Open Enrollment Planning Gets Underway

Last year, open enrollment for 2021 employee benefits presented a first-of-its-kind situation, with much of the workforce working remotely. The 2022 benefits open enrollment period, which most companies will hold sometime between late November and early December, presents fresh demands as employers adjust to a mix of onsite and remote workers.

Employees' priorities have also changed during the pandemic, and they may be seeking enhanced offerings to protect their health and well-being, or better guidance on how to use current benefits.

Open enrollment is an opportunity to showcase the benefits package and the values the organization provides to employees—and to help stem rising turnover rates. If current offerings aren't competitive, however, then this is the time to think about revising the benefits menu.

A Changed World

Last year, employers "did a quick adjustment but the pandemic continues to disrupt our workforces and the processes we've had in place for years," said Deena Harvanek, U.S. communications solutions leader at HR consultancy Mercer. "Employers should consider employees' new priorities when designing health and benefit programs, employee communications and enrollment strategies," she advised.

"Employees are more concerned about their physical health, stress levels and financial well-being," noted James Bernstein, U.S. health and benefits midmarket leader at Mercer. "Employees want a fresh start," so it is critical that employers strive to attract and keep workers, he noted. "Build an experience and culture that people want to be part of."

Benefits that are receiving more attention this year, Harvanek and Bernstein said, include mental health support, remote-work flexibility, long-term disability protection, supplemental child support and elder care support. They have also seen increased employee interest in having a wide array of voluntary benefits that workers can select, even if they have to pay premiums for them fully or partially, such as pet insurance, legal services and ID-theft protection.

Telemedicine use surged at the start of the pandemic, Bernstein said, including mental health teletherapy. "Going forward, employees anticipate a greater role for virtual care," he said. In addition, "employers say they want to add more financial wellness resources because financial security is a top priority for employees."

Doug Ramsthel, executive vice president and a partner at Burnham Benefits, a brokerage and advisory firm, said employers recognize "greater needs to support child care, and are likely to see an increase in spouse enrollment, as labor statistics indicate more spouses have elected to stay at home instead of work and will need coverage now, through the working spouse."

[Want to learn more about employee benefits? Join us at the SHRM Annual Conference & Expo 2021, taking place Sept. 9-12 in Las Vegas and virtually.]

Virtual Fairs and Apps

According to Ramsthel, "last year's best practices for open enrollment will be continued into the 2022 open enrollment season, including virtual health fairs, virtual open enrollment meetings, and shorter, more frequent, and targeted communications."

Virtual benefits fairs, where employees and families visit online vendor "booths" to learn about their benefits and access resources, "had been around for years but employees didn't feel a compelling need to use them before the pandemic," Harvanek said. "Once we did use them, there's no going back," she believes, especially with a hybrid workplace with more permanently remote workers.

Employers also are more likely to offer enrollment through mobile-phone platforms, Bernstein said, which can appeal to both tech-savvy and deskless workers.

"Lean on vendors to enhance the open enrollment experience" using consumer-like technologies, Bernstein advised.

Setting a Schedule

Harvanek and Bernstein suggested the following open enrollment planning schedule:

June-September:

Make a plan and develop a strategy.

• Set goals and measures for outreach, use of digital resources and enrollment.
• Conduct employee listening sessions.
• Determine your media plan, develop key messages and identify all audiences, making content personal, simple and direct.

September-October:

Get the word out.

• Distribute a pre-enrollment flier (printed and online).
• Hold virtual benefits fair.
• Distribute enrollment packet (printed and online).

November-December

Ready, set, go.

• Launch enrollment through a benefits portal, for a period of about three weeks.

"The world we knew—the way we work, live and consume information—will never be the same," Harvanek said. "Take this opportunity to rethink your approach to open enrollment."