PREMIER HCM
By Esmat Hafez and Michele Holmes
Sometimes the first sign that a client has a payroll or HR problem doesn’t come from payroll at all. For one California-based healthcare organization with approximately 150 employees across multiple locations, it showed up in the benefits enrollment process. Esmat Hafez, partner and employee benefits advisor at Ziadie Insurance Services in Mission Viejo, had been working with the client for roughly two years. As the organization grew, he began noticing something that didn’t look right. Employee waiting periods and eligibility dates weren’t always lining up the way he expected.
For some brokers, that may have looked like a benefits administration issue to work around. Hafez knew there could be something bigger happening underneath it. Hafez brings experience from both sides of the conversation, having worked in employee benefits as well as selling HCM technology for major providers. That background led him to start asking questions.
Something Didn’t Add Up
As employees moved between different schedules and levels of hours, Hafez wanted to understand exactly how the client was determining when someone became eligible for benefits. Those conversations uncovered a larger problem. The information coming from the client’s large national payroll provider wasn’t producing the eligibility information they needed, and the process Hafez wanted to put in place couldn’t be supported by the existing system in the way the client needed.
That became increasingly important as the fast-growing organization moved beyond 50 full-time-equivalent employees, making ACA compliance a much larger consideration. Hafez began evaluating other options.
For him, the decision wasn’t simply about finding another company that could process payroll. He wanted a technology partner that understood how payroll, benefits administration, eligibility, and ACA compliance worked together. “The more complex it gets, the more room there is for things to fall through the cracks,” said Hafez. “Being able to get into the weeds and understand how a workflow needs to happen and why a specific workflow is important is really key.”
That Search Eventually Led Him to Michele Holmes, Co-Founder of Premier HCM
Looking beyond the original problem, ACA compliance and benefits eligibility may have started the conversation, but once Holmes became involved, other opportunities to improve the client’s processes became apparent. Although payroll and timekeeping were presented by the current provider as integrated, they functioned more like separate components. Electronic onboarding also wasn’t part of the client’s package, despite the volume of new hires they were bringing on. Workflows were limited, and several administrative processes still required more manual effort than necessary. For a growing healthcare employer, where hiring and turnover can create a significant administrative burden, those gaps mattered.
“Not every client needs to replace its payroll or HCM provider.”
“The ACA compliance was definitely the most important piece that we wanted to address immediately,” said Holmes. “From there, it was really about increasing their efficiency.” The new environment gave the client the ability to electronically onboard new hires, move employees into timekeeping and payroll from the beginning, support ACA compliance, and create workflows around benefits information and certifications such as RN licenses. The goal was to make payroll, benefits, timekeeping, and onboarding work together, which required close collaboration with the broker.
Because the client would be using isolved’s integrated benefits administration system through Premier, our ben admin specialist worked directly with Hafez throughout the process. That allowed him, our team, and the client to work through plan setup, eligibility rules, and workflows together instead of expecting the employer to translate information between vendors. “You want your HCM partner to at least, on some level, speak benefits,” said Hafez. “The more complex it gets, whether you’re dealing with changing eligibilities, ACA compliance, or multiple classes, the more important that becomes.”
A Transition Built Around the Client
With a company of this size and complexity, the transition was handled in stages rather than turning everything on at once. Payroll and scheduling came first. Training was broken into multiple sessions so the client could become comfortable with the platform, with other components added as the organization was ready for them. “Instead of flipping the switch and turning everything on at once and overwhelming the client, we really assessed what needed to go live first,” said Holmes.
That flexibility became especially important when the client needed to move a portion of its workforce earlier than originally planned. The team was able to accommodate those employees first and stage the remainder of the transition around other priorities, including open enrollment. From the broker’s perspective, that made a complicated transition feel much less complicated to the client.
“It makes a really complicated thing seem relatively seamless,” said Hafez. “That inspires confidence. It gives the client a sense that they can trust that things are happening in the background.”
More importantly, solving the problem strengthened his relationship with the client. “If that experience is good, it increases your credibility to recommend other things in the process,” said Hafez. “It increases their stickiness with you as a client because you’ve resolved a major issue for them.”
The Lesson for Benefits Brokers
Not every client needs to replace its payroll or HCM provider. The larger takeaway is that brokers don’t have to wait until a payroll relationship is falling apart before asking questions about it. “The client doesn’t have to be in shambles for the broker to check in on that relationship,” said Holmes. “Even if the client says they’re okay with their payroll situation, there may still be room for improvement.”
That improvement may have nothing to do with payroll processing itself. It could be something as simple as inaccurate PTO accruals, a clunky onboarding process, or time tracking that creates unnecessary work for the client. For Hafez, the lesson is that benefits brokers have to be willing to look beyond the traditional renewal conversation. “You need to, as a broker, avoid getting tunnel vision,” he said. “Technology is a bigger part of the business now. Payroll and benefits are increasingly integrated, and you have to be asking those questions.”
That doesn’t mean every benefits broker has to become an HCM technology expert. It does mean understanding enough about the systems surrounding benefits to recognize when something doesn’t look right, ask the next question, and have partners who can help. In this case, it started with a few eligibility dates that didn’t make sense. Following that thread ultimately helped the client improve much more than benefits eligibility, while giving Hafez another opportunity to demonstrate his value to the client’s business beyond renewal.
To me, this is a perfect example of how a benefits broker and HCM provider should work together. Hafez recognized that something wasn’t working, brought in a partner he trusted, and stayed involved throughout the process. On our side, Holmes and our team understood that our role was to support and reinforce the broker-client relationship, not compete with it. When a broker and HCM provider are aligned around what is best for the client, everyone is in a better position to do their job well. More importantly, the client gets a better outcome.
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