Mattieu Rouot, CEO at MAXIS GBN, joined a panel of EB industry specialists, at the Willis Towers Watson UK Captive User Group last week, to look at the important role of a network in managing EB and the expectations of multinationals and their people. 

The panel discussed:

• Access to data: as we all know clients need consistent and aggregated data to have a clear vision of their benefits spend and usage to make enlightened decisions. The actionable insights that come from the claims data collected by insurers, networks and EB platforms is vital in making the sector more efficient and better able to cater for the diverse and changing needs of a global employee base, while still managing costs. 
• Technology: employers and employees want easy-to-use digital platforms. To attract and retain talent, employers are looking at EB platforms to improve enrolment processes and the overall employee experience. Having a global overview via an EB platform also helps to give a multinational an important centralised view of their benefits programmes.
• Access to H&W programmes to provide proactive treatments and control healthcare costs: Multinational employers are always looking for insights that help them better manage their employee benefits risk. To do this they need to understand their medical cost drivers globally, regionally and locally so they can anticipate local healthcare challenges. Targeted wellness campaigns and other cost-containment measures can help to address the cost-drivers and cover gaps in healthcare coverage.
• EB for non-traditional workers: more than ever, multinationals are looking for ways to attract and retain the best non-traditional workers (contractors, gig-workers etc) through benefits. Existing technology such as cloud-based benefits platforms could help in the development of portable benefits programmes. These platforms have been popular in allowing employees to tailor their benefits packages to their individual needs perhaps choosing not to take up some more traditional benefits in favour of lifestyle ones.