Open enrollment can be a hectic and stressful time for both employers and their employees.

Between budgeting and anticipating needs, both sides can become overwhelmed when choosing a benefits package that balances cost and value. Amidst the stress of research and open enrollment deadlines, communication is the critical component that will help both parties reach a satisfactory conclusion.
With that in mind, here are some helpful suggestions to use employee communication to your maximum advantage:

1. Understand workforce benefit needs. Consider surveying your employees to gauge their satisfaction with current options and ask what they are looking for in terms of benefits. Compare this information to plan utilization trends. When combined, this data should tell you what employees value and what they don’t, while possibly identifying benefits employees want, but didn’t know they had.

2. Customize benefits and information resources to the life stages of your employees, instead of taking a one-size-fits-all approach. For instance, if you employ a large older population, feature more retiree benefits and long-term care insurance.

3. Start talking about enrollment early. Provide plan details several weeks before the enrollment deadline. Avoid using insurance and benefits industry jargon as much as possible, and present information in easy-to-understand terms. Explain the difference between general and voluntary benefits. Provide sources for additional information, as well as contact information for employee questions. Consider featuring employee stories about the impact benefits have had on their lives.

4. Repeat information. Conduct meetings and seminars and offer calculators, intranet education information and benefit fairs. If your organization is smaller, conduct one-on-one meetings with employees to determine exactly the type of information they need.

5. Maintain all Summary Plan Descriptions on your website, rather than directing employees to the insurance carrier site for information.

Wells Insurance can help make North Carolina ACA open enrollment easier, by providing you with informational articles packed with tips and strategies, plus tools, forms and benefits summaries to support the entire enrollment process. In addition, we can help you launch a comprehensive enrollment communication campaign with our materials, including posters, presentations, payroll stuffers, flyers and emails that promote enrollment and explain benefit offerings.

If you are looking for the best health insurance and employee benefits guidance, to become compliant with the Affordable Care Act / Obamacare, you’ve come to the right place – Wells Insurance in Wilmington, NC.