Today's health care and benefits landscape is evolving. With rising costs and new regulatory issues, benefits administration is becoming even more of a challenge. The decisions made leading up to and during open enrollment are now more critical than ever before, requiring benefits administrators to think beyond the three-week period. It is a year-round process of comprehensive planning and communication with employees.

Fortunately there are a few tips you can follow to ease some of that burden. Here are five quick steps to a successful open enrollment:

1. Get to know your workforce. Today's workforce is more diverse than ever, but whether you are a baby boomer, Gen X or millennial we all have one thing in common: we care about our benefits. Employees are all at different stages in their life and are experiencing significant life events, which can have a big impact on benefits selection. Some employees may be looking to start a family, while others are planning for retirement — in each of these scenarios selecting the right benefits is essential. With that in mind, you can deploy additional resources and decision support tools to help employees plan ahead.