Open enrollment season is here, a time when employees make decisions that will impact their financial, emotional and physical wellbeing for the year ahead. It's also a time for employers to support and empower their employees by offering diverse and highly relevant benefits. When effectively communicated to employees, a comprehensive benefit plan can increase employee loyalty and engagement. 

No matter where we are in the calendar year, one word every benefits advisor and employer should embrace is communication. Communication is always critical, especially in this time of declining employee loyalty. Employees appreciate their benefits if, and only if, they understand their value and relevance. That is most likely to happen when communication best practices are embraced by both the broker and employer. 

We have found that the following six key practices help make employee benefit communications most effective: