Benetech Unveils Municipal Workforce Management Technology
We aim to keep our blog focused on healthcare compliance news and developing trends in health benefit products and HR technology, but once in a blue moon we like to step into the spotlight to share some of our own developments.
In April of 2017, Benetech began statewide promotion of its Municipal Workforce Management Package. The HR tech package targets the needs of those towns, villages, and cities that still perform much of their personnel administration though antiquated paper-based and manual tracking processes.
“We were still manually calculating our accruals by hand,” shared Anthony Germano, Comptroller for the Town of North Greenbush. North Greenbush was the first adopter of Benetech’s Municipal Workforce Package. “It’s all automated now.”
What’s the Package?
Benetech’s Municipal Workforce Package is a scalable cloud-based HR, Payroll and Time-Keeping system. Modular by design, municipalities are able to scale the product up and down as their needs change. The system even has an integrated Scheduling module for police departments and traditional shift workers.
“The County used to handle our payroll,” shared Sandy Mead, Comptroller of the Town of Florida. “When we started with Benetech we didn’t have the need for the HRIS module, but definitely wanted the integrated payroll, accruals, and time and labor functionality. We knew we could always turn the other features on later if we wanted.”
Can users still process their own payroll?
Benetech’s Tech-Pay option offers municipalities some further cost-saving opportunities when leveraging the system. Mead further comments, “Benetech offered an option that allowed us to save costs by using the system and processing our payroll in-house. They handle our taxes, we have people clock-in on desktop computers or timeclocks. All the time and pay data is stored in the same spot. I can fully process payroll in 30 minutes.”
Tech-Pay clients get the same system as traditional payroll service bureau clients, but retain greater control over the payroll process. Benetech has support technicians available to field questions when needed, but most Tech-Pay clients are self-sufficient by the time they process their third payroll.
What are some of the other municipality-specific features?
Some of the unique municipal needs that Benetech’s Municipal Workforce Package addresses are:
- Integrated time and labor tracking and payroll processing
- Greater accountability through Biometric and Proximity Card timeclocks
- Custom coded General Ledger exports
- Custom report-writing, with NYS-45 exports
- Automation of multiple accrual calculation rules for multiple CBAs
- Online Benefits enrollment and Full-Time Employee tracking for Affordable Care Act filing
- Applicant tracking and communications tools for recruiting summer-hires and seasonal workers
- New-hire onboarding tools with electronic W4, I9, background checks, and social security verification
- Unlimited document storage
“We’ve been working with municipalities since we opened our doors in 1985. We’ve even got town board members and comptrollers on our staff,” shared Benetech CEO, John Panichi. “With the technology and expertise we have under our roof, this offering made perfect sense for who we are, and who we feel best suited to serve.”
What about Health Benefits Services?
As a further compliment to the technology, Benetech also extends the option to leverage their employee benefits management and brokerage services. “It’s a huge value-add when clients can consolidate their service relationships,” shares Panichi. “Our benefits managers sit next to our payroll processors, and their cross-talk allows us to keep a complete picture of our client’s unique service needs. That’s how it should be.”
Further commenting on the future of cost-saving initiatives in health benefits, Panichi shares, “Healthcare-savings opportunities have a growing reliance on better technology and communications tools, and have an impact across HR and personnel administration functions. Our clients need a service team that is as integrated as our technology, and that’s what we deliver.”
How do I learn more?
Click below and we’ll be in touch!
