Experts say brokers who want to have a successful enrollment process need a carefully orchestrated system throughout a period of several weeks. It is not just a matter of, "Sign on the dotted line, please." There are a lot of ways to "slice and dice" the enrollment process. A simple solution is to break it down into three steps: Entice, Educate and Enroll.
Entice
Before enrollment, it's important to get employees interested in the benefits program in general. Make employees aware of how valuable their benefits packages are and how the individual components fit together. One option is to send each employee a summary of their current benefits package, so they know what they have.
"If employees don't fully understand their benefits, (and most don't) then employers have to ask themselves why they are spending money on employer paid benefits and the time to 'vet' the benefits," points out Jack Kwicien, managing partner with Daymark Advisors, a management consulting firm that works with carriers, brokers and voluntary benefits firms. "Communication around employee benefits programs, including written statements about the benefits plans, are more important than they have been in last 20 years."
Employers use different ways to notify employees of an upcoming enrollment period. Most employers prefer meetings, while others opt for intra-office fliers or mailers, or payroll stuffers. Or, if they want something quick and easy, many will utilize e-mail or posters.
Whatever the material, make sure it is interesting and easy to understand. If possible, make the information and communication methods personal. "Off the shelf" stuff doesn't get employees excited. If the information isn't tailored to their individual needs, employees are more likely to discard or ignore it.
Educate
Education is a critical element of the enrollment process. Recently, Unum conducted a national survey of more than 1,000 full-time employees. The findings, published in "Beyond the Usual Benefits: How Employee Education Can Drive Workplace Satisfaction," show that the right benefit plan design paired with an effective education model can help employers maximize their benefits return on investment.
In general, Unum suggests what it calls a "3+3" strategy for benefits communication prior to enrollment: providing information to employees a minimum of three weeks before enrollment, and providing a minimum of three different communication methods for employees to learn about options.
"Our research shows that employees who started receiving benefits communications more than three weeks prior to their enrollment deadline were much more likely to report they had enough time to make informed choices, compared to those who had less time to become familiar with their benefits." Unum's report states. "With at least three weeks, employees have sufficient time to take materials home to share with a spouse, evaluate their personal situations, attend information meetings (if offered), consult with relatives or friends, and conduct additional research."
"Offering workers adequate time and the right tools to understand and choose their benefits is a critical element of effective benefits education," adds Bill Dalicandro, vice president, enrollment services, for Unum.
What are the best education methods? That depends on each employer, according to Dalicandro. "For example, a bank with different locations and people at computers all day would probably benefit from online," he states.
Some additional general education strategies:
Offer a summary page that compares plan features at the 30,000 foot level. Then provide additional detailed information that can "drill down" from there.
Be sure the people who will be doing the actual education (group meetings, individual meetings, call center people, etc.) are well-educated in all of the details, so they can provide accurate information to employees.
According to the Unum report, offering different methods of communication is also critical, largely because different people learn in different ways called "learning styles." Unum notes that:
- Visual learners may prefer videos or printed materials with images.
- Auditory learners usually prefer podcasts, video, or spoken communication.
- Tactile/kinesthetic learners are "hands on," and may do better with on line interactive tools or worksheets they can fill out.
Unum suggests that new online methods of benefits communication, such as interactive Web sites, Web-based podcasts, and videos, should also be added - but not limited to - the "mix" of communication methods.
"Our research shows that, when employees are offered different methods of benefits communication, they will take advantage of a variety of options." In fact, "good old paper" is still the preferred method for most employees.
Given the growing demands from employers and employees for varied and detailed communication information and methods, there is more pressure on brokers to provide a comprehensive program, especially because employers themselves can be overwhelmed by the increasing demands. According to Gil Lowerre, president of Eastbridge Consulting Group, a firm that studies insurance trends, there is a growing amount of evidence that employees are increasingly looking for advice bundled with the enrollment, whether this is delivered through the Internet or other ways. "In specific, employees are looking for tailored solutions for their individual situations," he states.
Unfortunately, according to Lowerre, most employers are not well-equipped to provide this advice, because they lack access to the information as well as the time to research it and share it. "During open enrollment periods, most HR departments experience pure chaos," he states. "As a result, brokers and insurance companies need to step up and do a better job." In sum, according to Lowerre, the goal is not necessarily to be more efficient with open enrollment, but rather to find ways to provide a more complete service.
This may require going outside of your own organization to get assistance. One option is to use a third party benefits enrollment firm. "We have found that, when people understand their benefits, they make the best decisions in terms of what to select, they utilize them better, and they appreciate them more," states Rich Howes, owner of Explain My Benefits, Inc., a benefits enrollment firm that provides benefits education to employees and works with brokers to serve their clients. For example, Howes says, it's "just unbelievable" to see the number of people who automatically take the cheapest health insurance, not realizing that they could put themselves at financial risk because of a current health condition. They'll maybe opt for an immediate annual $5,000 out-of-pocket, when they could have spent an extra $50 of pre-tax money and purchased a more benefit rich plan.
