5 ways to better support employees during open enrollment
With clear communication and the right tools, open enrollment can become a confident, empowering experience for employees.
Every year, employees make some of the most important health and financial choices of their lives — in about the same time it takes to watch a '90s sitcom rerun.
Research shows that 67% of employees spend 30 minutes or less reviewing their benefit options.1 Yet, nearly half of surveyed employees said they felt unprepared during open enrollment, with 1 in 4 indicating that they felt “a little” or “not at all” informed about their benefits.2
This knowledge gap often leads to delayed care, unexpected bills and employee dissatisfaction — outcomes that may ripple back to employers in the form of higher costs and lower engagement.
The good news? With better communication and the right support tools, benefit leaders can turn open enrollment into an empowering, confidence-building experience for employees. Here’s how:
1. Provide clear, proactive education before open enrollment begins
One of the best ways to support employees during open enrollment is to start the education process before open enrollment. Nearly 27% of employees wait until the final week to choose their benefits.1 Providing open enrollment information earlier may enable employees to make more informed decisions about their benefits earlier — without feeling rushed or overwhelmed.
Early communication also allows time for employees to review their options, ask questions, consult with their families and financial advisors if needed. It also helps to reduce confusion among employees and limit errors during the open enrollment process, which can lead to higher satisfaction and a reduced workload for HR teams.
Employers should ensure their proactive communication to employees includes education about all of the benefits offered, any changes to the plans or costs offered and any new additions to the plans offered. It may also be good to give the workforce a reminder on some health insurance basics:
- How does the plan work?
- How do the plans compare?
- What services are covered?
- Which providers are in the network?
2. Simplify the enrollment experience with engaging resources
Many employees find benefits information complex and overwhelming, which can lead to missed opportunities or costly mistakes. By using clear, interactive tools — like videos, provider directories and decision trees — employers can make the process more approachable and less stressful.
For instance, UnitedHealthcare provides open enrollment resources, informed by consumer insights and data, that are designed to align with how employees think, feel and act during enrollment. These resources focus on simplifying the process and making it easier and more effective for employees to select health plans and benefits.
Whether an employer is offering medical, dental, vision or specialty benefits, the open enrollment resources can be configured by their respective account management teams to align with their organizational needs — at no additional costs. These resources include PowerPoint presentations, videos, enrollment emails and reminders, cost comparison grids, virtual and in-person open enrollment event support and pre-member websites.
For grab-and-go resources, the UnitedHealthcare® Getting Started Toolkit makes this easier with phased communications that help before the plan begins, when the plan begins and 1–3 months into the plan. This toolkit includes ready-to-use fliers and videos with the goal of reduced administrative work, more engaged employees and stronger outcomes. Employers with fewer than 5,000 employees may also have access to the UnitedHealthcare Employee Engagement Planner. HR leaders may embed these materials directly into their own platforms, ensuring employees are receiving relevant and timely information.
Engaging resources may also boost participation and comprehension, which helps ensure that employees feel supported and valued. The payoff may be fewer calls, faster decisions and an enrollment process that may help build trust among employees instead of wasting time.
3. Personalize education and assistance
Employers who have access to claims data can use those insights to help inform the benefits they choose for their workforces — as well as their communication about those benefits. Personalizing education and support can go a long way toward making an employee feel known and cared for.
For instance, employers may want to tailor messages based on the generational demographics and preferences represented in their workforces. They may want to use different formats to reach their employees, whether via email, video calls or in-person sessions to match learning styles and communication preferences.
At UnitedHealthcare, employers of all sizes have access to personalized support for their workforces. For instance, small and midsize businesses can lean on Field Account Managers (FAMs) to provide personalized support, while larger businesses can benefit from the insight of their account or client management teams.
4. Leverage digital tools and member support
HR teams often face an open enrollment bottleneck: a heavy load of questions and support calls on top of all their other responsibilities. An intuitive, simple digital experience can help relieve this strain by helping employees find answers to questions on coverage on their own and in their own time, which is what many prefer to do anyway.
At UnitedHealthcare, employers can promote a suite of resources accessible to employees:
- The UnitedHealthcare® app and myuhc.com® for health plan ID cards, cost estimates, claims tracking and provider searches
- 24/7 Advocacy support for complex questions that need a personal touch
The result can be fewer HR challenges, lower costs and a benefits experience that doubles as a competitive edge for recruitment and retention.
5. Keep benefits education going year-round
Missed checkups, ER visits and unused wellness benefits all drive higher costs for employers and can also contribute to poorer health outcomes. Year-round education may promote more informed and less costly decisions. In fact, most employees want benefit education throughout the year, not just during OE.3
And while carriers like UnitedHealthcare send their own member communications based on general population needs or trends, employers may want to also:
- Send monthly or quarterly reminders about preventive care, behavioral health services and wellness programs
- Highlight cost-saving opportunities, like alternatives to the ER, which may save thousands per visit
- Offer timely tips for health savings accounts (HSAs) and flexible spending accounts (FSAs), such as reminders for school physicals or year-end balances
Learn more about open enrollment resources
Turning open enrollment into ROI
Impacts from the selections an employee makes during open enrollment can often be felt in the next plan year and potentially for years to follow. If an employee doesn’t understand their options, they may not make the best choices. As a result, inadequate coverage could cause their health to suffer, they could spend more out-of-pocket than they budgeted for and their satisfaction with their employer could dip. For the employer, that may in turn increase their year-over-year risk and thus their rates or costs in addition to the threat of lower productivity and employee retention rates.
Employers looking to maximize their ROI should work with their UnitedHealthcare representative, broker or consultant to make sure they are prepared and ready to offer their employees support during open enrollment, once their plan year begins and throughout the year.
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