Benefit Enrollment
Holistic Approach Maximizes Enrollment Process for Employers and Employees

 

by Jay Hutchins

When it comes to benefit enrollment, it’s all about the big picture – not just a once-a-year requirement. Smart brokers know that a successful benefit enrollment requires taking a long-term view and a holistic, rather than piecemeal, approach.

Conducting benefit enrollment used to be a way to get just employees signed up for their health benefits every year. But enrollments have become increasingly important now that employers offer more choice in their benefit packages and share more of the cost with employees. Employees need help understanding their insurance plans, sorting through technical jargon, and choosing among the various products, options, and features. And with a tightened economy, workers are more conscious about spending their dollars wisely and making the best choices for themselves and their families. Benefit education is now an integral part of the enrollment process.

In today’s competitive environment, employers stand to gain from a quality enrollment process, as well. Employers need the best benefit packages to attract and retain a quality workforce. They want to make sure that workers understand the value since benefits are costly, accounting for nearly 40% of payroll among U.S. employers, according to a 2008 study by Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM).

Benefit Education Is Critical to the Enrollment Process

There’s still a lot of work to be done around benefit education. Ninety-three percent of employers think it’s important for employees to understand and appreciate their benefits, but only 19% believe their employees actually do and 5% say their employees don’t understand their benefits at all, according to a 2009 Colonial Life survey. Clearly, the enrollment process offers the best opportunity for employers to educate their employees about the benefit package.
This sort of education can pay big dividends. Employees who believe their benefits are communicated effectively are more likely to say the employer values their work and cares about their well being, according to a recent Unum survey. Among employees who said their company provided excellent or very good benefit education:
• 70% said their employer valued their work.
• 69% said they were satisfied with their job.
• 63% said their employer cared about their well-being.
• 62% said they would stay with their employer if they were offered the same pay and benefits elsewhere
Employers place a high value on consistency and communication during the enrollment process. To ensure successful enrollments, it’s important to emphasize the need for year-round communication, not a check-the-box approach that leads to uninformed decision-making. It’s easiest to look at the enrollment process in three stages, with each stage associated with specific activities.

Stage One—Pre-Enrollment

Planning is critical to the pre-enrollment phase. Use this opportunity to review your client’s short-term- and long-term needs. Ideally, you should help your clients develop a three- to five-year enrollment plan, outlining product offerings, plan design, and issues regarding business needs, communication, employee concerns, etc. This is the time to get employees excited about the upcoming enrollment so they want to learn more about the benefits being offered. A number of different tools can help, such as benchmark surveys, e-mails, accessible insurance education, rich media, and printed materials.

Stage Two—Enrollment

Brokers rely heavily on group meetings as a primary method of enrolling groups. Group meetings can give employees a high-level overview of their benefit package, including any changes or additions they should expect. Benefit counselors can play a critical role during the enrollment by conducting the group meetings, establishing an initial relationship with employees, and setting up expectations for the enrollment process.

However, the value of these counselors really comes into play during one-to-one meetings with employees. Counselors can personalize the decision-making experience when they meet with each employee individually. They can ask questions to learn about the employee’s needs, identify any gaps in coverage, and answer questions about the benefit package. They can also provide personal salary illustrations so employees can see how their purchases will affect their take-home pay. Enrolling employees in their core benefits, as well as any voluntary products offered, can make the process seamless for the employer. This big-picture approach helps employees learn how their insurance plans complement each other so they can create an entire benefit package that works best for themselves and their families.

Employers believe that individual sessions with benefit counselors significantly improve how well employees understand their benefits. Your clients should get daily updates on the enrollment’s progress -- who has been seen, what products employees are choosing, and any areas of the company where participation is proceeding slower than planned.

Stage Three—Post-Enrollment

After the enrollment, your clients will need ongoing education, reporting, and planning. The HR staff will want to know what worked well and what needs adjusting. Reporting should include participation rates, products purchased, and an employee survey on the enrollment experience. This post-enrollment information can be incorporated into planning future enrollments.
Not all HR departments are staffed to provide this type of enrollment experience; most agencies are not staffed or equipped to deal with such a labor-intensive process; and very few major medical carriers are willing to address this need.

The voluntary insurance industry has responded with innovative core and voluntary benefit enrollments. A top carrier can bring in benefit professionals to provide personal assistance to each employee. Some firms charge for these services while others offer them at no direct cost to the business or employee. Each company is different, so, when evaluating carriers, be sure to ask about the carrier’s enrollment and benefit communication services and any costs.
Approaching benefit enrollment from a holistic perspective instead of a once-a-year activity can pay off for you and your clients. By building a process that focuses on year-round dialogue, you’ll create a partnership that has lasting value for your clients and their employees.
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Jay Hutchins is vice president for Broker Marketing for Colonial Life & Accident Insurance Company. Colonial provides insurance benefits for employees and their families through their workplace, along with individual benefit education, enrollment technology, and personal service. Colonial Life offers disability, life and supplemental accident and health insurance policies in 49 states and the District of Columbia. Similar policies, if approved, are underwritten in New York by a Colonial Life affiliate, The Paul Revere Life Insurance Company. Colonial Life is based in Columbia, S.C., and is a subsidiary of Unum Group. Download a free copy of Colonial Life’s newest white paper, Reinvent the Enrollment Experience: How to Drive Value for Your benefits package, by visiting www.ColonialLife.com/about/newsroom. Learn more about Colonial Life at www.ColonialLife.com.

http://www.ncqa.org.