I know, you have enough to think about during open enrollment without having to add on the extra time, effort, and expense of creating custom benefit communications for your employees. The carriers give you all that anyway, right? Well, as an HR or benefits professional, everything in those communications makes sense to you. But to the average employee, it’s complete gibberish. Creating custom communications – which don’t have to be complex or expensive – can help your employees understand the benefits you’re offering, and thereby increase their value of the benefits program.
A customized, branded program will engage employees – they’ll see it as your company’s benefits program, not just a bunch of stuff they get from random carriers that will give them a headache upon opening to the first page. Creating a simple enrollment guide – or even a tri-fold – that clearly and simply describes their benefits and their costs associated with those benefits, will result in a much smoother and more pleasant open enrollment season. Remember – all those numbers and scary words like deductible, beneficiary, coinsurance, and dismemberment (because, let’s face it, dismemberment is a much scarier word than any other you will read in those documents!) – will be much less intimidating if they are explained simply and outlined clearly.
Another good tip: outline for your employees all of the changes you are making to the plans – increased costs, new carriers, etc. – and explain why you are making the changes. Let them know how much it’s costing the company, so they can keep their own increasing costs in perspective. Very few people actually know how much their health care costs beyond their own monthly paycheck deduction. Employees who understand the benefits and costs associated are more likely to value the program – and not complain.
The most important thing to remember – KEEP IT SIMPLE!
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