NEWSROOM

The Tech Team Updates for this month offer more news you can use concerning Ease and its transition to Employee Navigator, which is continuing in 2026.

What’s New?

Below are highlights of the most recent Employee Navigator enhancements:

Automatic Employee Completeness Check

The Employee Completeness Check now runs automatically whenever employee profile data is saved anywhere in the system. Employees are removed from the Incomplete Employees list immediately after missing data is added, eliminating the need for manual clicks to the Employee Management tab or support intervention.

The completeness check now runs when employee data is saved through:

• Employee profile updates in the HRIS app, including Salary updates
• Dependent and Emergency Contact updates
• Employee lifecycle workflows (Add, Rehire, Terminate, Undo Terminate)
• Address validation (standalone tool and in-profile)
• Updates by the employee (Enrollment Flow and Profile updates)
• When Scheduled Demographic Changes or Pending Profile Updates are applied
• Partner Transmissions and Demographic Audits
• Nightly jobs that update employee profile fields
• Imports that update employee profile fields (which runs as a background job, so file processing is not slowed down)

AI Plan Build Cost Change

In November, Ease shared information that the AI Plan Builder would transition to a usage-based price of $2 per plan starting February 9, 2026.

We’re happy to share an update: the AI Plan Builder remains available at no additional cost. Since launch, the feature has been used to build more than 30,000 plans, and we want to ensure you can continue using it without per-build fees. 

While the AI Plan Builder will stay free for now, we do expect Employee Navigator to introduce a simpler pricing model in the future. Any changes, and their timing, will be communicated well in advance. 

What this means for you as a Licensee Admin: 

• If you are a Licensee Admin who has already completed the AI Plan Builder Acceptance Workflow, the tool will remain active for your users. 
• If you are a Licensee Admin who has not completed the Acceptance Workflow, the feature remains active beyond February 9, 2026. 

The tool can still be disabled at any time by having a Licensee Admin user submit a request to our support team.

• This request will turn the tool off for all Licensee users hosted under that License. As it has been in the past, any Licensee who uses the AI Plan Build tool for the first time will be required to accept the Terms and Conditions prior to use. If changes are made to the Terms and Conditions at any time, all users will automatically be re-prompted to accept.  
• A copy of the terms can be found by going to any Company > Benefits > Add a Plan > Add a Plan via AI > Click the “View AI Terms and Conditions” under the blue Next button.

Benefits

Contribution Change Rules

Contribution Change Rules have been introduced for Medical plans that use “Employee Cost % of Monthly Earnings” as a contribution type. This feature automatically recalculates employee Medical contributions when salary changes occur during the plan year. 

Medical plans now include a "When salary changes occur, update contributions on" setting with four options: 

• Policy Anniversary - Updates on the employee's policy anniversary date 
• First of Month Coinciding With or Following - Updates on the first of the month following the salary change, or immediately if the change occurs on the first 
• First of Month Following - Updates on the first of the month following the salary change 
• Day of Change - Updates immediately on the salary change date 

These new contribution-change rules only apply to salary changes that occur after an employee is already enrolled. They do not apply during initial enrollment scenarios (new hires, life events, open enrollment, etc.). 

W&B Support

Reach out to your W&B sales team to discuss next steps in requesting W&B support for Ease and Employee Navigator. 

An Intake Form is required to collect the information needed for your group and plan build requirements. Get the latest Ease Intake Form in Word & Brown’s Insurance Forms Library. Or download the Employee Navigator Intake Form. 

As access and features are released by EN, we will keep our Employee Navigator Build Guide updated with the most current information.

Also, make sure you sign up to receive W&B emails. We regularly distribute information on Employee Navigator training sessions as they are announced. 

Employee Navigator Training Resources

Check out the links below to access the resources and guides available for your agency and your groups on Employee Navigator. 

• HR Training Resources    
• Broker Training Resources    
• Employee Experience (6:37)
• HR Experience (4:57)

Learn more by contacting your W&B representative.