This month's topic is the life of the enroller.

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For those of us who sit in nice offices, even those of us whotravel much of the time, our world is reasonably predictable. Wespend our time in familiar office environments. When we travel, wevisit people who escort us into well-appointed offices orconference rooms where we often know the people we are meeting.

The life of the enroller is very different. One of ourenrollment team members, Ralph Jenkins, was new to both our teamand to full-time enrolling in 2016. At year-end, he sent a note toour enrollment manager saying his biggest challenge was that “youare a stranger in every city and with every employer location youvisit.”

Enrollers travel constantly, and demand for their expertise isespecially high during the fourth quarter. Traveling to unknowncities to meet with strangers nearly every day for almost threemonths was difficult for Ralph.

Back in our comfortable offices, it's pretty easy for us to planour travel. Most of us outside the enrollment teams can carefullyschedule our travel plans. But Ralph found that he could be in anairport on the way to, say, Charleston, when he'd get a calltelling him the Charleston meetings were being rescheduled and wewere sending him to Little Rock instead. From the enroller'sperspective, this is common in the fourth quarter.

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The enroller's life is a constant challenge. First, they travelto cities and towns they've never visited. Then, they have to trustmap apps to find their way to employer locations. Then they mustintroduce themselves to strangers and are escorted into rooms whereenrollments will be conducted.

Then their real work begins, creating their enrollmentenvironment by making sure any enrollment materials, audio visualsand other facility arrangements are ready. They have to stick to arigid schedule that's often out of their control. If the employerwants group meetings, for example, they are often conductingenrollments alongside medical benefit enrollments led by others whomay or may not stick to their time schedule.

They have to figure out how to dress appropriately for eachemployer's situation. While business or business casual dress isnearly always appropriate, in some environments, the enroller mustdress for the occasion. For example, I attended enrollments in aNorth Carolina furniture factory where the enroller was in a workarea that required safety gear, including a dust mask. On anotheroccasion, our enrollers were working in a hospital and had toconduct enrollment meetings in a small room next to the morgue.

So the next time you think you're having a tough day traveling,when an airline is a bit behind and you're frustrated, think aboutRalph and all of his fellow enrollers. They're probably changingfrom a Charleston–bound plane to one going to Little Rock, figuringout how to find an employer for their 6 a.m. enrollment meetings(while we debate whether or not to hit the hotel fitness room at6:30 the next morning). They are looking forward to meetingstrangers with a smile, and being the positive face of the benefitbrokers and insurers they represent at one meeting afteranother.

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So let's give kudos to Ralph and all of his fellow enrollers andtake time to thank them for the hard work they put in, traveling tonew cities, meeting with strangers and making it one of the mostimportant, positive experiences that any of the people they meetwill have—offering a link to family and personal financialsecurity.