They say the way for a musician to get to Carnegie Hall is“practice, practice, practice.” In the voluntary benefits world, Isay the recipe for ongoing enrollment success is “planning,planning, planning.” Just as you can’t show up and expect to playat Carnegie Hall without having mastered your craft, you can’tschedule enrollment without advance preparation.

Creating an ongoing enrollment strategy is a prime example ofplanning that enables success. And it isn’t just about enrollingemployees, either. As with any good solution, it has to work forall parties involved — and brokers, enrollment organizations andemployers can reap the benefits of a multi-year employeecommunications or engagement enrollment strategy just as much asthe employees.

The three elements of a multi-year enrollmentstrategy

So, what is a multi-year enrollment strategy? It involves layingthe groundwork for what you want to accomplish year-over-year whenit comes to an employer’s benefits package, their employeecommunication and engagement needs, and actual enrollments. I’vefound that an effective enrollment strategy incorporates all threeof these elements.

Any effective enrollment strategy requires solid communication, and a multi-yearenrollment strategy is a great way to deliver. Simply put,employees don’t think about enrollment year-round. They researchand make elections during enrollment and then don’t dedicate muchthought to their benefits unless they need the coverages. To helpemployees maintain familiarity with their benefits, brokers andemployers need to ensure that employee communication is givenattention throughout the year. Regular communication about thebenefits, the enrollment dates and, perhaps most importantly, thesynergy between their core and voluntary benefits will create moreinformed, more satisfied and better protected employees.

Higher employee satisfaction and benefits appreciation are perksfor employers with a multi-year enrollment strategy, but not theonly benefits. Employers can use this ongoing communication as avehicle to communicate on other important corporate initiatives,such as 401(k) participation, well-being programs orcustomer-service initiatives that impact the organization’srevenue. For employers, it’s a great way to maintain communicationwith employees on critical HR initiatives. And for brokers,partnering to provide this communication is a great way todemonstrate that you are a valuable resource throughout the year;not just at time of enrollment. One of our partners, Frank Shimsky,President at Personal Communications Inc., has seen this in action.“Across the board, we see stronger results with a multi-year planfor enrollment,” he says. “More employees enroll and employers havemore opportunity to engage with their employees.”

Brokers and employers should also ensure they are offering planmembers a chance to actively enroll on a regular basis. Thisdoesn’t have to be every year, but rather than allowing employeesto enroll passively, they should ensure they areproviding one-on-one communication resources to help enrollemployees. Research we conducted found that 90 percent of employeeswho enroll one-on-one with a benefits counselor express high levelsof satisfaction with enrollment. This kind of communication isessential to providing the information that employees need and inhelping them make the best decision for themselves and theirfamilies at time of enrollment.

A process; not an event

Employers can also apply a multi-year enrollment strategy totheir employee benefits. If, as we noted, employees are oftenunder-informed at time of enrollment, approaching them with alengthy list of benefit options may be overwhelming. Instead,brokers, working in partnership with employers, can map out a planto start with just a few voluntary benefits and then roll out morebenefits year-over-year. This kind of preparation gives theemployee time to mentally digest the benefits, the way they workand how they apply to their unique situation. Especially whenpaired with ongoing communications, it gives an employee time toweigh their options and prevents them from overlooking benefitsthey need or enrolling in more than they can afford.

For employers, this approach helps ensure that employees aremaking the right benefit decisions, in turn making them more likelyto appreciate their benefits and their employer. It alsoshows that the broker and employer are dedicated to improving theirbenefits year-over- year with new options for coverage.

Generally, we tend to think of enrollments as an event. But weneed to get out of this mindset. Rather than an event, enrollmentshould be seen as a process, one that goes on throughout the year.Brokers, employers and their employees all want enrollment to be asuccess. And the best way to get there? Planning, planning,planning, in the form of a multi-year enrollment strategy.