How To Approach Open Enrollment During COVID-19

Adapting to virtual enrollment solutions

Whether your employees are working from home or you’re implementing new policies to incorporate social distancing and other safety measures on-site, there’s a strong chance that your company operates differently today than it did a couple of months ago. 
 

Have you thought about what open enrollment is going to look like this year? Have you thought about how you’re going to effectively inform your employees about your benefits?

For most companies, the process looks something like this:
 

The pandemic has forced everyone to reevaluate how to approach open enrollment. Insurance brokers and HR departments alike are wondering how they’re going to manage enrollment presentations and employee meetings.

I’m extremely familiar with the “normal” open enrollment process because I’ve worked with hundreds of brokers over the course of my career and I’ve witnessed a variety of methods—most of them fairly ineffective.

It’s become my obsession to create a better open enrollment experience for everyone involved—especially the employees. The process is typically frustrating and confusing to employees. They are often left just “checking the box” or “asking their co-worker” because they don’t truly understand the products available.

My company, Enrollment Alliance, acts as an extension of HR departments during open enrollment. We help to deliver company messages and unbiased insurance advice to employees at a granular level. We use modern technology to streamline the open enrollment process—and, we make sure that employees truly understand and appreciate their company's benefits.

I’m going to share some of the methods we use for virtual enrollment to help you solve any challenges you might face during the times of social distancing.

Currently, meeting with employees one-on-one is highly discouraged and group presentations are off the table completely. With the right mix of modern technology and a creative approach, we’ve found that virtual enrollments can be just as effective as face-to-face meetings and, conveniently, much less disruptive to a company’s day-to-day operations.

We built our approach by examining how Americans consume information during our day-to-day lives. We are constantly bombarded with messages and promotions everywhere we travel and across every device we use. It’s no wonder the average person’s attention span is less than 1 minute. The most effective way to gain our attention is short text, quick videos, and catchy images.

Rather than sitting through long presentations or scrolling through big blocks of text filled with terminology that’s difficult to understand, employees prefer short bursts of information. When it’s presented in an entertaining way, they like it even better.

When employees are left to figure out their options on their own after the insurance broker walks them through their usual PowerPoint slideshow, they can get frustrated pretty easily. Many just wind up assuming that taking the most expensive package is the best choice.

Why not reach out to employees beforehand using small, digestible pieces of information that allows them to process the bigger picture a little bit at a time?

Start the open enrollment process a few weeks ahead in time by taking advantage of technology. Send bits of information explaining the different aspects of open enrollment by text and email. 

Use catchy subject lines for your email campaigns and brief but beneficial text messages. 

Some topics to include are:
 

Videos are a fantastic way to deliver specific information in a minimal amount of time. We design customer cartoon videos that explain options in a captivating sequence. If you’re creating videos, you’ll want to keep them short because anything over three minutes has less than a 1% chance of being watched. Instead of one, long video, create short videos that cover several topics of concern.

Even though you may think a steady email campaign is the best way to reach out to your employees, using a variety of methods is a better idea. When you create messages in multiple formats and deliver the information across a variety of platforms, you increase your chances of connecting in a positive way.

Texts and email aren’t the only ways to reach out and grab someone’s attention. Try using these methods as well:
 

When conducting virtual enrollments, it’s critical to build a better organizational structure for employee meetings. For instance, if you provide an 800 hundred number helpline, there’s a strong probability that employees will be stuck waiting on hold. Instead, try implementing an online calendar system that allows employees to choose specific times to ask questions.

We’ve found thirty-minute blocks allow plenty of time to explain the coverage and to answer any questions. You can connect in Zoom, screen share, or maybe a live chat works for both of you. 

Some employees will be totally comfortable with enrolling for benefits without assistance. We get that. Enrollment Alliance builds comprehensive online enrollment systems for our customers to allow employees the flexibility to enroll however they wish. When providing this solution, it’s highly recommended to create videos that explain each product and embed them into the enrollment system.

Customer service comes into play here too. We offer phone support, live chat, or text support so employees can receive quick and accurate answers from dedicated benefit advisors that can answer detailed questions and provide unbiased advice.

In my experience, the most cumbersome part of this entire process lands on the HR department at this stage of enrollment. There is inevitably a group of employees that fail to follow direction and take action. It’s important to implement an automated process that helps you track down and contact these employees. Instead of manually calling and emailing each of these employees, you can use software programs that allow you to build automated messages that are triggered by employee actions. Twilio and Hubspot are well-known solutions that make it relatively simple to build workflow automation. If you can tackle this prior to open enrollment, you can save countless hours on the backside of the process.

I completely understand the apprehension that businesses have when it comes to changing their open enrollment process. It’s even more uncomfortable when you feel like you’re being forced to change because of an external factor like COVID-19. 

I believe that our industry is well-equipped and long overdue to implement the changes that will result from the limitations now upon us. Virtual enrollment solutions have been a viable option for many years in the employee benefits space. 

Hopefully, what we can help our entire industry recognize is that virtual enrollments can become a more effective form of employee education, a more efficient use of company time, and an improvement upon the disruptive nature of the typical open enrollment process.

We all know that HR is capable of adapting to changes to keep a business running effectively while keeping employees happy. 

Booby Leesman has worked on all sides of the employee benefits equation as a business owner, an insurance agent, and now as the Founder of an enrollment company. Today, through Enrollment Alliance, he focuses on simplifying the chaos of open enrollment to make it more enjoyable for HR, insurance brokers, and employees alike. Connect Booby Leesman