If open enrollment had a hashtag, it might be #timeconsuming,#overwhelming or #notrelevanttome. But, the hashtag it should haveis #financialwellnesstime. 

Benefits are the building blocks of financial wellness, andopen enrollment is the most importantopportunity of the year for employees to create a strong financialfoundation.

According to MetLife's 15^th Annual Employee BenefitTrends Study (EBTS), nearly half of employees are concerned,anxious or fearful about their current financial wellness. Asemployees look for ways to boost their financial wellness, they'reincreasingly looking to their employers. In fact, 3 out of 5employees say they are looking to their employer for help inachieving financial security through benefits,according to EBTS. 

To deliver on employees' expectations and help their workers befinancially well, employers are offering a wider variety ofvoluntary benefits to meet employees' needs.  And, as theworkforce continues to diversify, a voluntary benefits strategy isonly going to become more important.

Even more critical is ensuring that employees understand theresources available to them through the workplace, how theseofferings are relevant to their everyday lives, and how benefitscan help them meet their financial wellness goals.

Yet today, employees' need are unmet when it comes to learningabout their benefits, according to research from MetLife:

• They can't navigate the benefits information they receive. 

• They don't have the time or energy to dig in.

• They don't know who to turn to with questions.

• And, when they don't understand their benefits, they assume theydon't need them.

In fact, EBTS found that 3 in 10 employees chose not to enrollin non-medical benefits due to a lack of benefits promotion fromtheir employer during open enrollment. Employees are simply lesslikely to enroll in a benefit if they do not know that it isavailable to them or if they do not understand its value. 

One voluntary offering in particular that employees tend not tofully understand are legal plans. The majority of employees don'trealize that a legal plan is an income protection resource that canhelp them save on costly attorney fees across a spectrum of legalneeds, from traffic defense to adoption matters, debt and fraudissues to elder care planning and much more. 

Legal plans are growing as a workplace benefit, and the numberof employers offering legal plans has doubled over the past decade,according to a report from Society of Human Resources Management.Yet, only about a third of employees say they completely understandthis benefit, according to MetLife's EBTS. 

Employees who have been educated about this benefit say legalplans help them feel more financially secure. According to a HarrisPoll conducted on behalf of Hyatt Legal Plans, 82 percent of thoseenrolled in a legal plan worry less about financialissues. 

What this means is that employers, in partnership with advisersand carriers, have a big opportunity to boost engagement,productivity and loyalty by helping employees understand the valueof legal plans and how they can help with finances, if a legalissue were to arise. 

If you or your clients have a legal plan on the ballot thisyear, the following strategies can help you boost the perceivedvalue of this benefit, along with your other voluntary offerings,too:

Streamline enrollment to help employeesnavigate. Employees are overwhelmed by the information they receive atenrollment time. According to MetLife's EBTS, 2 in 5 employees areconfused by the information they receive from their employer abouttheir benefits. Help cut out the clutter so employees can easilyfind succinct information that's relevant to them, and prioritizethe content so they get the most important information upfront. 

If you're not already doing so, streamline by putting voluntarybenefits on the ballot alongside other core benefits.  Asan employer, your support is critical to the success of a voluntarybenefit plan. By integrating legal plans and other voluntaryofferings into your existing benefits program and offering themalongside traditional benefits, you not only demonstrate yoursupport for the benefit, but help to streamline employees' overallbenefits experience.

Create simplified, digestible information that's easyfor busy employees to understand. According to EBTS,nearly half of employees are stressed by the enrollment process andmany think it's too complicated. By creating simple content,employees can quickly digest the information and make informeddecisions for themselves and their families without the hassle andfrustration.

Consider adding a “Did You Know?” section on your benefitswebsite or article on your company intranet to post quickhighlights about some of your voluntary offerings.

In the case of legal plans, one important component to highlightis identity theft protection and resolution. Concerns aboutidentity theft continue to be top of mind for employees, and anidentity theft incident can be a distraction from work, as well asa costly endeavor for an employee. Identity management and creditmonitoring services included in the legal plan can help uncover andminimize fraud in the early stages and provide employees with adashboard of credit reports to monitor their credit score. Ifidentity theft is uncovered, fraud specialists provided through thelegal plan work to restore the member's identity.

Provide personalized information aligned with lifeevents to make benefits more relevant. With multiplegenerations working side by side, reaching each employee in a waythat resonates with the same message is unlikely. Meet employeeswhere they are with personalized messages and materials reflectinglife events or life stages. 

Millennials are now the largest generation in the workforce, andmore than 1 million millennials are becoming parents eachyear.  Beyond adding children to medical and other corebenefits offerings, welcoming a new child also comes with legalneeds. Who will care for a child if a parent cannot? What willhappen to a parent's estate in the event of a death? Yet, most newparents don't know about legal plans.  Think about theloyalty you'll win as an employer with your new parent millennialsif you're the one to share the good news. 

Provide well-equipped resources for questions. According to EBTS, only 60 percent of employees agreethat their company's benefits communications effectively educatedthem so that they could select options that best meet their needs.When they have questions, they don't know who to turn to. Providethe opportunity for one-on-one consultations with benefitsenrollment representatives, employees' preferred resource forbenefits questions. If staffing is a concern, consider leveraging abenefits communications firm to assist.  

You can also leverage internal communications channels to answerquestions. Does your company (or client's company) use an internalsocial networking site? Consider having a chat or other virtualsocial opportunity that employees can leverage to ask benefitsquestions and engage with their peers about what benefits that havehelped meet their needs. Tap into your benefits carrier for supportand resources.

Don't stop communicating when open enrollment isover. For employees to truly understand their benefits andachieve financial wellness, it's important for employers tocommunicate about benefits beyond open enrollment. In fact,MetLife's EBTS found two-thirds of employees agree that they wanttheir employer to communicate with them year-round about theirbenefits, not just at annual enrollment.  

One way to communicate regularly with employees about benefitsit to leverage national events or recognition months, such asNational Caregivers Month, National Adoption Month or FinancialCapability Month, and tie those events in with availablebenefits. 

In the case of legal plans, this benefit covers elder lawmatters for employees who are caregivers. Highlighting this benefitduring National Caregivers Month (which also happens to coincidewith the end of traditional open enrollment season in November) isa great way to educate employees about how this benefit can helpthem with the issues they may face. 

Another opportunity to continue the dialogue on benefits outsideof open enrollment is through financial education workshops. Onlyabout one-fifth of employers currently offer financial wellnessprograms. This presents an opportunity to truly stand out byoffering these options and engage employees in meaningful ways asthey work to boost financial wellness.  

The workplace is transforming rapidly, and with employeeinterest in gig or freelance work growing, employers arefocused on retention, engagement and loyalty. Benefits are poisedto be the linchpin. However, in order to realize the full potentialof benefits offerings, employers need to take steps to ensureemployees understand the value of their benefits and how benefitssupport their personal financial wellness goals.