Is your benefits technology reducing work, or just moving it around?

By Jason Beecher, Head of Benefits Technology, New York Life Group Benefit Solutions

For employers, benefits technology is no longer just a back-office consideration. It has become a critical part of the employee experience.

When systems work together, HR teams spend less time reconciling data, employees have fewer steps to complete, and benefits decisions can move faster. But when systems are disconnected, even a strong benefits program can feel harder to administer, harder to use, and harder to trust.

That tension is showing up across the market. HR.com’s 2025 research found that only 39% of respondents said their HR technology solutions were usefully integrated with one another. The same report found that lack of integration within and between systems was the top HR technology pain point, cited by 46% of respondents, and that 81% of respondents who reported poor integration believed it kept their organization from attaining important HR goals.¹

Benefits leaders are responding. Mercer research found that 65% of employers view HR technology as the biggest driver of changing benefit priorities, and 89% have already centralized their benefits or plan to do so within the year.²

The opportunity is clear: employers are not simply looking for more technology. They are looking for better connectivity.

What employers should expect from carriers

A connected benefits experience depends on more than whether a carrier can receive a file. It depends on whether the carrier can support the way benefits actually move through an organization: from eligibility and enrollment to payroll, billing, absence, claims, and reporting.

Here are four questions I believe employers should ask when evaluating a carrier’s benefits technology capabilities.

1. Can the carrier connect across the systems we already use?

Most employers have already made meaningful investments in human resources information systems, payroll platforms, enrollment tools, and absence management systems. A carrier’s technology should fit into that ecosystem, not create a separate process around it.

That means looking for flexible connectivity options, including application programming interfaces (APIs), single sign-on capabilities, automated data exchange, and outbound reporting. It also means understanding whether the carrier has experience with the platforms your organization already depends on.

At New York Life Group Benefit Solutions, this is the thinking behind Smart Connectivity. Our approach is designed to help employee data, eligibility, enrollment, payroll, absences, claims, and billing flow together in a more coordinated way, reducing manual work for employers and creating a smoother experience for employees.

2. Does connectivity reduce work, or simply move it?

Technology should not create a new administrative burden. It should remove unnecessary steps.

Employers should ask how a carrier handles eligibility updates, payroll changes, job changes, claims information, return-to-work dates, absence events, and billing data. Are updates automated? Are HR teams still downloading reports, reconciling spreadsheets, and chasing status updates?

The operational impact can be significant. ADP’s 2026 global payroll survey found that IT resources spend an average of 22 hours per week managing data flow between payroll and other business systems.³

For benefits, the same principle applies. The more data has to be moved manually, the more opportunity there is for delays, errors, and extra administrative work.

3. Is the employee experience embedded in the flow of work?

Employees typically engage with benefits during moments that matter: enrollment, evidence of insurability, a leave, a disability claim, or a life event. Those moments should feel simple and connected, not fragmented.

A strong carrier technology model should help employees stay within familiar workflows whenever possible. For example, single sign-on and embedded evidence of insurability capabilities can reduce friction by allowing employees to move from enrollment to the next required step with fewer disruptions.

This is one of many areas where we continue to invest. We are expanding connectivity with platforms employers already use, including Workday, ADP, Employee Navigator, bswift, Benefitfocus, and Dayforce. One latest example is our participation in Dayforce Benefits Edge, which is designed to support enhanced integration capabilities, dedicated implementation support, and evidence of insurability single sign-on with automated decision return to help simplify enrollment and administration for shared customers.

The broader goal is not to promote a specific integration for its own sake. It is to create less friction at each step of the benefits journey.

4. Is there experienced support behind the technology?

Connectivity is not just a technical exercise. It requires people who understand benefits administration, platform configuration, enrollment timing, claims workflows, billing requirements, and the realities of each employer’s environment.

That is why employers should ask who will support the integration before, during, and after implementation. Does the carrier have people who understand the systems involved? Can they support enrollment, claims, billing, and reporting needs? Is there a path for issue resolution when something changes?

We believe the strongest benefits experiences are people-powered and technology-enabled. Our technology investments are designed to reduce administrative burden, but our people help make those connections work in practice.

The future of benefits technology is connected, not complicated

Employers should not have to choose between strong benefits and manageable administration. The right carrier technology model can help support both.

As benefits ecosystems become more complex, employers should expect carriers to bring more than products. They should bring flexible connectivity, strong platform relationships, implementation experience, and a clear understanding of how data moves across the benefits experience.

That is the intent behind our Smart Connectivity: connecting the dots between systems, data, people, and the moments that matter, so employers can spend less time managing complexity and employees can have a simpler, smoother benefits experience.

As you evaluate your benefits strategy, ask your carrier not just which platforms they connect to, but how those connections reduce work, support employees, and improve the overall benefits experience.