Open enrollment—if those two words are sending you and your company into a tailspin, take a deep breath. It does not have to be that way. Open enrollment can be an exciting time. It can also be an opportunity to reengage with employees and present new options to address their changing needs, as well as those of your company. But getting to that point will not happen on its own. How can you ensure active company and employee participation in this pivotal time, as well as a smooth transition to new benefit options?

1.       Every well-orchestrated event starts with a single word—planning. When it comes to open enrollment, it’s almost never too early to start; many HR managers look six months or more in advance. The decision to stay with the current benefit package or go with something new is often a recurrent consideration, one reevaluated throughout the year.

2.       Starting this year, healthcare reform is another consideration to add to the mix. On top of all the traditional changes in benefits options HR managers have to contend with are the new requirements stemming from healthcare reform. Many of these are still continuing to evolve, but HR can stay on top of updates by aligning early with an experienced broker and keeping updated through other good sources of information, such as Healthcare.gov, The New York Times’ Healthcare Reform pages, and The White House Healthcare Reform web page, to name a few.

3.       Don’t assume that this year’s offerings should be an extension of last year’s. Take a look at your workforce and how it is changing. Is it increasingly made up of older employees or younger employees? Single or married? With or without children? Consider polling employees anonymously regarding their needs. What is most important to them? What can they do without? You may be surprised at what you discover.

4.       Use tools that will help you and your employees streamline the process. Technology is becoming indispensable to decrease costs, save time, and increase accuracy. The right benefits management technology can greatly simplify the process of reviewing and organizing benefit options. Technology can help managers keep better track of tasks and even enable them to develop alerts to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. It can also help in communicating with employees on a more targeted basis. Finally, it can provide greater insight into employee demographics (age, family size, elections, etc.) and help HR audit benefits plans.

5.       Don’t forget the “face-to-face”, and make it fun! As we become more connected via email and social networks, HR risks becoming personally disconnected from the workforce. Direct contact with the employee is invaluable. Create opportunities to get employees together for activities that introduce the open enrollment process and connect them with each other and with the company. Consider open enrollment as a new opportunity to educate, reassure, and reconnect.

Open enrollment can even be a time to celebrate, especially if enhanced plans and options are being offered. Put the benefits of new health insurance programs and offerings in terms your employees will understand.

Art Brooks is with BeneTrac, a Paychex company and provider of powerful, web-based electronic enrollment and employee benefits administration software used to manage benefit information. He can be reached at abrooks@benetrac.com