Insurer’s award-winning employee benefits portal features rich content, personalized views and ease of navigation.
MetLife’s revamped employee benefits portal not only wins kudos from its
corporate customer and their employees, but it’s also been recognized as an
example of the very best in Web design.
The insurer put up its original employee benefits portal in June 2000.
Called MyBenefits, the site offered corporate customers and their employees
online access to simple benefits account information and claim status.
The company decided to upgrade the site after realizing the momentum of
online benefits processing within the insurance industry. “Within three to five
years, we anticipate that most benefits transactions will be electronic,” says
Sachin Shah, vice president of Institutional eBusiness at MetLife. “We wanted to
make sure we were on the forefront of that.”
A big part of that readiness is being able to offer employees
personalized views of their benefits information, while moving the bulk of
employee benefits transactions online. Both initiatives are aimed at easing the
administrative burden on MetLife’s corporate customers.
“For employers, online benefits programs are a win-win situation,” Shah
said. “Sites like MyBenefits give their employees more control and a better
understanding of the value of their benefits plans, while they help employers
cut their HR and administrative costs.”
For the revamp, MetLife concentrated on making the site as personalized
and as easy to navigate as possible. For example, it now offers a new feature
called MyAccount. With MyAccount, employees can access virtually any
benefits-related information they may require from a single page, their
personalized MyAccount homepage.
From that one page, they can see a detailed list of their recent benefits
transactions, as well as a comprehensive summary of their benefits options, such
as the type of dental plan elected, claim processing details, the amount of
group life insurance selected and coverage levels for home and auto insurance.
They can also download forms for claim filing, enrollment and beneficiary
designation.
“Anything they would need, they can access quickly and easily, from work
or from home,” Shah said.
The portal also offers message boxes that let MetLife and employers send
employees reminders about enrollment dates for new offerings. And it provides
for cross-channel opportunities in that employees can use the portal to arrange
for in-person financial planning meetings, using the MetLife Advice
program.
The insurer rolled out the revamped benefits portal in April, and to
date, the site has grown from serving just 55 corporate customers and 1.2
million employees in 2001 to more than 2,000 corporate customers and 10 million
employees today.
Plus, user satisfaction is at an all-time high, with 93% of employees
being satisfied or very satisfied with the portal.
And not only is
the portal a winner with customers, but this month, it also won the Web
Marketing Association’s 2003 Standard of Excellence WebAward. The award goes to
corporate sites that display overall excellence related to design, innovation,
content, technology, interactivity, navigation and ease of use. MetLife’s
MyBenefits was cited by the judges as displaying “excellent use of technology”
with “great information.”
Web Design 
