Come open enrollment season and your office may resemble a Wal-Mart outlet on Black Friday. While many HR consultants dread the process, thorough preparation can vastly improve this season.

The busy period is undeniably stressful but it is also a prime time to make significant contributions to your department and help employees navigate through the topsy-turvy roads of benefits programs.

To help you get through this time and make the process smoother, here are some great tips to try out before the open enrollment season begins.

Prepare Employees

There are a few essential questions that every employee needs to answers here. They include:

  • Why is the coverage important for me?
  • How does the program benefit me?
  • Which benefits fit me and my family’spersonal needs?
  • What deductions can I expect from my paycheck?

Disseminating information before the season begins by answering these crucial questions will ensure your employees are ready to make informed decisions.

Provide information material before open enrollment commences through online portals, brochures or insurance carriers. Additionally, bring attention to key terms and contacts through an easy-to-read sheet placed inside paychecks, YouTube or Facebook videos.

Identify Employee Needs

When it comes to offering new voluntary benefits, critically assess if they match your employee’s needs.

Ask yourself the following questions to gauge the level of interest your employees may have toward the benefits:

  • Is auto-enrollment a better option for some benefits?
  • Will employees appreciate and use new benefits such as wellness programs?
  • Which benefits did employees use the most last year?

Let these questions be your guide while deciding which new benefits should be incorporated and how to improve the existing ones. Additionally, review feedback from last year and assess the effectiveness of last year’s approaches.

Surprise Them

Overwhelming employees with tons of information will not do much good. Instead, seek to give them information about benefits that they may be particularly interested in such as maternal/paternal leaves and caregiver leaves.

Furthermore, use testimonials from employees who have used fairly newly plans in the past such as HSAs to build credibility and make employees understand their benefits.

You can even provide free stuff to catch the attentions of employees. Organize a raffle to encourage employees to sign up on the first day. Once they finish their paperwork, their names go in to a draw and they get a chance to win cash prizes or gift cards.

Personal touches always go a long way. Always be sure to remember that while strategies may constantly evolve, prioritizing your employee’s needs will be your ultimate key to a chaos-free open enrollment season.

Contact JS Benefits!

For an effective benefits program, consult JS Benefits Group. We are a leading employee benefits and HR consulting firm with two decades of expertise in designing cutting-edge benefits programs for our clients.

We work with organization across the Mid-Atlantic region to develop plans that are backed by thorough market research and analysis.

Call 877 355-6070 to learn more about how we can help you.