Open enrollment periods are an important time of year when employees can make necessary changes to their benefits coverage. However, while employees may be looking forward to this time of year, for HR teams, there may not necessarily be the same level of excitement.
Often, these times of year can be a bit stressful, with various deadlines fast approaching.
But this time of year doesn’t have to be something that causes unnecessary stress to your teams. Below are some of the most common reasons a business’s open enrollment period doesn’t go as smoothly as it should, and how you can prevent them from happening moving forward.
Poor Employee Communication
Clear communication can make or break efficiencies in your open enrollment processes. A common issue that businesses face each year is not being communicative enough with employees and HR teams well before the period begins.
When this happens, teams are often left scrambling at the last minute or struggling to find an email that was sent ages ago with instructions on what’s required of them during open enrollment.Â
To avoid this from happening, it’s essential to have clear communication throughout the year, even months before open enrollment periods. HR teams should clearly outline what is required of teams, including any submission or reporting deadlines that need to be met, and provide access to resources if questions arise during the process.
When employees have all the necessary information ahead of time and are reminded throughout the year about key upcoming dates, they can physically and mentally prepare in advance, avoiding confusion and delays when the open enrollment windows open.
Inadequate Benefits Technology
The technology your business relies on to support your benefits administration processes can be your HR team’s best friend or worst enemy.Â
While having a BenAdmin platform in place can help you to streamline certain open enrollment processes, if you’re not using best-of-breed benefits technology, you could be carrying out more manual and time-consuming processes during open enrollment than you need to.
When trying to reduce the friction of open enrollment, focus on getting full value from your benefits technology. This includes making sure you’re:
- Using an Intuitive Platform – Open enrollment tasks should be easy for employees to manage by accessing an intuitive BenAdmin platform. This will ensure employees can easily navigate all their options and finalize choices without needing additional support from HR teams.
- Leveraging Helpful Integrations – Your benefits technology should facilitate seamless integrations across your HRIS, payroll systems, and carriers. When all of these systems sync with your BenAdmin platform, it helps to significantly reduce manual data entry and the likelihood of human error.
- Getting Adequate Technical Support – It’s important to ensure you work with a benefits technology provider you can trust to give you ongoing technical support with your benefits technology solution. This is important to have not just during open enrollment periods, but also in the months leading up to it.
Lack of Employee Benefits Education
Another common problem businesses run into when planning for open enrollment is not educating their staff enough on all their options. This is especially the case with larger businesses that may offer a wider range of coverage options for the employees to use.
If your employees either don’t know about or are confused about all the offerings available to them, it can create a long list of questions once open enrollment begins. This can lead to longer-than-necessary submission timelines and can add more stress to HR teams trying to finalize reporting.
The key is to make employee benefits education an important element when onboarding your employees. This means looking for opportunities throughout the year to provide them with helpful resources, such as access to BenAdmin platforms with plan comparison tools, webinars hosted by benefits brokers, and easy-to-understand benefits summaries.
Underestimating Administrative Burdens
Not having a clear administrative plan in place well before open enrollment begins is a recipe for disaster. It’s important that your business maps out every task, deadline, and responsibility well in advance to avoid open enrollment from becoming chaotic for everyone. Otherwise, it’s easy for steps to get missed or duplicated, and your HR teams will be left with resource-draining bottlenecks.
Having the right technology and strategic partnerships in place is key to lightening this administrative load. Best-of-breed benefits platforms can automate many of the repetitive administrative tasks associated with open enrollment.Â
A great technology partner can also be a game-changer, as they can help you better understand the data flows necessary when communicating coverage changes between your business and insurance carriers.Â
This ensures all the tasks your teams complete are done so accurately and within necessary time frames without having to communicate enrollment data manually across multiple platforms.
Navigating Compliance Issues
Depending on the industry a business is in, there can often be a wide range of legal or compliance considerations when handling open enrollment periods. Regulations such as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), ERISA, and HIPAA have specific requirements that businesses must meet regarding where and how employee benefits information should be stored or submitted.
Failing to meet these requirements can result in financial or legal penalties that can be highly damaging to the organization. Working closely with your benefits technology partner can help ensure that you have all the necessary policies in place when storing and transmitting sensitive employee information, while also helping to ensure that you follow all required security protocols during the process.
Make Your Next Open Enrollment Period a Success
Open enrollment periods, while often associated with busy and many times stressful times of year, don’t have to be something intimidating for your business.
By getting ahead of the common challenges mentioned, you can create a process that is clear, supportive, and effective for both your HR teams and your employees. The result is not only a smoother enrollment season but also a workforce that feels more confident in their decisions, allowing them to make the most of the benefits offered to them.
Author Bio:
Frank Mengert continues to find success by spotting opportunities where others see nothing. As the founder and CEO of ebm, a leading provider of employee benefits solutions. Frank has built the business by bridging the gap between insurance and technology driven solutions for brokers, consultants, carriers, and employers nationwide.
