers up at night.

Let’s jump into some of the key takeaways from the session.

The “why” behind Benefits Plus (B+)

Managing a benefits plan is often a manual, high-stakes balancing act. Lauren and Stefani highlighted three primary pain points that B+ was designed to solve:

• System fragmentation: The frustration of updating employee data in three different places (HR, payroll and the insurance carrier portal).
• The risk of human error: Forgetting to add a new hire (leading to “late applicant” status) or failing to update a salary for disability coverage can lead to significant compliance and liability issues.
• The “late applicant” trap: Stefani warned about the 90-day enrollment window. If missed, employees would need to undergo medical underwriting – a major headache that B+ avoids by sending “friendly nudges” to admins when a deadline is approaching.
• Document chaos: Ensuring enrollment forms and beneficiary designations are safely stored for years in case of a life claim.

What exactly is Benefits Plus?

Benefits Plus is a managed service that takes the administration of your group benefits plan off your plate and puts it onto ours.

Key features and capabilities:

• Digital enrollment: Whether your carrier is “tech-forward” or still using paper forms, B+ digitizes the process. We build enrollment forms directly into the employee onboarding journey.
  • Legal peace of mind: We use Dropbox Sign for all digital forms. Stefani confirmed that all 13 supported carriers recognize these as legally binding, even for high-stakes life insurance and beneficiary claims.
• Automated reminders: We “chase” the employees so you don’t have to. Our team sends weekly reminders to ensure no one misses their enrollment deadline.
• Employee autonomy: Employees can request changes (like adding a spouse or child) directly within the Employment Hero platform.
• Expert audit and review: Every change request is reviewed by a Benefits Experience Manager. We provide an “extra set of expert eyes” to catch errors before they reach the carrier.
  • Smart filtering: Our team doesn’t just pass paperwork through. We catch common mistakes, like employees attempting to add ineligible dependents (like cousins or adult children) before they reach the carrier.
• Seamless offboarding: When an employee leaves, B+ handles the termination of benefits and manages complex severance extensions or statutory notice periods.

Speaker spotlight: “Spring is the time for a fresh start,” Lauren Kadet noted during the session. She emphasized that the best time to start the benefits conversation is during the initial onboarding journey, not at the end of a waiting period. This ensures a better employee experience and zero risk of missed deadlines.

Beyond basic data entry 

Benefits Plus doesn’t just wait for you to tell us something changed; it monitors your data for risks:

• Salary and disability sync: If a salary changes in HR but not with the carrier, disability claims might be paid at the wrong rate. B+ keeps these perfectly in sync.
• Eligibility alerts: If an employee’s hours dip below the minimum required for benefits (e.g., falling from 30 to 15 hours), the system flags it so you can address eligibility before it becomes a compliance issue.

Eligibility: Is your business a fit?

To activate Benefits Plus, your company must meet three simple criteria:

1. Platform integration: You use Employment Hero (or Humi Classic) as your HR “source of truth.”
   1. Note: Even if you use a different payroll provider, you can still use B+ as long as you keep salary and employee data updated within the Employment Hero platform.
2. Active policy: You must have an existing group benefits plan.
3. Supported carrier: Your policy must be with one of our 13 supported partners, including major providers like Sun Life, Manulife, Canada Life and Desjardins.
   1. Note: We fully support myHSA accounts, provided they are paired with one of our other 13 supported primary insurance carriers.

Pricing and exclusive April promotion

We’ve designed Benefits Plus to be a high-impact, low-cost investment in your HR team’s sanity. For just $5 per employee per month (billed only for those actually enrolled in a plan), you get a dedicated team of experts managing your carrier portals and compliance.

Limited-time offer: The April advantage

This month, we’re helping you “spring clean” your admin tasks with a massive incentive:

• 30% off: Secure a 30% discount on your first 6 months of Benefits Plus when you sign up this month.
• Bonus savings: Want to maximize your ROI? You can unlock even deeper savings by switching your benefits advisory services to Employment Hero.

The bottom line: We don’t just manage the plan; we help you find the best rates and the most efficient way to run them.

Curious to learn more? Check out our Benefits Plus interactive demo for a guided product tour! 

What’s next? The road to V2

We aren’t stopping here. While Benefits Plus currently bridges the gap between HR and Carriers, our team is already working on V2, which will focus on Payroll Coordination – automatically adjusting premium deductions in your payroll system when coverage levels change.

Ready to simplify your benefits?

Don’t let manual data entry and “late applicant” risks slow your business down. If you’re ready to let the experts handle the paperwork so you can focus on your people, you can catch the full session in action.

See Stefani walk through the platform demo, explore the admin approval flow, and hear the full Q&A from the live session.