Make Open Enrollment Work

MIDLANDS BUSINESS JOURNAL: Open enrollment is where your benefits strategy meets reality. You can build the  smartest plan in the world, but if your employees do not understand it, do not value it, or do not enroll thoughtfully, much of that work is lost. The difference between a smooth enrollment and a chaotic one almost always comes down to preparation. 

Start early and start with a plan for how you will communicate. For most employees, benefits are confusing and a little intimidating. They receive a stack of materials, skim the parts that seem relevant, and choose the same options they had last year out of habit. That is a missed opportunity for them and for you. The goal of enrollment is not just to collect elections. It is to help people make good decisions about their health and their money. 

Think about how your workforce actually takes in information, and meet them there. A single email and a dense benefits guide are no longer enough. Consider a mix of approaches: short videos that explain key changes, live or virtual meetings where employees can ask questions, one-page summaries that compare plan options side by side, and text or app-based reminders for those who never open email. If you have employees who speak different languages or work different shifts, make sure your communication reaches them too. The best strategy is one your people can understand. 

Focus your messaging on what changed and what matters most. If the formulary shifted, if a network changed, if you added a new plan option or a wellness benefit, say so clearly and explain what it means for them. Do not bury the important news in fine print. Employees who feel informed make better choices and ask better questions, and they are far less likely to be frustrated later when they use the plan. 

Engagement also means giving people a reason to pay attention. Highlight the benefits they may be overlooking, such as telehealth, mental health support, preventive care, or financial wellness tools. Many employees do not use what they already have simply because no one told them it was there. Open enrollment is your chance to change that. 

Now for the part that quietly derails more enrollments than anything else: your HRIS setup. Whatever system you use to manage enrollment, it needs time to be configured, tested, and verified before employees ever log in. Plan rates have to be loaded correctly. Eligibility rules have to be set. Carrier connections and payroll deductions have to be mapped and checked. None of this should happen the night before enrollment opens. 

Give your HRIS setup a real timeline, and build in room to test it. Run through the enrollment  experience yourself before you ask employees to. Confirm that the right plans appear, that the  costs calculate correctly, and that the data will flow cleanly to your carriers and your payroll. A  small error in setup can mean wrong deductions, missing coverage, or enrollment that has to be  redone, and those problems are far harder to fix after the fact than before. Loop in your broker  and your HRIS or technology partner early, so everyone is working from the same timeline. 

When you put it together, a strong open enrollment has three parts: first, you communicate  clearly and through more than one channel; second, you engage employees by focusing on  what matters to them and reminding them of what they may be missing; and third, you protect the whole process with an HRIS setup that is ready well before the doors open.

Done well, open enrollment is more than an administrative deadline. It is the moment your strategy becomes real for every employee, and it sets the tone for how they experience their  benefits all year. In January, once the season is behind us, we will look at how to review what  worked and carry those lessons into the year ahead.