This will be an enrollment season unlike any other. How are brokers approaching enrollment strategies and conversations differently this year? Will they be offering a wider variety of game plans or focusing more on certain types of products?

Proactive planning

Due to COVID-19, we are anticipating changes to the status quo that will impact open enrollment this year and moving forward. We are proactively building best-fit strategies for our clients to help them from both a plan design and benefit communication aspect.

In terms of benefits enrollment and communication, we will see major disruption. We don't expect to have many groups offering group meetings or onsite benefit fairs this year, as they try to limit the number of people in a confined space. In light of this, leveraging technology will become even more important, as this is quickly becoming the main method of enrollment and communication between employers and their employees. We will be using technology both to capture/transmit enrollments, and also to enhance communications about benefits with employees. We are already seeing more employers adopting text messaging services and centering communications around digital campaigns, and we expect this trend to become normal operating procedure moving forward.

As the move towards digital isn't a fit for everyone, we will also be partnering with benefit communication firms with call centers for clients with technology adverse employee demographics, language barriers, and for those that like to provide a white glove approach to benefits for their team.

We are also projecting that cost-containment will be a major concern this year. This means that employees will have to shoulder more risk as deductibles and out-of-pocket limits increase (and networks narrow). So supplementing medical coverage with supplemental health plans will be a major initiative. As these are feel-good products, and more policyholders and client companies are becoming educated about them as they go through the claims process, customer-centric companies with claims auto-adjudication and simple online claim submission portals will be of utmost importance.

We also anticipate mental wellness to be a major concern as we start to transition from working at home back to working in the office, and deal with the anxiety and depression that COVID-19 has caused. We are proactively providing strategies to address the mental health of populations in our client strategies. All in all, COVID-19's lasting impact will better prepare us and our clients for future pandemics.

Heather Garbers, VP voluntary benefits & technology, HUB International

More opportunity

From a communication perspective, much of this will be business as usual for our firm. Over the past two to three years, most clients have preferred a virtual open enrollment in lieu of in-person, or as a supplement to an in-person conversation. Many end-users appear to prefer this method to fighting for seats in a conference room and also get more information out of them.

Our sessions provide more opportunities to engage attendees and also generate more content to share and recirculate. We are already working with clients to revisit many of the solutions that we have presented in the past in order to provide greater financial security to not only employees, but also the business as a whole, amid both household and business revenue pressures.

I think the best word to describe our clients right now is anxious. Those who are worried are being cautious. For others, they feel like they are stuck behind a farm tractor going 10 mph down the interstate.

Derek Winn, consultant, The Business Benefits Group

Zooming ahead

Over the past five years, we have been moving our clients to online benefits enrollment while still having open enrollment meetings in person. The past two years, we have held open enrollment meetings on Zoom, and they have been quite effective. Due to the COVID-19 situation, I would expect all open enrollment meetings to be done on Zoom as either a webinar or meetings with employee participation for questions. We always record these Zoom meetings for employees who were not able to make it or new employees who join after open enrollment.

We will continue to use a variety of benefits communication tools for our clients, including videos, email, paycheck stuffers or PDFs and, for our larger clients, incorporating Alex by Jellyvision. It is a new world and our new normal will be more digitally based with fewer or no in-person enrollment meetings. I also think there will be more one to one communication, since employees have fears around COVID-19 and will want to make sure their health plans fit their personal needs.

Barry S. Cohn, president and CEO, Really Great Employee Benefits

Simple and accessible

COVID-19 is obviously impacting everything, so to say it will not impact open enrollment strategies and conversations is a bit disingenuous. With that said, I think our strategic approach to open enrollment and the conversations around it must remain the same, even though the tactical outcome may be different.

For example, in my conversations with employers, we are always talking about how their corporate culture impacts not only their plan designs and offerings, but also how employees access information and which communications, as well as mediums, will be leveraged during open enrollment. That will not change. But in 2020 and beyond, employers will need to get comfortable with virtual solutions and evolve their open enrollment to keep pace with the changing landscape. It is not just about an online portal, although that will be important; it is also about building trust and being transparent during this time of uncertainty.

