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Now that this year’s enrollment is behind you, it’s a good idea to pause and take stock of how the process went. This way, you can figure out what worked well — and what you could tweak so that next year’s Benefits Enrollment can be even better.
There are a few final, important steps that business owners or HR reps should take to make sure that Benefits Enrollment is truly wrapped up successfully.
Carefully process employees' payroll deductions
After the last enrollment has trickled in, it’s time to collect all that employee enrollment data and process payroll deductions based on this year’s elections — including whether they should be pre- or post-tax. It’s important to do this step carefully and on time so nobody experiences any lapse or disruption in their coverage.
Receive, reconcile and pay carrier invoices.
The next step is to receive and process invoices from carriers and reconcile them with the employee data you have on file. For instance, if the marketing director enrolled in coverage as “Bob” but his legal name is “Robert,” a skillful reconciliation will catch these kinds of discrepancies. Once you’ve reconciled those invoices, pay carriers on time and in full to ensure continuous coverage for everyone on your team. You may be just paying the bills, but to your employees you’ll be a health-insurance hero!
Solicit post enrollment feedback from employees.
Curious about how your employees felt about the Benefits Enrollment process? There’s a great way to find out — ask them! Yes, that means you’re going to need to send a few more Benefits Enrollment emails, but it’ll be worth it. Do a post-enrollment employee survey soon after enrollment, while it’s still fresh in their minds. Ask employees about how they felt about the process, whether they felt they were making informed decisions, and what challenges they may have faced. All this feedback is excellent fodder for making improvements next year.
Continue the communication.
Once Benefits Enrollment is really, truly complete, make sure employees get a clearly written statement of their elections for their own records. Keep it simple — use an automatically generated statement from your enrollment platform and personalize it by adding a short message like “Congratulations! Please see a summary of your benefit elections below. Let’s make it a great year!”
You can also keep the communication about benefits going year-round with a quarterly email that shares something new about this year’s coverage. (Curious about what to share? We can help you with that!) Communicating the value of insurance benefits boosts morale and employee pride in their workplace, and helps remind them to make the most of the benefits they’ve selected. Plus, by the third quarterly email, it’ll be time to gear up for Benefits Enrollment again, so employees will be in the right frame of mind to have another successful enrollment season.
Plan for next year.
The last step to check off your list is to use this year’s Benefits Enrollment as a way to get ahead of the game next year. Grab the results from your post-enrollment employee survey, and take a little time to set yourself up for success in three areas:
Check out the platform used by employees to make enrollment decisions. If it’s a digital platform that tracks which employees had one-on-one meetings with your agent, such as Everwell, look at the percentage of employees who were seen, and see what you can do to increase that percentage next year. You can also learn a lot from seeing how many employees completed enrollment decisions, even if that decision was to decline.
Think back on this year’s Benefits Enrollment. Did all your employees receive the same level of communication, with the same message? Did they all have the same amount of time to complete the enrollment process? If not, consider how you could improve their experience next year.
Looking at the coverage that employees selected, identify whether there were any products that received no or very few enrollees. If so, it’s worth thinking about whether low enrollment was due to the offering itself, or perhaps a lack of clear communication about it.
