We asked readers how they were changing their approach to open
enrollment this year. Here's what you said.
By BenefitsPRO Editors | July 16, 2020 at 10:52 AM
This will be an enrollment season unlike any
other. How are brokers approaching enrollment strategies and
conversations differently this year? Will they be offering a wider variety
of game plans or focusing more on certain types of products?
Proactive planning
Due to COVID-19, we are anticipating changes
to the status quo that will impact open enrollment this year and moving
forward. We are proactively building best-fit strategies for our clients to
help them from both a plan design and benefit communication aspect.
In terms of benefits enrollment and
communication, we will see major disruption. We don’t expect to have many
groups offering group meetings or onsite benefit fairs this year, as they try
to limit the number of people in a confined space. In light of this, leveraging
technology will become even more important, as this is quickly becoming the
main method of enrollment and communication between employers and their
employees. We will be using technology both to capture/transmit enrollments,
and also to enhance communications about benefits with employees. We are
already seeing more employers adopting text messaging services and centering
communications around digital campaigns, and we expect this trend to become
normal operating procedure moving forward.
As the move towards digital isn’t a fit for
everyone, we will also be partnering with benefit communication firms with call
centers for clients with technology adverse employee demographics, language
barriers, and for those that like to provide a white glove approach to benefits
for their team.
We are also projecting that cost-containment
will be a major concern this year. This means that employees will have to
shoulder more risk as deductibles and out-of-pocket limits increase (and
networks narrow). So supplementing medical coverage with supplemental health
plans will be a major initiative. As these are feel-good products, and more
policyholders and client companies are becoming educated about them as they go
through the claims process, customer-centric companies with claims
auto-adjudication and simple online claim submission portals will be of utmost
importance.
We also anticipate mental wellness to be a
major concern as we start to transition from working at home back to working in
the office, and deal with the anxiety and depression that COVID-19 has caused.
We are proactively providing strategies to address the mental health of
populations in our client strategies. All in all, COVID-19’s lasting impact
will better prepare us and our clients for future pandemics.
Heather Garbers, VP voluntary benefits &
technology, HUB International
More opportunity
From a communication perspective, much of this
will be business as usual for our firm. Over the past two to three years, most
clients have preferred a virtual open enrollment in lieu of in-person, or as a
supplement to an in-person conversation. Many end-users appear to prefer this
method to fighting for seats in a conference room and also get more information
out of them.
Our sessions provide more opportunities to
engage attendees and also generate more content to share and recirculate. We
are already working with clients to revisit many of the solutions that we have
presented in the past in order to provide greater financial security to not
only employees, but also the business as a whole, amid both household and
business revenue pressures.
I think the best word to describe our clients
right now is anxious. Those who are worried are being cautious. For others,
they feel like they are stuck behind a farm tractor going 10 mph down the
interstate.
Derek Winn, consultant, The Business Benefits
Group
Zooming ahead
Over the past five years, we have been moving
our clients to online benefits enrollment while still having open enrollment
meetings in person. The past two years, we have held open enrollment meetings
on Zoom, and they have been quite effective. Due to the COVID-19 situation, I
would expect all open enrollment meetings to be done on Zoom as either a
webinar or meetings with employee participation for questions. We always record
these Zoom meetings for employees who were not able to make it or new employees
who join after open enrollment.
We will continue to use a variety of benefits
communication tools for our clients, including videos, email, paycheck stuffers
or PDFs and, for our larger clients, incorporating Alex by Jellyvision. It is a
new world and our new normal will be more digitally based with fewer or no
in-person enrollment meetings. I also think there will be more one to one
communication, since employees have fears around COVID-19 and will want to make
sure their health plans fit their personal needs.
Barry S. Cohn, president and CEO, Really Great
Employee Benefits
Simple and accessible
COVID-19 is obviously impacting everything, so
to say it will not impact open enrollment strategies and conversations is a bit
disingenuous. With that said, I think our strategic approach to open enrollment
and the conversations around it must remain the same, even though the tactical
outcome may be different.
For example, in my conversations with
employers, we are always talking about how their corporate culture impacts not
only their plan designs and offerings, but also how employees access
information and which communications, as well as mediums, will be leveraged
during open enrollment. That will not change. But in 2020 and beyond, employers
will need to get comfortable with virtual solutions and evolve their open
enrollment to keep pace with the changing landscape. It is not just about an
online portal, although that will be important; it is also about building trust
and being transparent during this time of uncertainty.
