Open enrollment season is just around the corner, and HR professionals are already gearing up. Successful HR teams are always looking for ways to make their communications strategy surrounding this time more effective. Accurate and concise messaging is crucial for employees to make informed decisions about their benefits. Educating employees is a high priority but can also be a source of stress for HR departments. How can HR professionals develop precise information that ensures a swift open enrollment? Let’s consider a few areas.
Concise content creation
According to a recent study conducted by Voya Financial, more than one-third of employees do not fully understand their selected benefits during the enrollment period. That’s a considerable margin to resolve. But how? Look at the messaging surrounding enrollment categories and take the time to make it straightforward and easily accessible to employees.
Open enrollment generally details a quick turnaround for choosing a benefits plan. Making sure employees have accurate information ahead of time is not only vital but can help newer, younger employees make better-educated decisions. Communications and content surrounding open enrollment need to be easily digestible. Extensive information does not need to be sacrificed but rather supplemented with descriptions. For example, if some topics proved to be confusing during the last open enrollment season, redefine the messaging or include supplemental information such as fact sheets. Providing additional materials will cut down on close deadline woes and boost employee knowledge about benefits for future open enrollment.
Methods of distributing information
Long gone are the days of collective in-person meetings to discuss enrollment. Remote and hybrid work has led teams to become more agile, including HR. It’s time to apply that same agile mindset towards open enrollment.
No office meetings? No problem. Virtual benefits meetings and benefits fairs can prove to be primarily helpful. Small virtual group meetings or virtual fairs can allow employees to engage and ask questions without feeling rushed. Virtualizing open enrollment also benefits HR by sharing additional resource links, providing more thoughtful answers to questions and more personalized Q&A sessions.
Once post-enrollment arrives, HR professionals should think ahead for the following year. Assess what worked with various ways of distributing information. Virtual sessions may not have been for everyone. Examine a hybridized meeting schedule for next year. Consider creating a poll after enrollment. It can be vastly insightful for HR teams to sync with employees on the success of the sessions and pinpoint adjustments.
Preparation and implementation of benefit information
Communication during open enrollment must be consistent. To support employees during this time, ongoing communication is integral. Since not every employee may be in the office, continual reminders and check-ins are needed.
From distributing benefit information to signing up for them, it’s imperative to consider the before, during and after process segments.
Before enrollment season begins, address any new changes or options within organization plans. It’s also necessary to express different enrollment session times and whether those will be virtual, in-person or a blend of both. During enrollment, send additional resources or guides for completing enrollment. Continue to send deadline notifications and highlight any other Q&A sessions if needed. After registration, send out polls to employees to gauge how enrollment went and determine whether any future changes are needed. Additionally, pass along further information about how to utilize plans fully. This will likely help new or younger employees.
Above all, an enrollment strategy will guarantee success by leveraging comprehensive resources and gathering concise messaging promptly. Set employees up for success by ensuring they’re well-informed; it will help future open enrollment seasons.
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