According to Howes, the best way to reach employees is a three-step process. The first step is a group meeting. "Then, we send them home with a needs analysis to discuss with their families," he states. Employees then come up with what they think they might want, but they also have some further questions. As such, the third step is individual face to face counseling sessions, which usually last 15 to 30 minutes. "Our counselors try to help them make the best decisions," he continues. Howes has found that, when employees have the time to sit down in a relaxed environment and get all of their questions answered, participation (enrollment) tends to take care of itself. "Our research shows that brokers who use our services see a 15 percent to 20 percent increase in enrollment on health insurance and increases of 25 percent or more on dental and vision."
A second source of additional support can be carriers. According to Elena Wu, second vice president, group marketing and worksite, for Guardian Life Insurance Company of America, brokers can provide more education to employees by utilizing the technology that carriers have such as delivering learning tools at enrollment time.
Carriers can help with the enrollment education process," she states. "For example, our benefits specialists go out and conduct education and enrollment meetings. They answer questions from employees face to face." Then, when employees go home, they may come up with other questions after reviewing material and discussing it with family members. In response to this, Guardian has an employee benefits hotline.
Recently, Guardian began offering personalized enrollment kits and online enrollment services to mid-sized and small businesses. "Clearly, the use of personalization is a key feature in enrollment for voluntary benefits," she states. "Personalization helps to break through the first barrier, which is awareness." She notes that employees are faced with an overload of communication. The first way to break through that is name recognition. "Personalization helps in education and ease of understanding, too, because materials are tailored to the individual, such as salary levels and costs," she adds.
Enroll
Just as the number of ways to notify employees of education and enrollment is increasing, and the number of ways to provide the education is increasing, the number of enrollment methods is also increasing.
As a result, just as brokers may need some outside assistance with the education process, they may also need some outside assistance with enrollment. According to Robert N. Arnoff, president of Arnoff and Associates, a consulting firm and benefits brokerage, brokers need to decide if they are going to try to do enrollment on their own or seek help. "If a small broker has a large client, he may not be able to do it well by himself," he points out. "The broker may be able to keep the client in the short term, but lose him in long term."
One option for assistance is the increasing number of enrollment software providers. Voluntary Benefits of America, for example, provides voluntary benefits enrollment software, which it sells to brokers. "Our target is a core benefits broker who goes on site and does employee meetings or maybe uses online enrollment for core benefit enrollment," explains Tom Smith, founder. According to Smith, brokers may need a third party enrollment firm to enroll for core benefits, such as health, and certain supplemental products, such as critical illness and life. However, he believes, they don't need an enrollment firm to help them with voluntary products like dental. "Our software complements this process, focusing on the voluntary benefits side," he explains. "This eliminates the need and cost for brokers to use third party enrollment firms for voluntary benefits."
Sidebar: Employees stick with what works -- recession or not
As employees mull over their benefits options this year, it's clear they're unwilling to compromise on coverage. In fact, according to a recent MetLife poll of full-time employees, nearly 9 in 10 (87 percent) are planning to maintain or increase their coverage and/or the number of benefits they select. And one-third will do so despite the fact that their household's discretionary income decreased this year. Only 11 percent plan to decrease their 2010 benefits coverage, and nearly one-quarter of those will increase their benefits during next year's open enrollment period if the economy improves.
Sidebar: Using Enrollment For Other Purposes
The goal of enrollment, of course, is to sign up as many employees as possible. However, these days, more companies are looking at capitalizing on another potential benefit of getting employees healthier, so that, ultimately, claims for health-related insurance products will (at least theoretically) begin to decrease.
Watson Wyatt is studying this trend, and produced a 2008 report titled, "Navigating Enrollment: Leveraging Technology to Engage Employees."
The report shows that employers are using the enrollment period each year to encourage employees to adopt healthier behaviors: Fifty-three percent of employers incorporate health risk assessments into the enrollment process, and 32 percent more plan to do so in the future. Thirty-six percent incorporate disease management programs into the enrollment process, and 32 percent more plan to do so in the future.
Other programs/activities that are stepped up during the enrollment period include: addressing tobacco usage; participating in on site health screenings; exercise program and/or use of fitness center; and weight or body mass index management.
"Open enrollment marks the one time each year in which most employees' attention is focused on their benefits programs," says Jen Stepman, national leader for health and welfare administration at Watson Wyatt. "Including behavior change information and decision support tools directly in the enrollment process can make a big difference in the number of people who sign up for wellness programs and take them seriously. Sending out information on healthy behaviors and asking employees to take the initiative is not nearly as effective."
