Managing payroll and benefits has never been more complex. With rising employee expectations and an increasing need for personalization, employers and human resources (HR) managers are seeking solutions.

Among these solutions are Alight and Fidelity, two popular options in the market. Alight offers a comprehensive benefits and payroll management platform. Whereas Fidelity focuses on offering specialized support and solutions for 401(k) management, financial planning, and investment tools.

In this Alight Vs Fidelity guide, we’ll dive deeper into these platforms and explore their main features to help you choose the right one for your needs.

Alight Vs Fidelity: At A Glance

Category

Alight – Key Features

Fidelity – Key Features

Benefits Administration 

1:1 open enrolment support and 13,000+ health plan designs

Centralized benefits portal and AI-powered monitoring tools

401(k) Management

Alight 401(k) Index and Real-time reporting

AI-powered quality checks and NetBenefits contribution control

Healthcare Guidance

Virtual access to medical experts and SmartSelect MD 

Digital Care Navigation and 1500+ condition-specific support

Defined Benefits

Automated calculations and Retirement projection tools 

Actuarial services and Integrated investment management

What Is Alight?

Alight is a digital solution that empowers businesses to offer personalized benefits to their employees. The platform offers solutions for benefits administration, employee well-being, leave management, employee onboarding, and more. It’s also powered by AI, helping managers automate routine HR tasks and drive efficiency. 

Unique Features Of Alight 

  • Leave Administration: Enables organizations to manage all types of employee leaves efficiently while ensuring compliance 
  • Pension Risk Transfer: Helps organizations transfer long-term liabilities to insurance providers, reducing risks and ensuring benefit security 
  • OneSource: Allows businesses to boost customer retention and satisfaction by outsourcing their call center operations  
  • Leave Administration: Enables managers to enhance employee experience by providing administration services for multiple leave types 

Pros And Cons Of Alight

Pros

  • Users can easily access information related to 401(k) and health benefits
  • Personal consultants help in understanding different benefits plans and review claims and bills
  • Helps users implement the same things in a number of features at a time

Cons

  • Some of the features have limited customization options
  • Finding information can be a little too hard, especially for users who are new to the platform

What Is Fidelity?

Fidelity Workplace is a benefits solutions provider that helps employers offer employee benefit solutions, including health savings accounts (HSAs), 401(k) plans, and financial wellness tools. It relies heavily on achieving the best results for employees through personalized consultation, ensuring maximum employee satisfaction and minimum loss in terms of meaningless benefits.

Unique Features Of Fidelity

  • Stock Plan Services: Helps businesses streamline stock plan and equity administration services from a single place 
  • FidelityConnect: Centralizes plan data and participant insights for advisors, ensuring they offer the best plan of action to businesses 
  • 3(16) Fiduciary Administration: Handles critical administrative responsibilities related to retirement plans, reducing workload for HR managers 
  • Student Debt Program: Allows employers to contribute toward student loans and add to employees’ retirement plans when they make loan payments 

Pros And Cons Of Fidelity

Pros

  • The 1:1 approach to open enrollment is invaluable for plan selection
  • Automation tools help automate repetitive tasks
  • Customer support and advisors are very helpful in solving issues

Cons

  • The sheer number of features and the vastness of the platform may overwhelm new users
  • Might not be suitable for very small businesses

Alight Vs Fidelity – Key Features Comparison

Benefits Administration

Alight helps employers easily enroll employees into their benefits plans, ensuring there are no delays. This helps timely benefits enrollment, which streamlines HR processes and enhances employee satisfaction.

It takes a 1:1 open enrollment approach, helping employees select the right plans as per their specific needs and unique goals. The platform also supports 13,000 health plan designs, helping employees tailor benefits programs according to their preferences.

Moreover, it offers global benefits solutions, empowering businesses to connect with their international workforce while providing local-level expertise.

Fidelity offers comprehensive benefits administration solutions to organizations. It comes with a centralized benefits portal, making it easy for employees to review, analyze, select, and make changes to their benefits at any time they want.

