You’ve been in HR since before you can remember and you’ve justgotten the order that the company will be “going green” for thenext open enrollment. Yes, you’ll save on paper cuts and the timeit takes to hunt down everyone’s forms and applications, but anonline enrollment?

Related: 10 tips for benefits enrollment

While this is a big project, with the right tech partner andpreparation, you can go green in no time.

Choosing your best-fit vendor partner

The first and probably most important step of the process ischoosing the right benefits technology vendor. You and yourconsultant may opt for a formal RFP process, or a less formal“market check” to see what is available.

Make sure you have a good understanding of the landscape. Sometechnology vendors may specialize in employers with 10,000+employees, some may really focus on small to mid-size employers.Understand if your vendors are appropriate for your company’s sizeand industry.

You will also want any potential vendors to understand what youare trying to accomplish. Is this change meant to make benefitsshopping easier and more informative for employees? Is your goal toincrease operational efficiency for your HR team? All theabove?

Related: The future of health benefitstechnologies

Be sure to fully understand your goals and articulate themclearly to any potential partner. Also, your broker/consultantshould be there every step of the way in choosing a technologypartner: crafting an RFP, attending finalist meetings, helping youweigh the options and providing context throughout theimplementation.

The right broker partner should play an instrumental role inthis process and should act as an extension of your team.

Know your timeline

Let’s be honest, the six weeks leading up to open enrollment arelikely the busiest time of the year for your HR team. It’s also thetime each year when you might think, “I really wish we could doopen enrollment online this year!”

Should that cross your mind, take a step back because that’susually not the right time to change your entire benefitsenrollment process.

Instead, make sure an initiative as big and important aschoosing and implementing a new benefits technology is madestrategically and with plenty of time to do it right. We have seenthe most successful implementations typically begin about sixmonths before the open enrollment window. This allows plenty oftime to complete the implementation and for the end user (i.e., HR)to get comfortable with the new system before the frantic pace ofopen enrollment strikes.

Know your benefits

This probably seems obvious, but the more prepared you arebefore the implementation process begins, the smoother things willgo. Gather all your plan booklets, know your plan rules, and theins and outs of your benefit program.

Moving from a paper process to a technology platform will likelyraise questions about your plan rules that you aren’t forced tothink about every day, but it will be important to get them rightfor a smooth transition. Collecting all your documents ahead oftime, and getting clear on the rules applicable to your population,will help keep the process moving.

Communicate

Use this new technology platform as an opportunity to revampyour company’s approach to employee benefits. If benefits have beensomething that have been glossed over in the past, leverage thistime to really stress to employees the value and richness of yourbenefit offerings. Communications leading up to open enrollmentshould be clear and steady, notifying employees of any plan changesand also of the new technology that the company has chosen toinvest in for their benefit.

Related: 5 ways to up your benefits communicationgame

Additionally, the right technology partner’s enrollment siteshould reiterate the value of your benefits program by offering keyinformation and tools, such as concrete examples of the employer’scontribution and decision-support tools that help the employee makesmart decisions for themselves and their families. This willfurther drive home your department’s commitment to caring for youremployees and investing in their future at your organization, whichis what employee benefits are all about.

Finally, throw away your Band-Aids and book your vacation. Ifyou choose the right tech vendor, clearly set your goals andpriorities, prepare appropriately for your implementation, andcommunicate effectively to employees, then your enrollment shouldgo that much more smoothly. Ultimately, this will allow you tofocus on initiatives other than onboarding and open enrollment,while giving your executive team something else to smile about.