1. Communicate effectively
It’s not just about the information you’re presenting to your workforce. It’s how you present it to them. Your staff may be a population that prefers printed materials that they can touch and feel, so perhaps that would be best for them. Increasingly tech-savvy and paper-conscious employees may feel overwhelmed by lengthy paper materials. It may make more sense to provide them digital versions of benefits materials. You know your employees and the company culture. Consider that when determining the channel for delivering information.
2. Present all benefits fully and adequately
Too often pre-tax benefits take a backseat to healthcare, dental and vision in open enrollment meetings. However, it’s important to allot ample and equal time to discussing the pre-tax benefits that serve as savings tools for your workforce. Don’t let them be an afterthought to the benefits that most people are already aware of anyhow.
3. Remember the spouses
Discussing major changes early on can assist in minimizing downtime between spousal enrollment periods. Of course, it is tricky for organizations to consider and accommodate every employee’s spouse’s benefits. Timing cannot be controlled, but offering clear direction on how a benefits plan mesh with a spouse’s offering can positively impact your open enrollment period.
4. Provide guidance on election amounts
There is a lot of pressure on employees to determine the amount they choose to contribute to their Flexible Spending or Health Savings Account. You can relieve this pressure by offering expense examples and calculators for your workforce to see the math and understand it before making their decisions.
5. Offer year-round benefits education
Enrollment is a short window of time to make permanent decisions for the rest of the year. However, that doesn’t mean that the topic of employee benefits only takes place during that time. Offer your employees content that addresses relevant benefits information throughout the year to keep it top of mind prior to the Open Enrollment period.
6. Choose quality over quantity
Companies can make the mistake of offering too many options for benefits plans. In doing so, employees can feel stressed by having to choose from an extensive breadth of options. Instead, present the fewer and best options to your workforce. Decreasing options can often increase participation.
7. Use digestible language
In any industry, it’s easy to get caught up jargon. When you’re working with employee benefits day-in and day-out, uncommon words can become ordinary. However, employees in an Open Enrollment need to hear everything in layman’s terms. Everyday language makes the topic more digestible and improves communication.
Open Enrollment doesn’t have to be the bane of your existence. Contact a Benefits Consultant at McConkey today and let us help you have the smoothest, most successful Open Enrollment yet.
