How Unum's integration with ADP transformed this hospital's benefits experience

Before HR Connect, enrolling employees in benefits at Wooster Community Hospital was a manual, error-prone process that created stress for both HR and employees. Danielle Bender, the benefits coordinator at the hospital, used to log into a website and enter employee and dependent information by hand — sometimes up to 12 pages per person.

“It was a very manual process, leaving a lot of room for human error,” Bender said.

Billing reconciliation was another major challenge.

“When the numbers don't match in any way, shape or form, that becomes not only a stressor, but a major liability,” she said.

Wooster Community Hospital was building out their HR management software, ADP, at the same time they implemented HR Connect, which made Bender expect a heavy lift. But the Unum team made the process simple.

"We had one call, and from that point on, the Unum team took over,” she said. “They went through and built our plans to the specs, to a T.”

Unum builds plans and automatically uploads them into ADP then syncs benefits selections and employee information. The two-way flow of information means benefit information stays up-to-date, which leads to easy EOI and immediate coverage decisions and virtually eliminates the need for billing reconciliation for HR.

Bender said the API was the main reason she chose Unum, “and it paid off big time.”

The integration was so smooth that Bender described it as “transformative — not only for my job, but for our customers, which are our employees.”

HR Connect made it easy for employees to understand and manage their benefits. Evidence of insurability, which used to be a frustrating process, is now embedded into the enrollment process.

“It was always a battle,” she said. “Now the employee sees in real time not only if they have that coverage or not, but also what their paycheck is going to look like so they can actively plan.”

Before HR Connect, employees sometimes couldn’t see all the benefits they’d enrolled in, which added stress at an already difficult moment. Now, the integration keeps records current and gives employees clear, accurate access to their coverage.

When the first bill came through after implementation, Bender was nervous.

“I was sick to my stomach. I was dreading reconciling this bill,” she said.

But when she pulled the bills from ADP and HR Connect, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“When the difference came down to a matter of cents, I truly burst into tears,” Bender said. “I am not one to cry, it is typically happy tears if it is, and these certainly were. I couldn't wait for my boss to come in. It was a decision that she and I had made collectively to move in this direction, and so when she walked in, I was jumping up and down. I wasn't able to speak.”

Since implementation, HR Connect has continued to perform for the hospital.

“I feel so strongly about HR Connect. It was something I was told would work a certain way, and it did. That doesn't often happen,” she said. “But I was told it would happen this way, and that's exactly what happened, and it left me pretty emotional in the best way possible. It's happened like that every month since.”