Strategies for a Successful Virtual Open Enrollment

Many HR professionals are finding themselves struggling to juggle their normal daily tasks among a host of new obstacles presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. When prioritizing urgent issues like lean staffing, reduced revenue, or government-mandated closures, it can be easy to overlook more routine challenges like open enrollment. Problems brought on by the pandemic may certainly be more pressing than adhering to compliance regulations, but neglecting to focus on your open enrollment can lay the groundwork for harm down the road-both to your organization and your employees.

As with almost everything this year, open enrollment is certain to look different than in years past. Health benefits will likely be top of mind for most of your employees during this challenging time, and they may have more questions and concerns than in previous years. They may also be reluctant to meet with your HR team to ask questions and select their benefits in-person. This is why in today’s post, we’ll cover actionable strategies to conduct an impactful enrollment entirely virtually.

In this post, we’ll cover:

• Why you should consider executing your open enrollment virtually
• How to prepare for virtual open enrollment
• Tips for facilitating a successful virtual open enrollment

Choosing to Hold Virtual Open Enrollment

With the pandemic continuing to present a serious risk to employee health, and with flu season just around the corner, many organizations and their employees are hesitant to return to a shared working space. By offering an enrollment option that doesn’t require in-person attendance, employees can access educational materials, confer with benefits specialists over virtual office hours, and select their benefits within your provider’s online portal, all from the safety of their home. Additionally, virtual open enrollment saves time for your HR team and your employees, as enrollment may be completed online by each individual.

Preparing for a Virtual Open Enrollment

If virtual open enrollment is a new venture for your company, we recommend that you first determine and develop resources and materials that may be helpful to your employees as they research their benefits options. Reach out to your employees to discover which topics are of highest concern, and where there are gaps in employees’ benefits comprehension. These topics may include a basic “benefits 101” guide to understanding the open enrollment procedure, specific information about your company’s healthcare and retirement packages, or even a simple glossary of insurance terminology. Make these resources available to your employees through your online enrollment platform portal before enrollment is slated to begin so that they have time to gather pertinent information before making decisions about their benefits.

Your HR team should also discuss and determine what the ideal, successful open enrollment looks like for your company. Identify a few goals to help outline your objectives and to measure your success once open enrollment has ended. Goals may include basic aims such as a 100% on-time enrollment, or more detailed objectives like receiving 20% fewer questions about retirement benefits than the previous year. By pinpointing your enrollment process goals ahead of time, your team is more likely to have a clear sense of direction that increases the likelihood of goal achievement and also helps to clarify information and expectations to the rest of your employees.

Working with a proactive, modern benefits broker can help greatly during open enrollment time. A hands-on broker will devise a unique employee communication and benefits education strategy for your business.

Tips for a Successful Virtual Open Enrollment

Ensure that both your online platform and your employees are prepared for the enrollment process before employees make their benefit selections. Your online enrollment platform should act as a one-stop-shop for all your employee’s enrollment needs, meaning it must include all plan information, benefit summaries, mandatory enrollment forms, terminology guides, and other pertinent resources. The goal of virtual open enrollment is to empower your employees to learn about their benefit options and make decisions with minimal assistance.

Your employees (and your HR team) may also benefit from an instructional guide detailing the virtual open enrollment process- especially if virtual enrollment is new to your company. Clear instructions will lay the groundwork for a smooth enrollment process and provide your HR team a handy resource when addressing any questions that employees may have. Walk your employees through each step of the enrollment process by creating a guide with both written instructions and accompanying images, or through a video recording. In addition, you may want to designate time for virtual office hours on your benefits specialists’ calendars during your open enrollment period so that they can assist employees who may have trouble with the online platform’s enrollment portal.

Finally, be sure to evaluate the degree of success your virtual open enrollment had once it closes. Look back to the goals you set before enrollment began to determine which objectives were achieved and which, if any, were not met. You can also survey your employees to discover which parts of the process were helpful, and any advice your employees may have to improve the process in future years.

Key Takeaways

By utilizing an online platform to implement virtual open enrollment, your company can protect its employees from unnecessary potential viral exposure and save time and resources by empowering employees to learn about and enroll in benefits on their own time.

• Virtual open enrollment is the best option for completing open enrollment during this uncertain time. Selecting benefits online greatly decreases the risk for viral infection and saves time and resources, as all enrollment related tasks can be done entirely online at each individual employees’ convenience.
• Provide your employees with enrollment resources and materials through your online enrollment platform. Residing all in one place, these resources can include benefits guides, summations of benefits, and a glossary of insurance terms. You may also implement virtual office hours to give employees a chance to chat with your benefits specialists over a video call.
• Provide your employees with an instructional guide that walks them through the online enrollment process so that they may select their benefits whenever is most convenient for them.