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In many cases, your employees don’t pay attention to how much you, the employer, are paying out for benefits. They start paying attention only after they hear about COBRA rates. A popular feature that is included with every HRIS product is benefit statements. Basically, they provide employees with a total compensation statement. Jane Doe makes $30,000 a year but with the addition of the employer match on 401K and with the employer’s portion of insurance and dental she makes $35,000. If you, the employer, are offering ever more expensive benefits, it’s certainly important to let your employees know. As an employee myself, it was always an eye opener to see just how much of my compensation package was paid by my employer.

I have modified these reports many times and included the employer’s portion of social security, leave time, medical, dental, and vision plans, and additional benefits. It might be a good idea, during your evaluation, to ask how much opportunity there is to modify and customize these statements.  You may find that the canned format of a HRIS benefits statement may not be as easy to read or as easily understood as you may like.  As with any other function in a HRIS system, always ask to see a specific example of the function in which you are interested.

I have seen the companies I worked with hand these statements out before open enrollment, with annual reviews, or whenever employees ask about benefit details. Benefits statements are an additional item, on a long list of benefits, of an HRIS system or HRMS software package that can benefit your entire organization.