Its AI-powered benefits management and monitoring tools help businesses drive efficiency and meet enrollment deadlines. This automation not only helps speed up tasks but also makes the process less prone to errors.

Additionally, employees get personalized guidance on choosing their benefits plans, helping organizations meet both their and their employees’ goals.

Winner: Fidelity wins because its AI-powered tools and centralized portals offer a smooth experience for both employees and employers.

401 (K) Management

Alight offers the ‘Alight Solutions 401(k) Index’, a tool that provides insights into the investing patterns of 401(k) investors. It allows employees to view investor behavior, helping them choose and select the right one.

The platform also offers up-to-the-minute reporting, ensuring organizations are always aware of the performance of each benefits program. Employees also get personalized advice from seasoned experts, helping them choose the right retirement solution that aligns with their goals.

Fidelity offers AI-powered quality checks, helping organizations do an in-depth analysis of their plans’ health. This analysis helps businesses identify areas for improvement and ensure they are providing the best programs to their workforce.

Moreover, the ‘NetBenefits’ feature helps improve retirement readiness for the employees and manage their contributions and savings, ensuring they are comfortable and satisfied with the plan.

Winner: Alight takes the lead as it offers a 401(k) Index and real-time reporting.

Healthcare Benefits Guidance

Alight helps companies find healthcare providers, review procedures, view bills, and more. The platform helps employees by providing guidance for issues related to mental and physical health, emotional struggles at the workplace, and cancer diagnosis.

It virtually connects employees with leading specialists or expert medical opinions, helping the person make the right decision based on their location, circumstances, and available options.

Furthermore, with its ‘SmartSelect MD’ technology that utilizes extensive data to identify top-performing and cost-effective solutions, employers can ensure their workforce’s health while minimizing overall expenditure.

Fidelity’s ‘Digital Care Navigation’ helps employers guide employees to make better healthcare choices. It uses benchmarked data for safety, experience, provider cost, and appropriateness that has been curated after a review of extensive quality measures and claims. This helps employees choose only the best options and reduces wasteful healthcare spending.

It also offers an easy-to-use, integrated mobile application, allowing employees to access and review plan details anytime. Additionally, the platform provides support for over 1500 mental and physical needs, ensuring employees get the exact plan they need.

Winner: It’s a tie as both platforms offer powerful features and solutions to help guide employees in plan selection.

Defined Benefits

Alight helps businesses plan and track retirement plans with detailed reporting tools and plan information that is easy to access, review, and manage. The platform keeps employers updated with compliance requirements and automates calculations, helping them avoid legal penalties and ensure error-free calculations.

Employees can also track their retirement plan information and set up virtual meetings to get expert guidance. Additionally, the platform equips employees with projection tools, allowing them to predict estimated retirement expenses and income and helping them plan their future better.

Fidelity helps organizations manage their retirement plans by handling investments, reducing risk, and ensuring legal compliance. Their experienced investment experts help manage plan assets, ensuring the company meets future obligations.

Fidelity also offers actuarial services to help businesses understand funding needs for their retirement plans, helping them avoid financial surprises and plan budgets accordingly. Moreover, the platform helps organizations stay up to date with changing regulations, helping businesses stay compliant and avoid penalties.

Winner: Fidelity wins since its actuarial services and integrated investment management offer stronger financial planning.

Pricing

Both Alight and Fidelity Workplace offer custom pricing based on an organization’s requirements and number of employees. You can contact us for a custom pricing plan tailored to your specific business requirements. 

Final Verdict – Which HR Software Is Better?

Choosing the right software can help you streamline operations and ensure that your employees are getting the best plans based on their needs. 

Alight is a good choice for businesses that want global benefits solutions and a more comprehensive solution to manage retirement and medical plans. Fidelity Workplace, on the other hand, is suitable for organizations wanting AI-powered automation, compliance support, and strong investment expertise. 

Both have their unique advantages and need to be evaluated accordingly. A good start to evaluating these would be to include all your HR managers and a consultant in the decision-making process.