The workload associated with switching or adding a new health plan is overwhelming; the process, stressful. But sticking with the status quo may not be the right thing for your company or your employees. You could be missing out on opportunities to lower costs and improve employees' health plan experience. If you want to stay competitive, you need to keep an open mind to changing your benefits administration process too.

Here are three strategies that will make the process of implementing a new plan easier on you and your employees.

1. Communicate early and often—meeting employees where they are

There are generally two types of employee preferences during open enrollment (OE): those who want the process to be quick and easy and those who want a lot of detailed information. To meet the varying needs, I recommend putting all the information in one spot – such as a company intranet – where employees and their family members can easily access it. This should be done before communicating to the employees. Keep it simple. Organize information in categories that make sense to the employees: Medical & Dental, Life & Disability Insurance, etc. I also recommend including a summary with bullet points linked to content that highlights the key changes.

One thing I found that can really help the process go smoothly is to keep the same OE timeframe every year (e.g. third week in October), if possible. The consistency can establish a routine for your employees, reminding them to start thinking about their benefits around the same time each year.

Establish a communication schedule:

Communicate the key changes to employees about a month before OE begins, so they can start doing their own research and connect with you, if they have questions.

Send out a reminder the day before OE begins.

On the first day, notify employees that OE has started.

In my experience, most people wait until the last day to enroll, so I recommend waiting until the last week of OE to send another email, reminding them to enroll.

Meet employees where they are—use the tools your employees are accustomed to using for work communications. Email may not be the best channel; try sending an instant message. Going old school doesn't hurt either; sometimes a flyer in the break room may be the best channel—keep it light and add a little fun.

2. Educate employees on critical health insurance terminology

Putting in the effort to make sure your employees understand their new medical benefit options will help you tremendously in the long run. It will help reduce the number of employees coming into your office asking basic insurance questions, such as "what's the difference between a copay and coinsurance?"

Keep the jargon to a minimum in your explanations. It's easy for us, as benefits administrators, to get caught up in how much we know. We must be sensitive to how little of that is understood by the average employee who isn't engaging with their health plan every day. Ninety-six percent of Americans cannot correctly define the four most common health insurance terms: deductible, coinsurance, copay and out-of-pocket maximum. And that education gap has an impact: only 40 percent of Americans say they are "very confident" they can choose the right health insurance plan. I found it's helpful to explain the following terms to employees:

Deductible
Copay
Premium
Co-insurance
Out of pocket costs
Out of pocket max/limit
High deductible health plan (HDHP)*
Health maintenance organization (HMO)*
Preferred provider organization (PPO)*
Flexible savings account (FSA)
Health savings account (HSA)
Health re-imbursement arrangement
Network (in-network vs. out-of-network)

*If you offer these plans

But you shouldn't do this alone. Round up a small group of employees to help create these definitions, so you know it is in their language. House the definitions on the intranet OE page, so they can be accessed easily. Post a quiz in a Slack channel or at a large group meeting, and give the winner(s) a small prize like company swag, a $5 gift card or bragging rights.

3. Personalize the OE experience for employees

Every employee is different, which makes medical benefits administration that much more challenging. Your company's OE experience needs to be personalized for your employee population, so they can see the benefit to them and be more comfortable with any changes to their benefits.

When you offer multiple health insurance plan options, employees want to know which plan is best for them. If you are switching plans, they want to know why the new plan is better. While we can't answer that question for each individual person, we can offer example personas that employees can identify with. Create a document with different examples representative of your employee population. For example, these could include: a 34-year-old female who is pregnant, a 50-year-old father with diabetes and two kids heading to college, someone early in their career without a family to support. Having relatable examples can make the process more tangible. In your scenarios, be sure to check the jargon at the door.

In addition, consider the makeup of your employee population. Schedule benefit meetings at various times to meet the needs of shift workers. If you have a number of employees working remotely, host a webinar they can call into; you can also record this webinar for employees to use as a refresher or to help them communicate with spouses or dependents, as needed.

Give your employees peace of mind

By providing information, educating employees and personalizing their experience, employees will be empowered to make better choices for themselves and their families. Making changes and additions to your benefits, especially your medical benefits, does not have to be stressful, if you prepare and manage it well. You may get the opportunity to put a richer and/or more affordable benefit in front of your employees. If they have a good understanding of the plan and the new benefits that it brings them, they might be grateful you made the change.

Jenna Obrycki Upgren, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is the total rewards manager at Minneapolis-based Bind On-Demand Health Insurance.

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3 strategies for making health plan changes easier on you and your employees

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