Five Last Minute Tips for Super Charging 2008 Benefit Enrollment Efforts Sep 26, 2008

San Francisco, CA—Jennifer Benz, founder and chief strategist of Benz Communications, suggests five easy-to-implement steps to ensure companies hit their 2008 enrollment targets. Benz Communications is a HR communications strategy boutique.

“One of the key questions concerning benefits administrators as they prepare for annual open enrollment is, ‘Will our enrollment communications hit the mark?’ says Ms. Benz. “With just a little extra effort, benefits administrators can easily implement these five strategies into their campaigns and take their enrollment efforts to the next level,” Ms. Benz concluded.

Keep it simple. Employees’ top concerns during enrollment are: What’s new? What will it cost? Spell out these answers (and why) in simple, easy-to-understand terms along with simple step-by-step instructions on how to enroll. If you haven’t already done so, create a one-page Enrollment “Tip Sheet” that lists what’s changing in as simple a form as possible (perhaps just a bulleted list), gives brief enrollment instructions, and tells employees and families where to go for all the details. Some employees want just the top-line info and some want all the details. This one-page overview will be helpful for both groups.

Make it personal. Resist the temptation to include figures about your total benefits spend or tell employees how many billion dollars per year bad health care decisions are costing the US. Those figures may perk up your CFO’s ears, but your employees need to know how it impacts them, their lives and their families. If you talk about your overall health care costs, break it down into what the company spends per employee. That is, how much do your health benefits add to each employee’s paycheck? When you talk about changes that could decrease costs, tell your employees what that will mean to their pocketbook. For example: “Using generic drugs instead of brand-name prescriptions could put an extra $500 in your pocket each year,” instead of “The cost of brand-name drugs is three times that of generic drugs and adds $800,000 a year to our health care costs.”

Promote missed or under-utilized benefits. Put together a list of the five to 10 benefit plans employees aren’t using enough—health savings account, fitness benefits, voluntary insurance, hidden features of the EAP, preventive care benefits, commuter benefits, etc. —as a one-page flyer. Title it “The Top 10 Employee Benefits You’re Missing” or “10 Ways You’re Not Getting The Most From Your Benefit Plans”. Spell it all out: why they’re valuable and how to enroll/sign up/get reimbursed. Then, ask employees to send in their own tips and use those for a post-enrollment update; you can have IT set up a new email address for you or use your existing benefits feedback channel.

Talk to your employees and let your employees talk. Debating whether or not to schedule enrollment meetings? In-person meetings are always worth the effort. Employees will appreciate being reached out to and given an opportunity to ask questions. Can’t make it to all of your locations? Hold virtual meetings or conference calls. Post the recording online for employees who can’t make it.

Or, start a benefits blog and ask employees to give feedback and ask questions via the comments section. You don’t have to be prolific, just a post a week during enrollment season will be of huge value to employees. Reminders and tips about enrollment are simple to post. Also, think about giving employees some “insider” tips about their benefits, the enrollment system, and/or the hidden features of their health plan. Chances are your benefits team can cite dozens of these that employees would be very interested in learning. If you’re still convinced you can’t write a blog post a week or worried about your writing skills, simply ask your internal communications group (or consultant) to write them for you.

Get managers in the game. Chances are your employees are talking to their managers at least once a week, maybe several times a day. Get “the boss” in the game and give managers the tools and incentive to talk to their employees about benefits. Many retailers send out business updates to all store managers every week. Get a line on enrollment in that announcement, and let that turn into a bullet or two once a month about benefits. Employee benefits are a key reason you can attract and retain a top workforce. Make sure your managers know benefits are an essential part of motivating their team. Often they just don’t know what to say or how to say it, so give your managers talking points and a quick run-down on why it matters to them.