Talking to the voice in your head again? Relax, you can quiet that pesky voice and stop stressing. Benefits season doesn’t have to take the stuffing out of you or your team. Here’s three suggestions (actually reminders) for making it successful and easier.
Get the team and other key stakeholders on the same page for the coming year by asking, researching and answering these key questions:
It's also a great idea to benchmark against peer groups and understand trends to ensure you remain competitive. Two starting points: taking a look at our Global Benefits Attitudes Survey (it's renowned research and it's free) and using a benchmarking tool and tracking dashboard.
A couple of weeks ago we polled many in our HR Trove community to learn how often they communicate around health and wellness. Here's what respondents said:
*Totals over 100% are accounted for by single respondents selecting more than one option.
There are many advantages of continuous health benefits and well-being communication for employees and families, which is why it's a best practice and so important. Aside from this, it makes your job easier in enrollment season!
Spreading the effort of reinforcing key aspects of how plans work, terms, processes and more throughout the year means you can point people to this information and materials during enrollment. Voila! You have time to focus on the administration side of things (or new offerings) and it's less overwhelming for employees.
You've heard the various stats like "Consumers visit 38 sites before booking." Expedia says and others about how little time employees spend on benefits enrollment decisions. Yes, some of this can be attributed to the plain fact that this isn't exciting stuff (among other reasons). But, employers have to take a good bit of the blame for having passive enrollments for many years, or still having them. This practice sends a clear message it's okay to ignore thinking about benefits each and every year. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Set your employees up for successful decision making:
Whether your enrollment is coming up shortly, in the summer or in the fall, don't stress, you have time to get it done well! Get your high-level game plan together and start working the tasks so you can walk and not have to run.