Manage expectations

Open enrollment is upon us! That means long days on top ofsleepless nights and weekends just to keep up with the fourthquarter rush. Despite the fact that every year we tweak and tightenour procedures to make things go smoother, we've found that there'sno avoiding the stress of enrollment. While there are certainly amultitude of moving parts in this process, many of which arecompletely outside of our control, there's always one tried andtrue practice we must keep in mind. That, of course, is managingclient expectations.

The saying goes, “You don't know what you don't know,” butemployers do know the process of open enrollment. Yet they continueto drag their feet year after year. I get it. They're extremelybusy and insurance is the last thing they want to deal with. That'swhy it's our job as consultants to lay out a clear plan for theemployer with a list of each parties' duties. If you don't managetheir expectations through the whole process, prepare to be thrownunder the bus at every bump in the road.