From a tactical perspective, HR professionals need to continue to be accessible and creative. Employees who used to value choice may now see it as a bit of a burden on top of everything else, so we need to provide solutions that are easy to explain. Employees and employers will also be very sensitive to costs in the coming enrollment period, which means enrollment support around financial projections will continue to be essential. This pressure cannot be overstated.

In some ways, HR professionals have new jobs amidst COVID-19, in that they are not only responsible for implementing initiatives, but doing so in a manner that is more inclusive, deliberate and engaging than ever before. In addition, what was top of mind at the beginning of 2020 may not be the same as we move into the third and fourth quarters. Take the time to re-prioritize, reassess your risk tolerance, consider how your population has been impacted and changed—from budgets to bandwidth and employee engagement—and recast your benefits strategy, which includes—but is certainly not limited to—open enrollment.

I do not believe 2021 will be focused on wider offerings or additional products. The priority must be solving problems and closing gaps—only adding products where a need truly exists—and where employees feel included and engaged in the process. Employees will have even less disposable income and more competing priorities. They are dealing with a level of continued uncertainty that has never been felt before. Simplicity and accessibility are key. Bells and whistles for the sake of bells and whistles will not resonate.

Current processes will need to be retooled, with a focus on mental health, behavioral health, mindfulness, healthy living and reducing stress. These components were always important, but COVID has significantly expanded the need. I also feel new products will emerge to help employers keep employees productive and engaged—especially with the possibility of a larger remote workforce — while also solving for everyday challenges around seeking safe medical treatment, childcare support, home schooling services and assuaging fears about what is to come.

Teri Weber, senior VP, Spring Consulting Group

Uninterrupted service

2020 has brought some unique challenges to the benefits enrollment process, but our company has been able to adapt to these changes and provide our clients with uninterrupted enrollment services. By implementing a fully virtual enrollment process, our clients have been able to enroll their employees in their benefits programs without the need for face-to-face meetings. Our dedicated call center is staffed with enrollment experts who provide guidance and answers to employees in need of enrollment assistance. We also provide our clients with a self-service enrollment portal, which allows them to enroll from the comfort of their own homes with the assistance of our call center enrollers, if needed.

Our virtual enrollment process has allowed us to continue providing all of our benefits enrollment services to our clients without any interruptions in our service. We continue to tailor a custom enrollment strategy for each one of our clients, ensuring that we are connecting with employees and providing them with the personal touch that they have come to expect from us.

David Hurlock, CEO, PES Enrollments

Proving ground

I'm forecasting that we will see more digitized solutions to help guide employers through the process. The rare groups who use paper will realize there is a better way. I'm also anticipating that employers will want to start the process earlier and will be asking more questions than ever of their brokers, including, "What do you really do for us?"

Brad O'Neill, director of benefits strategies, Beyond Insurance

Point of no return

I think there are two components here; one is operational and the other is product related. Operationally, I think we are at a point of no return in terms of how we communicate, educate and enroll. With so many people being exposed to technologies like Zoom, Soapbox and other virtual communication strategies, I think they have become accustomed to it and may actually prefer it to one-on-one meetings with an actual person. In some cases, I've offered to follow up with an in-person visit, but many employers are satisfied with video-based communication that employees can view on their own without interrupting day-to-day operations. I will continue to review best practices and solutions related to video-based communication to large groups.

In terms of products, where possible, I will be focusing less on one-size-fits-all solutions. What I've seen with my groups, particularly those with a younger employee population that was already asking why they were paying so much for plans that gave them so little, is further questioning the value of what was being offered. Take dental insurance as an example, which has crept up to an average of more than $30 a month for a single employee. Despite premium credits that the carriers have made available, the value of the premium to the actual cost of a dental procedure is disproportionate. You can say the same for vision and other benefits that many are paying for but haven't been able to use for three months. So, flexibility and value will be the focus, as so many have had time to reflect on their budgets and ask what they are paying for versus what they are using.

I'm excited about the future and I think this shutdown has shed new light on our business.

Tom DiLiegro, consultant and owner, Benefit Advisors of Charleston, LLC

New normal

The whole event chain—from prospecting to enrollment to payment method—will change post-COVID. Virtual prospecting, contactless enrollment, and non-payroll deduction payments will be the "new normal" of the future.

Tripp Amos, industry veteran

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Instant Insights /

2020 open enrollment: Uncharted territory

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