The pitch goes well. The HR Director likes the value proposition, likes the rates, likes the idea of offering employees more financial protection at no direct cost to the company. Then comes the question that actually decides the sale:
“What does my team have to do to make this happen?”
That question carries more weight than price or plan design, because it’s rooted in experience. Most HR Directors have lived through a benefits rollout that turned into weeks of file errors, payroll coding headaches, and employee confusion. They’re not doubting the benefit. They’re doubting their bandwidth.
The fix isn’t a better pitch. It’s a clear answer to what the first 90 days actually look like.
Days 1–30: Setup and Data
This phase is almost entirely on the carrier’s side. The implementation team builds the data file specifications to match the employer’s existing payroll or HRIS system — not the other way around. Test files are sent and validated before anything goes live, so formatting issues get caught in a sandbox, not in production.
HR’s role here is narrow: confirm the file mapping is correct and point the team to the right system contact. That’s it.
Days 31–60: Enrollment and Communication
This is where employees start hearing about the benefit. The carrier provides enrollment materials, talking points, and (ideally) a short info session script, so HR isn’t writing communications from scratch. In parallel, payroll deduction codes are built and tested against the file feed already validated in phase one.
Days 61–90: Go-Live and First Deduction
Enrollment elections flow through the established feed automatically. The first payroll deduction is processed, and the carrier confirms the deduction amount matches what each employee actually elected. From this point forward, eligibility changes — new hires, terminations, qualifying life events — move through the same feed. No manual re-entry, no separate spreadsheet to maintain.
What HR Is Actually Responsible For
It helps to say this part out loud, because it’s usually shorter than HR expects:
- Approve the initial file mapping
- Share carrier-provided communication materials internally
- Field day-to-day employee questions, using a provided FAQ
Everything else — file builds, payroll code setup, error troubleshooting, ongoing eligibility processing — sits with the carrier.
The Prodigy Approach
Our Paradigm Pathways Integrated Health Care Plan is built around exactly this kind of implementation roadmap. The Prodigy team owns the data feed and payroll integration end to end, so an HR department’s day-to-day workload doesn’t materially change before or after launch. For brokers, that means the “what will this cost us in hours” objection has a concrete, documented answer before it’s even asked.
