Open enrollment puts benefits communication to the test. Employers can spend weeks preparing guides, emails and enrollment materials, but employees still need to understand their options, make informed decisions and know where to turn when questions come up.
That becomes harder as benefits programs grow more complex. Employees are comparing medical plans, reviewing voluntary benefits, adding dependents and trying to understand terms they may only encounter once a year. HR teams are often fielding questions at the same time they’re managing enrollment changes, eligibility and the administrative work that comes with open enrollment.
Better communication starts with the enrollment experience
Open enrollment communication isn’t limited to the emails employees receive before enrollment begins. The enrollment experience itself plays an important role in how employees understand their benefits.
A well-designed benefits administration platform can organize plan information in a way that makes it easier for employees to move through their elections. Plan descriptions, costs, coverage details and educational resources are available where employees are already making their elections.
That context matters. An employee trying to compare two medical plans shouldn’t have to search through an old email or separate benefits guide to find the information they need. Giving employees access to relevant information during enrollment can make the process easier to navigate and reduce some of the questions that ultimately make their way back to HR.
Decision support can make complex choices easier to understand
Even when employees have access to plan information, choosing the right coverage isn’t always straightforward.
Terms like deductible, coinsurance and out-of-pocket maximum can be difficult to translate into an actual benefits decision. Employees may understand what a plan covers without knowing how that coverage fits their expected healthcare needs or financial situation.
Decision-support tools can help close that gap. Depending on the technology, employees may be able to compare plans, estimate potential costs or receive guidance based on information about how they expect to use their benefits.
For employers, this adds another layer to open enrollment communication. The goal isn’t simply to provide more information. It’s to help employees make sense of the information they’re already receiving and apply it to their own decisions.
Communication can meet employees where they are
A workforce rarely consumes information in exactly the same way.
Some employees will read every benefits email. Others may rely on their phone, revisit information outside normal business hours or wait until they’re actively enrolling to start reviewing their options.
Benefits technology gives employers more ways to support those different behaviors. Mobile access, enrollment reminders, educational content and self-service resources can keep important information accessible throughout the enrollment period.
That flexibility can be particularly valuable for employers with employees across multiple locations, shifts or work environments. Communication no longer depends entirely on employees being at their desks when an email arrives or attending a scheduled benefits meeting.
HR doesn’t have to carry the entire communication burden
For HR, open enrollment communication can quickly turn into open enrollment support.
Employees have questions about coverage, dependents, plan differences, login issues and enrollment deadlines. Even with a strong communication strategy in place, those questions don’t disappear.
Benefits technology can give employees more opportunities to find answers on their own while giving HR a more manageable way to support the questions that still require assistance. Self-service resources, guided enrollment experiences and access to additional support can reduce the amount of time HR spends answering repetitive questions.
That gives the HR team more room to focus on the enrollment issues that actually need their attention.
Best-of-breed gives employers more control over the experience
Not every workforce has the same communication needs. Not every benefits administration platform approaches the employee experience the same way either.
That’s where a best-of-breed strategy can make a difference.
Employers can evaluate benefits technology based on the capabilities that matter to their organization. That may look like stronger decision support, a better mobile experience, more intuitive enrollment workflows or additional employee support. The technology can be selected around the workforce and benefits strategy instead of forcing the strategy to fit the technology.
For brokers, this is an important part of the benefits technology conversation leading into open enrollment. The question isn’t only whether a client has a system in place. It’s whether that system is helping employees understand and use the benefits they’ve been offered.
Open enrollment will always require thoughtful communication from HR. The right technology makes that communication easier to deliver, easier to access and more useful when employees are ready to make their elections.
At ebm, we help brokers and employers evaluate best-of-breed benefits technology based on the needs of their organization and workforce. With access to leading benefits administration platforms and dedicated ongoing support from our team, employers can build an enrollment experience that works for HR and the employees they support.
