Open enrollment is here, and many employers are working hard to meet the needs of their employees. This is a great time to review your current benefits and make changes. This time also allows your employees to change their insurance plans for the following year. If you plan on making significant changes, it’s essential to keep open communication with your employers. Also, ensure your younger workers know how their benefits work. According to research, only 54 percent of the younger generation fully understands how their benefits work.
Here are some ways to manage employee expectations[1]:
What is Open Enrollment?
Starting with the basics, open enrollment is a period when employers/employees can change their benefits plan. Benefits can include health, dental, vision, life insurance and other offerings such as pet insurance or 401k contributions etc. Open enrollment typically starts in November for many businesses starting the benefit year on January 1st. There is typically no timeline for open enrollment, making it easier for employers. [2]
Discuss Potential Inflation
Across the board, insurance is supposed to soar in cost year. Unfortunately, this is unavoidable, and it’s essential to make sure your employees know how this may affect their income. First and foremost, ensure your employees know you did your research and are aware of their concerns. Also, encourage preventative care, such as yearly check-ups, to help lower the premium cost.[3]
General Benefit Concerns
The open enrollment process can be a hassle when employees don’t understand how their benefits work. Talk with your employees about what’s important to them and make sure they understand what you have to offer. Healthcare can be one of the most confusing areas in the benefits process. Consider providing healthcare insurance documents and web resources for your employees so they can better understand their plans. [4] Sometimes charts can be helpful for employees and a dedicated benefits person at the workplace, or accessible via email for the harder, more complicated processes is recommended. Today downloadable pdfs, a FAQs sheet, or information in a custom app can help to reduce the time spent by your in-house benefits professionals.
Consider an Active Enrollment Process
It’s important to keep the conversation going even after enrollment is over. An active enrollment requires employees to decide and choose a benefits selection each enrollment period—as opposed to passive enrollment, where employees are automatically re-enrolled in their current selection, with little or no involvement in the process. An active enrollment process allows employees time to evaluate what they spent the previous year and whether the same benefits are necessary for the next year.
Consider a Custom App
Open enrollment is a hectic time, and getting everyone signed up and updated in time for the new year can be stressful and consuming for HR professionals who are already short-staffed for regular day-to-day duties. There are affordable options out in the workforce now to bring your open enrollment and complete benefits offering into a custom app that works with your providers. The app can be customized with your logo and branding and can bring the power of open enrollment right into the palm of each employee’s hand. The app doesn’t have to stop at benefits either, add in your schedules, time request sheet, push important reminders, or share the monthly HR Newsletter! Contact Premier Workforce Solution today to schedule a no-obligation 30-minute virtual meeting to learn more about custom app development for your organization.
[1] https://mybciteam.com/blog/why-employee-open-enrollment-meetings-help-maximize-employee-engagement
2 https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/open-enrollment-benefits-guide.aspx
3 http://morganplan.com/individual-group-insurance-blog/managing-employee-expectations-open-enrollment
[1] https://mybciteam.com/blog/why-employee-open-enrollment-meetings-help-maximize-employee-engagement
[2] https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/open-enrollment-benefits-guide.aspx
[3] http://morganplan.com/individual-group-insurance-blog/managing-employee-expectations-open-enrollment
[4] https://www.benefitspro.com/2022/11/07/4-steps-to-meeting-employee-expectations-during-open-enrollment-season/