The benefits and HR tech industry continues to grow — CBInsights reports the sector saw $2.2 billion in 2016 investments —and more brokers are recognizing the need to take their agenciesonline.

But implementing a new platform is a bigundertaking, and it opens up a lot of questions. The first questionfor many brokers is “When is the right time of year to make themove?”

There are two audiences for this question: brokers and smallemployers. Brokers are asking “When should I invest resources infinding and implementing a platform?” But it’s best to answer thequestion from the small employer’s perspective first.

For small employers, the right time to go online is the fourthquarter, because they are simply not thinking about benefits atother times of the year. With the fourth quarter as your goal forclients, you will want to be fully implemented and confident aboutthe new platform beforehand.

Go online while your clients are thinking aboutbenefits

As brokers know, small employers rarely have a benefits-focusedmember of their HR team. If they’re really small, they might noteven have an HR person at all, and the person who deals withbenefits is often the business owner.

Either way, they just aren’t thinking about benefits year-round.Chances are, they have dedicated a portion of their time during orjust before the fourth quarter to handle “benefitsstuff.”

This is the time you want to launch your new platform with them.Trying to get the point person to dedicate time outside of their“benefits window” to learn a new platform will just lead tofrustration, and it won’t be productive.

The best time to work with your client on going online is duringopen enrollment, when they are already deep in their “benefitsstuff.” They will give their full attention to the move online, andit will be more successful for your client and youragency.

This strategy can apply to large employers, as well; even thosewho have full HR teams or a dedicated benefits person. Some feelthe best time to implement change is during an existing period ofchange.

The exception

However, as a business gets larger, you may reach a point whereit makes sense to begin the move online outside of open enrollment. Even here, though, you willwant to start only with new hires.

Have new employees make their elections through your platform,building up to having the full team come online during the nextopen enrollment.