Open Enrollment can be stressful, tiresome, and at the end of the day confusing for employees.
Rethinking your approach to Open Enrollment can not only increase engagement and enrollment rates, but create a well-informed workforce that understands how their benefits can work for them.
Each company presents Open Enrollment and benefits communications differently, but there are industry proven approaches to have a more successful and engaging Open Enrollment.
Some of these methods include leveraging your benefits and ensuring communication’s in-line with your workforce demographic, keep lines of communication constantly open, and ensure your employees know when Open Enrollment begins/ends.
Here are five ways to have a more engaging Open Enrollment.
- Tailor to Your Employee Demographic- Whether a mix of Baby Boomers and Millennials or just Millennials, evaluate who your workforce is and create communications that makes sense to them. For example, a company with many young employees might want to use more technology-based techniques to increase employee engagement. On the other hand, a company who sees their workforce is low-tech can ensure they offer paper options for Open Enrollment so everyone can comfortably participate.
- Remind, Remind, Remind- Whether with posters, email campaigns, or meetings- create a line of communication leading up to Open Enrollment as well as after the enrollment period closes. This ensures that employees fully know when they can elect/change their benefits and when these elections will go into effect. If you don’t advertise Open Enrollment, no one will know when they can change their enrollments, resulting in low engagement rates.
- Use Various Media Platforms- Almost everyone has a smartphone, regardless of your employee demographic. Using enrollment systems that are mobile compatible can ensure that everyone has access to enroll in benefits. Additionally, using various mediums to create campaigns around Open Enrollment can increase participation. For instance, creating a fun light-hearted video that explains your benefit offerings is a great way to capture and engage your workforce while providing educational content.
- Host Information Sessions- Employees rely on their HR and Benefit teams to provide them with accurate information and guidance when it comes to choosing their benefits. By hosting information sessions, you can engage employee and provide them with the necessary facetime. Additionally, these sessions can be great to provide scenarios that match the lives of your employees to help them make a decision about their benefit plan.
- Feedback and Iterate- After your Open Enrollment, send out a survey to other members of your HR team who assisted during Open Enrollment as well one to your employees. Using these surveys you can find out what worked for your HR teams and employees and what didn’t. Take this information to iterate and improve upon the Open Enrollment experience for the next year.
While implementing these tactics can seem overwhelming, recruit hands-on-deck to help. The payoff in the end for these efforts will not only increase engagement, but create a more informed workforce.
For more information on how to better your Open Enrollment, stay tuned for our whitepaper, How to Have a Successful and Engaging Open Enrollment, that provides details on tools and strategies to optimize communication and employee engagement.
