Summary
- Explore the three essential steps that can help lead to a successful open enrollment.
- Find out how to improve benefits engagement and enrollment with early planning.
- Learn best practices for employee communication about open enrollment and benefits throughout the year.
- Plan your post-deadline steps for gathering feedback, analyzing data and identifying goals.
The months leading up to open enrollment (OE) involve careful planning, attention to detail and even some predictions on new or continuing trends. Managing the open enrollment countdown may feel overwhelming, with an infinite number of considerations to juggle.
By proactively planning an OE countdown and setting some goals, HR leaders can support their employees in moments that matter and ensure they understand the full scope of benefits available to them. This article covers the three proactive steps to conquering open enrollment and supporting a personalized approach every step of the way.
Pre-Open Enrollment Planning: Gain Alignment Early
Seasoned HR leaders know an effective open enrollment season starts months before the window opens. This time frame can be a good opportunity to engage with your employees and align your benefits program to their needs. Here are a few strategies that can help bring alignment to your benefits program so it continues to serve your employees, while still meeting your organization’s goals.
● Get employee feedback: Employees want to feel heard, especially regarding the benefits that directly impact their lives. Keep a pulse on what employees value by launching a total wellbeing survey. Ask them to rate their current benefits, share their wellbeing goals and relay their preferred communication methods.
● Conduct a full gap analysis: Complete a gap analysis using your employee survey data and industry benchmarking reports. This proactively identifies claims opportunities and areas where we can improve communications around existing benefits.
● Collect key stakeholder objectives: Share your assessments with your executive team to gather their overall objectives and determine financial goals for health care spend.
Open Enrollment Communications: Match the Right Message to the Right Moment
Benefits can be complex, but effective communication is the key to avoiding confusion. We want to make the experience as easy and intuitive as possible for employees. It’s likely not enough to send a single message announcing new benefits. For a successful open enrollment, we must build a comprehensive communication timeline.
Leverage Five Key Components
One effective way to structure your outreach during the open enrollment countdown is by using these five components:
● Message: What do you want to communicate? This could be a "save the date," an announcement of new benefits, or a final deadline reminder.
● Market: Who are you communicating to? Your workforce spans varying ages and needs. Segment your messages by providing designated support to appropriate employee groups.
● Media: How will you communicate? Mix your channels. Use email, text messages (SMS), intranet banners, and internal social media and messaging options. Different channels resonate with different audiences.
● Moment: When will you communicate? Timing is critical. Build a reminder cadence that includes a kickoff, mid-cycle nudges, and a final 48-hour countdown to boost last-minute participation.
● Measure: How will you know if it’s a success? Track logins and election starts weekly, adjusting your reminders based on what’s lagging.
To optimize your communication before and during open enrollment, learn how to make it memorable.
Empower Your Managers
Managers are often the first line of communication for employees. By providing them with a 10-minute agenda and clear talking points, we empower them to reinforce deadlines and answer basic questions, helping employees get answers faster and helping to reduce your HR team’s support workload.
Post-Open Enrollment: Analyze and Celebrate
You’ve made it through the open enrollment countdown! Your team’s hard work has been realized. Before shifting focus completely to carrier files and supplier updates, it’s imperative to look back at how things went. Tracking progress provides the data needed to drive informed decision-making for the year ahead.
Gather Insights and Visualize Success
● Review open enrollment survey results: If you don’t currently send a post-enrollment survey, we highly recommend it. Ask employees to rate their experience on a scale of 1-10. Cutting this data by department reveals trends and shows how different groups responded.
● Visualize your data: Contextualize your data by comparing year-over-year results. Visualizing your success is a great way to showcase your impact to leadership and celebrate the wins with your team.
● Consider other important metrics. Download our Benefits Open Enrollment Review Toolkit and identify a few open enrollment success metrics you want to track.
Your Partner in Benefits Success
Planning and executing a successful OE countdown involves a lot of work, attention to detail, and a variety of skillsets. Fortunately, you and your team don’t have to do it all alone. Working with a strategic partner like Benefitfocus can help streamline your process and align your efforts with best practices.
Before, during, and after your open enrollment window, we offer the support and guidance you need to encourage an improved benefits experience—during enrollment and beyond for your employees and their families.
