Post-Open Enrollment

There's still work to be done in the post open enrollment period.

Now it’s time to tie up the loose ends, verify enrollment information with the providers, and assess your success. It’s important to do this while open enrollment is fresh in you and your employees’ minds to gather the most valuable feedback. This is also the time to make or refine your plan for ongoing benefits education to ensure that employees utilize their benefits and get the most value out of the package that you have so carefully put together.

Evaluate and record learnings for next year and provide ongoing benefits education. Surveying employees while open enrollment is fresh in their minds can help you gather valuable insights for next year.

Survey employees about what worked and what did not

Hold open enrollment post-mortem meeting to discuss survey and other takeaways

Provide ongoing education so employees can access and maximize their benefits

• Send monthly email newsletters with updated benefits information
• Include reminders about benefits that can be accessed or changed year round
• Highlight benefits such as financial wellness, pet insurance, or access to wellness perks
• Keep internal website accessible and up-to-date with benefits information
• Provide education on how to use HSAs, FSAs, HRAs, Lifestyle Spending Accounts, Medical Travel Accounts, and 401(k)s in order to make these important benefits easy to understand

What should post-open enrollment employee communication include?

Even though benefit enrollment has been completed, there are still important pieces of information that employees need to know. Here are the essentials:

• When the new benefits will take effect and/or the new plan year will begin.
• When employees can expect to receive their new benefits cards and debit cards.
• What employees should do if they don’t receive their new cards by that time.
• Summary plan descriptions and Summaries of Benefits and Coverage.
• An employee survey to assess their experiences during open enrollment and what they felt worked and what didn’t.

We didn’t meet our goals, now what?

There are many reasons your team might not have met their goals for open enrollment. The first step is determining which goals weren’t met, then why. You can use the employee survey results to help you determine where the breakdown was. Some reasons you might not have met your goals are:

• Unclear or not enough employee communication. If your communication was poor, consider sourcing resources from the marketing department and leaning harder on your benefits broker and provider for better materials. If you suspect your benefit mix is to blame, research benefit trends and assess your offerings to see where your holes are. Try to fill those holes next year.
• Uncompetitive or not enough high-value benefits.
• Technological glitches. If technology hindered employees’ success in enrolling in benefits, research other options and make sure to test the programs prior to next year’s open enrollment.
• High-cost plans. Consider including a High Deductible Health plan (HDHP) and Health Savings Account (HSA) pairing next year. These benefits not only lower employers’ and employees’ premium obligation but can increase employees’ freedom with which they spend their healthcare dollars, and help them save for retirement.

Once you’ve determined the reason(s) you missed your targets, you can develop a plan to make next year’s open enrollment plan more successful.