Over the past several years, employers and insurance providers have transitioned from paper-based enrollment processes to digital platforms. The benefits are abundant: higher level of personalization; easier and more timely access to benefits; and a more streamlined, efficient and controllable process. You get it. Yet along the way, we started missing a level of engagement seen during the “old days” of face-to-face meetings and paper-based enrollment. While voluntary benefits aren't as well-known as core insurance benefits like medical and dental, we see a clear need for better communications, education and overall engagement. Before we delve into the five ways in which employers can better educate employees on voluntary benefits, let's spend a little time exploring this evolution.

The ways of the past

For many years, enrollment for voluntary benefits such as critical illness and accident insurance, as well as core insurance offerings, was conducted primarily via a face-to-face enrollment session.  This process involved a licensed and appointed enroller or agent using an enrollment technology specially tailored to the carrier's benefits plans or via paper form.  

As enrollment technology platforms became more accessible, employers moved away from using paper enrollment for their core benefits. This appealed to many employers. Why, you ask?

• Provided a more streamlined process for enrolling in medical benefits

• Expedited the loading of enrollment data into carrier systems

• Offered employers more control over the enrollment process

With the move to enrollment platforms, the case for having onsite enrollers weakened dramatically.   Brokers and enrollment firms went on a search for new “hooks”: dependent audits, beneficiary designation, and cleanup of demographic data.  But it was clear the manner in which we processed voluntary benefits needed to change. We as an industry needed to change with it, too.  Enrollments where the majority of employees were required to meet with an enroller to enroll in their benefits were the way of the past.