Summer is coming to an end, which that means life is about to get incredibly busy for employers, human resource leaders and their benefits brokers as the 2017 enrollment season inches closer.

As the group health care market becomes more consumer driven and employees gain greater responsibility to custom-build their own benefits programs, questions remain about how prepared the workforce is overall to choose the very best options.

“As deductibles have increased, the consumer, by default, has become more responsible, because they are the ones who are paying for most of the care they are consuming,” said Steve Auerbach, CEO of Alegeus, which administers HSAs, FSAs and other consumer-directed health care solutions.

In a podcast, Auerbach said health care consumerism is still in its infancy, and that consumers are “not totally prepared for the responsibilities they [have been] given.”

A recent survey by Alegeus examined workers’ greatest sources of benefits stress. Fifty-five percent ranked choosing health care benefits as “challenging” or “extremely challenging”; 59 percent said they struggle to understand the differences between options.

The report found that consumers had universally low levels of confidence in their ability to make sound benefits decisions, and that, by and large, they need significant support as they assume greater responsibility for their coverage.

The data translate to opportunity for brokers. For all of the innovations in benefits administration technology, consumers ultimately crave a human touch. At the same time, employers and human resource leaders work to engage employees, but often end up overwhelmed

For smaller employers, brokers may be the primary source of communications that help dispel the confusion that so many consumers associate with enrollment season. And while midsized and larger groups may already have a comprehensive communication program in place, brokers can still play a vital role there by analyzing how effective these campaigns are.

Keep it simple

Participants crave simplicity: Alegeus found that 69 percent of consumers said that having to translate “health care jargon” was a significant barrier to decision-making.

“The top desire of every consumer segment was to receive health care information in more simple, human language,” according to Alegeus’ report. That need is further underlined by the increasing prevalence of voluntary benefits in the workplace. Choice can be a good thing for health care consumers, but only if they understand what their choices are.

Gauge the success of last enrollment season

Voluntary products are now a staple in many benefit plans, but that doesn’t always mean employees are signing up in droves. Groups with less voluntary uptake may benefit from freshening up stale communication campaigns. Other employers may do little, if any, pre-enrollment work to educate participants on the newest voluntary and consumer-driven options, the most accessible price points or their role in keeping major medical premiums down.

Communicate changes, but not too early

Kirk Gasperian knows how challenging it can be to engage employees – both as a broker, and as an HR professional. This one-time benefits broker is now the benefits manager at Zendesk, a San Francisco-based provider of customer management software.

Enrollment season is “intense,” said Gasperian, who was a featured speaker in a recent enrollment webinar hosted by Collective Health. “Resources are stretched thin, and there’s obviously a large uptick in questions.”

Gasperian drives home how important it is to engage employees both before and after enrollment season.

Major benefits changes like premium hikes, carrier changes, new voluntary and ancillary product offerings and the trend toward active enrollment – none of these factors should be left to the last minute, he said – but if done too early, even the most well-crafted communication can backfire.

“If you start communicating too early, people will forget,” Gasperian said.

For example, if enrollment begins in November, September would be a good time to begin engaging, he said.

And for groups negotiating plan changes beyond the summer and into the fall, employers would do well to engage employees and let them know that details are forthcoming.

The ideal timing will vary by group, said Gasperian, but in general, communicating changes to employees will be an essential part of managing the intensity of enrollment season, as well as fostering faith in the workforce.

Open enrollment is here

The way you say what you say is vital. Campy emails announcing “Open enrollment is here!” are unlikely to be opened -- particularly by office workers dealing with scores of emails daily.

Last year, while Zendesk was transitioning to active enrollment, Gasperian took a bold action: He sent an email with a subject line that said, effectively, “No election = no benefits.”

The subject line was, of course, intended to startle – and it succeeded, immediately capturing his colleagues’ attention, said Gasperian.

30-second rule

Not all communication content is created equal, according to Kirk McConnell, product marketing lead at Collective Health.

Brokers who offer a weighty primer for employers to pass on to workers via generic, company-wide email – these professionals aren’t doing the market any favors.

“Chances are, if you write people a novel about open enrollment, they’re going to glaze over it and not read it,” said McConnell, who led Collective Health’s enrollment webinar.

He says a cardinal marketing rule — the 30-second rule — also applies to broker and employer communications to participants in the run-up to enrollment season.

“If it takes more than [30 seconds to read it], people won’t read it,” said McConnell.

Instead, he recommended a variety of communications approaches and formats, including emails, digital infographics and traditional flyers and brochures that target messaging to each demographic’s specific needs.

Do you know what a consumer driven health care plan is?

Odds are great that few, if any benefits brokers, can actually answer that question – an alarming state as enrollment season nears.

For millennials, this may be their first season with benefits of their own, rather than their parents’.

“It’s a very common theme,” said Gasperian, who added that Zendesk employs a good amount of younger workers. “When I hear questions from them, it’s telling [me that] they know very little.”

But it’s not just younger workers who need information on even the most basic benefits concepts. Gasperian cited the example of veteran workers who didn’t know they were are required to renew participation in their HSAs and FSAs each season.

Most carriers offer benefits glossaries and the like. But for smaller groups without the manpower to create a turnkey communications campaign, brokers can add value by creating a presentation that discusses benefits in clear and simple terms.

Instant Insights /

Successful brokers say pre-enrollment benefits communication key to more engaged employees

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