From a tactical perspective, HR professionals
need to continue to be accessible and creative. Employees who used to value
choice may now see it as a bit of a burden on top of everything else, so we
need to provide solutions that are easy to explain. Employees and employers
will also be very sensitive to costs in the coming enrollment period, which
means enrollment support around financial projections will continue to be
essential. This pressure cannot be overstated.
In some ways, HR professionals have new jobs
amidst COVID-19, in that they are not only responsible for implementing
initiatives, but doing so in a manner that is more inclusive, deliberate and
engaging than ever before. In addition, what was top of mind at the beginning
of 2020 may not be the same as we move into the third and fourth quarters. Take
the time to re-prioritize, reassess your risk tolerance, consider how your
population has been impacted and changed—from budgets to bandwidth and employee
engagement—and recast your benefits strategy, which includes—but is certainly
not limited to—open enrollment.
I do not believe 2021 will be focused on wider
offerings or additional products. The priority must be solving problems and
closing gaps—only adding products where a need truly exists—and where employees
feel included and engaged in the process. Employees will have even less
disposable income and more competing priorities. They are dealing with a level
of continued uncertainty that has never been felt before. Simplicity and
accessibility are key. Bells and whistles for the sake of bells and whistles
will not resonate.
Current processes will need to be retooled,
with a focus on mental health, behavioral health, mindfulness, healthy living
and reducing stress. These components were always important, but COVID has
significantly expanded the need. I also feel new products will emerge to help
employers keep employees productive and engaged—especially with the possibility
of a larger remote workforce — while also solving for everyday challenges
around seeking safe medical treatment, childcare support, home schooling
services and assuaging fears about what is to come.
Teri Weber, senior VP, Spring Consulting Group
Uninterrupted service
2020 has brought some unique challenges to the
benefits enrollment process, but our company has been able to adapt to these
changes and provide our clients with uninterrupted enrollment services. By
implementing a fully virtual enrollment process, our clients have been able to
enroll their employees in their benefits programs without the need for face-to-face
meetings. Our dedicated call center is staffed with enrollment experts who
provide guidance and answers to employees in need of enrollment assistance. We
also provide our clients with a self-service enrollment portal, which allows
them to enroll from the comfort of their own homes with the assistance of our
call center enrollers, if needed.
Our virtual enrollment process has allowed us
to continue providing all of our benefits enrollment services to our clients
without any interruptions in our service. We continue to tailor a custom
enrollment strategy for each one of our clients, ensuring that we are
connecting with employees and providing them with the personal touch that they
have come to expect from us.
David Hurlock, CEO, PES Enrollments
Proving ground
I’m forecasting that we will see more
digitized solutions to help guide employers through the process. The rare
groups who use paper will realize there is a better way. I’m also anticipating
that employers will want to start the process earlier and will be asking more
questions than ever of their brokers, including, “What do you really do for
us?”
Brad O’Neill, director of benefits strategies,
Beyond Insurance
Point of no return
I think there are two components here; one is
operational and the other is product related. Operationally, I think we are at
a point of no return in terms of how we communicate, educate and enroll. With
so many people being exposed to technologies like Zoom, Soapbox and other
virtual communication strategies, I think they have become accustomed to it and
may actually prefer it to one-on-one meetings with an actual person. In some
cases, I’ve offered to follow up with an in-person visit, but many employers are
satisfied with video-based communication that employees can view on their own
without interrupting day-to-day operations. I will continue to review best
practices and solutions related to video-based communication to large groups.
In terms of products, where possible, I will
be focusing less on one-size-fits-all solutions. What I’ve seen with my groups,
particularly those with a younger employee population that was already asking
why they were paying so much for plans that gave them so little, is further
questioning the value of what was being offered. Take dental insurance as an
example, which has crept up to an average of more than $30 a month for a single
employee. Despite premium credits that the carriers have made available, the
value of the premium to the actual cost of a dental procedure is
disproportionate. You can say the same for vision and other benefits that many
are paying for but haven’t been able to use for three months. So, flexibility
and value will be the focus, as so many have had time to reflect on their
budgets and ask what they are paying for versus what they are using.
I’m excited about the future and I think this
shutdown has shed new light on our business.
Tom DiLiegro, consultant and owner, Benefit
Advisors of Charleston, LLC
New normal
The whole event chain—from prospecting to
enrollment to payment method—will change post-COVID. Virtual prospecting,
contactless enrollment, and non-payroll deduction payments will be the “new
normal” of the future.
Tripp Amos, industry veteran
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