Tackle open enrollment season

Published: September 10, 2024 | by Sarah Peterson Herr, Legal Editor at Brightmine

The end of the summer signifies back to school, football season and preparing for open enrollment. The benefits enrollment process is often overwhelming and confusing for both businesses and employees. Research shows that health care benefits continue to be the top pick for employees. Nearly 90% of employees classified health care benefits as “very important” or “extremely important.” As this year’s season is upon us, HR teams can focus on the offense and prepare for the season.

Don’t get sidelined — a coordinated HR Team game plan can streamline the process, making it easier for employees to participate. Increasing employee participation decreases per-person costs to attract and retain top talent. A well-designed healthcare plan can deliver significant value to the organization. One 2022 study estimated that companies that provided notable health benefits to their workers achieved a 47% return on their investment, through factors like higher productivity, lower medical costs and reduced spending on recruitment and retention. That same study estimates that in 2025, the return on investment will increase to 52%.

By understanding and implementing the strategy in your playbook, open enrollment will be another win for your HR department and company.

Create a game plan for open enrollment

Open enrollment typically occurs a month or two before the policy’s renewal date and lasts between two to four weeks, providing employees enough time to review their options and make selections. Once the HR team has selected a time for the benefits kickoff, planning can truly begin.

Companies may take an active or passive approach to open enrollment. During an active enrollment, the company asks each employee to confirm their benefits during the open enrollment window. Active enrollment can lead to higher benefit uptake and increased employee satisfaction, but it also creates a substantial workload for the enrollment team.

The HR team may choose to implement a passive enrollment where employees automatically continue with the same benefits unless they opt to make changes. Passive enrollment is a more efficient approach to enrollment, but there is a greater risk that employees won’t switch to benefit options that suit their current needs.

Once these preliminary decisions have been made, the most important step comes — creating a communication plan so that all employees understand the game plan for open enrollment.

Communicate the winning strategy

Don’t drop the ball on implementing a clear communication plan. Communication is the most important part of open enrollment. Your employees are your team and need clear information about the benefit offerings and finding the right total rewards for their needs. Furthermore, employers have a responsibility to notify employees about the upcoming open enrollment period. This means communicating annual notices, benefits options, and other information your team needs to know.

HR and leadership should work together on a communication strategy. Some game-winning ideas to consider include:

Remember, there is no need to write the playbook from scratch and vendors can provide much of this information. Lean on your external teammates and their seasons of experience. A clear and robust communication plan will help ensure there are no fumbles during the open enrollment season.

The big game

Before you know it, the big game will be here, and it will be time to hit the field. No matter how well you have memorized the playbook, there will always be some difficult questions. Provide a point of contact who can receive questions from employees or their managers. Consider implementing a dedicated email address, phone line or intranet channels (e.g., a Slack or Teams channel) for teammates to ask gametime questions. Promptly answer all inquiries and avoid unnecessary delay of the benefits election game.

Drive the communication strategy throughout the open enrollment period to a touchdown! This is a great opportunity to recommunicate the value of the company’s compensation package. Cheer on all the wonderful benefits offered.

Lastly, don’t drop the ball on electing your own benefits. Open enrollment can be a very busy time in the HR Department, so ensure your squad also makes their selections.

By creating and implementing a winning plan, you will be the MVP of this open enrollment season.