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Employees are looking to their employers for guidance on navigating their available benefits and how to stretch their dollars further. As the 2023 open enrollment season approaches, employers are poised to provide their employees with resources and digital tools they can use to better understand and act with more confidence when making benefits decisions. Here are some communication tips for employers.
Get the word out early about benefit offerings so employees have enough time to understand their benefits, consult with family members, and determine their needs for the following year. There’s no such thing as communicating too soon about enrollment.
Employers should plan their communication strategies once benefit options are solidified. The messaging should focus on new or updated benefit offerings, key messaging you want to convey, and having some FAQs to address common questions quickly.
Each workplace is different, so choose various channels that are relevant and engaging to your employees. Digital options might be useful to help distribute and house information virtually, allowing employees to access it when they need it. Traditional onsite benefit meetings, postcards, and mailers are still relevant and can serve as a reminder to discuss and review benefit options.
When sharing information, simplify your benefits information. Employees don’t need to know everything, so employers should highlight what’s necessary for them to understand the benefit information. Links or attachments could explore benefits further and offer the fine print.
It’s important to catch employees’ attention and present the key message immediately. Benefit booklets can be lengthy, instead, employers could deliver bite-sized information through videos and emails. If all open enrollment information is given at once, it’s easy for employees to become overwhelmed. Digestible communication makes it easier for employees to know what to focus on and take action.
Avoid using HR or benefits-related jargon to help make benefits easier to understand. Many benefits are also spelled out in acronyms and employers need to make sure to decode and define them.
Using a personalized approach can help employers engage employees with open enrollment information. Employers may want to segment their employee audience and tweak the messaging, so it resonates. For examples, open enrollment methods and communication would look different for remote vs. on-site employees.
Although open enrollment is the most pivotal time to highlight benefits to employees, employers have an opportunity to educate employees throughout the year. Ongoing communication can help encourage employees to understand and utilize the benefits available to them. Download the bulletin for more details.