Your organization has an unusual advantage during this fall’s open enrollment season for health insurance benefits: You’ve got your employees’ attention.
The double-whammy of incessant media focus on health care reform, plus employees’ acute awareness of rising health care premiums, means they’re paying attention to their benefits in a way that most never did before.
You can capitalize on this trend by using this open enrollment season to make an extra effort to educate workers about their health benefits and help them decide which plan options work best for them.
Open enrollment season is about more than handing out information packets and enforcing deadlines.
“Open enrollment is typically seen as a chore,” says Lenny Sanicola, senior benefits practice leader at WorldatWork. “But when it’s done effectively and correctly, it can be an opportunity to engage your workforce in the whole dialogue about your benefits packages and the decisions they make.”
Here are 10 ways organizations are changing the way they approach open enrollment season:
1. Be honest about cost. Every time you mention “cost sharing,” explain to employees why they’re paying more for insurance. If the organization’s costs are going up, tell them how much. Don’t expect employees to like everything you say. But they’ll appreciate information sharing even if they don’t like cost sharing.
2. Pile on the voluntary benefits. Your menu of employer-paid benefits might be smaller than before. Fill in the gaps with popular electives like identity-theft protection, prepaid legal plans or even pet insurance. Employees have to pay their own premiums, but those fees are lower if you negotiate group rates for them.
3. Broaden your communications effort. Sharing benefit info can’t just be done via staff meetings and take-home packets. Today’s employees are scattered via telework, travel, flextime and shift work. Use YouTube videos, intranet links, chat rooms, discussion boards and email to spread the word.
4. Embrace social media. You can’t squeeze a lot of information into a 140-character tweet, but you can use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media to send deadline reminders and links to details about your plans.
5. Don’t stop the presses. Brochures still work. Technology is a great way to reach employees, but it’s not the only way—and it’s not a good way to reach employees who don’t have computers at home or don’t use social media or email. Plus, some employees simply prefer printed information they can touch and hang on to.
6. Advertise changes in your benefits—through printed pieces, online advisories, notices on bulletin boards, email reminders and social media posts. If your employees have to take an action to sign up their 25-year-old dependents for health insurance now that it’s allowed by the health care reform law, don’t let them forfeit the benefit because they didn’t know about it.
7. Make it easy to enroll. Online enrollment may encourage some employees to register their choices sooner—and maybe for the first time. Web-connected computer kiosks in the lobby or break room remind employees that they can change their plans right then and there.
8. Limit “passive enrollment.” According to a survey by consulting firm HighRoads, 71% of organizations automatically renew last year’s plans (except flexible spending accounts) for employees who don’t take any action during open enrollment. Passive enrollment is easy for both HR and for employees. But it leaves many uninformed employees with coverage that doesn’t meet their changing needs or costs more than they need to spend.
9. Start early. The HighRoads survey also says more than half of organizations begin preparing for open enrollment three to seven months before the season. About 40% begin the process eight to 12 months ahead. The longer lead time allows HR to weed through the complexities of changing health care laws, plan design changes and new administrative procedures.
10. Consider getting outside help. Open enrollment eats up tons of HR staff time. You must keep up with legal and administrative changes, write content, design materials and, now, post regularly on social media sites and intranets. Get help from your broker or engage an outside expert to lighten the load.
