Pre-Gaming AE: Are Your Employees Aware of the Right Benefits?
Technology at annual enrollment and beyond can help streamline HR’s efforts and connect employees with the right benefits.
Total rewards should encompass a variety of options to meet the diverse needs of your employees. It’s like having a buffet of benefits from which employees can choose from, based on what suits them best.
Aside from the standard offering of compensation and medical insurance, it’s becoming increasingly necessary to present a smorgasbord of benefit options at AE to meet employees where they’re at and support their unique (and diverse) needs.
Employee’s benefit expectations today go far beyond just medical insurance. Retirement planning, flexible time off, and other supplemental benefits can help employers support total wellbeing.
How to build awareness of your benefit offerings before annual enrollment
Employees are paying the most attention to their benefits during open enrollment, so make it memorable and engaging. Virtual benefits fairs can house key benefits information in one centralized location and help build awareness before AE.
In one case study, a Businessolver client saw an 82% engagement rate with their benefits fair, and nearly two-thirds (65%) visited the experience more than once ahead of AE. Businessolver’s own open enrollment virtual benefits fair received 33% of all engagement to the mobile version of the experience.
Providing benefits information to employees using familiar technology ensures they have easy access to their benefits information before enrollment. This can also mean fewer emails and questions for you to answer during your peak HR busy season.
Using technology to connect employees to the right benefits
Everyone’s needs are unique. AE technology can help guide employees to the benefits plans that are the “right fit” for their specific situation.
Through tools like decision support and enrollment, employees can answer questions that help assess their total wellbeing, like: health, lifestyle, emotional wellbeing, risk tolerance, and financial readiness. All of these questions can help employees identify the most suitable benefit options. In fact, according to the most recent Benefits Insights Report data, 43% of employees who used Businessolver’s decision support tool, the MyChoice® Recommendation Engine, at enrollment elected the recommended plan.
Communicate, engage, repeat
A majority of employees (70%) are willing to utilize their claims history to help inform their enrollment decisions. This data can help them connect with voluntary benefits available to them at AE, like accident or critical illness insurance. It highlights employees’ willingness to use data if it means making their benefits dollars stretch further.
While data is critical, communication is the key that turns the engine. Having a strong communications strategy that uses different channels like email and text can make a big difference at AE. Sending reminders throughout the year will help to ensure that employees receive and retain the message.
In fact, 46% of employees with personalized services like custom communications log into their benefits platform 4 or more times after enrollment. This compares to just 20% when personalized services are not implemented.
Seeing this holistic view of their Total Rewards, employees can begin to realize the full value of their benefits. Having a comprehensive range of benefits will provide employees with a fulfilling Total Rewards experience.
Dive into more tips for how to build awareness of your benefits before the annual enrollment season kicks off.
