Trends driving the employee benefits sector
A new report from MAXIS GBN, the international employee benefits joint venture between MetLife and AXA, highlights four key digital and data developments that will increasingly determine the future of the global employee benefits sector. These are: the adoption of global benefits platforms to centralise employee benefits enrolment and management; data analytics generating increasingly sophisticated actionable insights; health and wellness technologies helping employers create targeted wellness programmes; insurtech innovations such as artificial intelligence, distributed ledger technologies and robotic process automation.
“We are seeing a significant acceleration of ‘digital transformation’ type activity in the global employee benefits space, which is, by definition, slower to innovate than more advanced local markets,” said Helga Viegas, Director, Digital Marketing & Innovation at MAXIS GBN. “We launched the MAXIS Data & Digital Innovation Lab in March this year to capitalise on these trends and have begun developing new digital products and services, as well as working with global platforms, insurtech companies and entrepreneurs to offer innovative solutions for our clients.”
The report also found that expectations around distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) such as blockchain have accelerated over the past 12 months and it’s likely that DLTs will be increasingly used across key aspects of the insurance world including employee benefits to deliver smarter, instant contracts, better transparency and claims management, as well as greater flexibility for all parties.
“DLTs are one of the most exciting parts of a fast-digitising employee benefits industry even though it’s a change in the underlying IT infrastructure that will be fairly invisible to the end user. While a number of challenges remain for those looking to implement a blockchain solution, such as how to effectively exchange information between different systems, the business case is very strong. We have begun looking at how DLTs can be used and there is a clear sense that the concept could transform the insurance market within a few years,” Viegas said.