Open enrollment is a stressful time for all participants, from employees to managers to HR professionals. Perhaps as a reaction to that anxiety, some employees select the same benefits they did over 20 years ago when they started with their company. Meanwhile, others don’t know the difference between a PPO and an HMO plan. With everyone at different stages in their benefits knowledge, the HR department must work to get all employees on the same page and ensure they are selecting the most beneficial plan for their current lifestyle.
For the first time — at least in our lifetime — there are five different generations in the workforce. Each generation is different from the next, which creates a challenge for HR departments. Every employee’s needs will differ. While older generations are focused on having great health benefits, younger generations often desire debt management and student loan repayment benefits. Let’s discuss a few strategies that will help your HR department align all employees around the right benefits.
Plan ahead
After a few open enrollment seasons, it’s easy to assume you have the process figured out. However, open enrollment is ever changing, and each year there are new developments and additions to benefits plans. It’s important to understand and communicate those changes. Prior to open enrollment starts, we recommend taking three steps as an HR leader:
- Send a questionnaire to employees
- Brief the HR department on the healthcare landscape
- Make a clear deadline for open enrollment documentation to be submitted
Sending a questionnaire to all employees helps HR departments understand what benefits their employees will deem necessary. Benefits play an intricate role in employee retention, so it’s essential HR professionals know the ins and outs of the healthcare world to ensure the best health benefits are being offered to employees. And sharing a clear deadline with employees early and often ensures the HR department has ample time to help confused employees before it’s too late.
Communicate, and then communicate some more
Most HR professionals are well-versed in talking about benefits. But for everyone else, discussing benefits can feel like learning a second language and can easily lead to information overload. In fact, over one-third of employees don’t understand the benefits they have, the benefits they qualify for or where they can learn more about benefits. It’s HR professionals’ task to alleviate this confusion.
We suggest starting off by sending important information via email. This highlighted information should include major benefit changes along with the standard information on PPO vs. HMO plans. This will give everyone in the organization the same jumping-off point. After the email has been distributed, block out meeting times with small groups of employees in person or via video conference to answer questions.
Meetings don’t need to be long, especially if all present employees seem knowledgeable about their offerings. But it’s still important to provide information about basic benefits options. Yes, that means covering what a deductible is to ensure everyone is on the same page. We also recommend examining your employees and creating a few employee “profiles” to use as examples for which benefits might work best for different career stages. Each profile should be based on the most prevalent groups throughout the company. This can help employees relate to what coverage may work best for them. From there, take time to answer any questions. If you do not have an answer to a question, that’s okay. Explain you may not have an answer at the moment, then take the time to do your research and follow up with specific details.
Transparency is key
In today’s world, transparency is not only appreciated, it is an expectation. As we discussed earlier, everyone has a different idea of which options they want to see in their benefits packages. Employees value feeling as though they have a higher level of benefits understanding so they can make informed decisions. For that reason, when benefits are taken away or new ones are added, employees want to understand why those decisions were made. Sharing this information via email or in a benefits meeting will help ensure employees feel like the company is actively meeting their needs.
Technology is your friend
The sheer amount of paperwork involved during open enrollment is alarming. For most companies, each individual employee receives a manila-type file sent to their home that is packed to the brim with coverage options and other benefit information. This can be overwhelming for the average employee, especially younger individuals who are less familiar with open enrollment. Plus, paper enrollment makes it difficult or even impossible for employees to edit their selections. Yet many companies today use administration technology to help with day-to-day HR tasks. Most of these administration technologies also offer technology specifically for open enrollment. This provides a digital platform where employees select their benefits and can go back and change them until the open enrollment period ends.
Open enrollment is over…now what?
Congrats, you made it through open enrollment season! What’s next?
Even though all the coverage selections have been made, all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed, there will still be a number of employees who don’t have a full understanding of what they selected. And that’s okay!
We suggest creating a guide that includes coverage offers. You can reuse the profiles you made for the open enrollment meeting and add additional information on other benefits that were not covered. In the guide, include where employees can find which plans they selected, where they can find insurance cards and who they should contact if there are any more questions.
At the end of the day, open enrollment season is only as stressful as you make it. Preparing for open enrollment with a clearly communicated plan and HR tools can help save many hours answering the same questions over and over again. If there wasn’t time to prep for open enrollment before the season starts, don’t panic. There may have to be a few extra hours put in throughout the week to cover all your bases, but doing so ensures your employees are selecting the best benefits packages for their situation. The extra work may save you a few rogue emails about benefits…hopefully!
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