Open Enrollment: A Small-Business Survival Guide

Ah, autumn. The time for picking apples, watching the leaves change, and enjoying cooler weather.

And the time for dealing with open enrollment.

Benefits open enrollment isn't on anyone's list of eagerly anticipated activities. But for companies with Jan. 1 plan dates, the process is inevitable. The steps you take now will can the difference between a painless open enrollment and a bureaucratic train wreck.

Step 1. Plan and Plan Early
It's not too late to plan for open enrollment, but it is certainly not too early. First, create a calendar of events and processes by  working back from due dates for information to your benefit providers. Decide who will handle the process of getting information to employees, answering their questions, and receiving their data.

Your plan also needs to include informational meetings for your employees -- along with plenty of advance notice. Next year, consider starting this process as early as June.

For many small businesses it can be tough to pin down details from a broker. The broker may tell them, "If we wait a few more weeks we may see better numbers." Some provider reps may also be focused on larger clients and want to put you off.

Don't let this drag on too long. Set a conference to agree on a timetable for final proposals. I'm not convinced that a few more weeks will generate lower costs, but I do know that you should avoid making quick decisions about which benefit plan options to offer. That shiny new lower-cost dental plan won't look so good if the nearest provider is 30 miles away.

Step 2. Make Information as Clear as Possible
Benefits are confusing, and health plans in particular can make employees feel like they're stuck in a maze with no exit. If you ask an employee to describe the difference between an HSA and HMO, the most common response might be a blank stare.

How do you make sense of these plans to your employees? First, cut the "experts" out of the picture.

Full plan descriptions and even summary plan descriptions are fabulous cures for insomnia. When a broker or provider sends you this kind of content, ask a benefits neophyte to read it over and check it for clarity. If they can't understand it, why would you expect your employees to know what it all means?

If you can't get a broker or provider to customize your plan descriptions -- in plain English -- there are free online tools that can help. MetLife publishes an Employee Benefits Simplifier Tool that walks the viewer through comparisons built upon online questions. After all, it's pointless to launch a terrific new wellness plan if no one understands the requirements and benefits.

Step 3. Use Multiple Channels of Communication to Tell the Story
Communicating about benefits is easy, right? You just send an email announcing the due date with a link to enroll online, and your employees do the rest.

Not so fast. When that email is one of 75 others sitting in an inbox, it's easy to lose or overlook it. And when a due date is still six weeks away, how many employees are going to put everything else on hold to deal with it?

So don't be surprised when you take this approach, and then a bunch of employees don't sign up on time.

An effective benefits communication plan uses multiple channels. Augment email with virtual or in-person meetings. Consider organizing health fairs, sending letters to employees at home, and even using social media. Some employers, for example, use Twitter to send reminders and updates.

(A fun fact: Recent research by Unum concluded that employees reported better benefits eduction when they had at least three weeks to review offerings using at least three learning methods.)

Also, the communication should tell the whole story -- including employer costs and reasons why you're making any changes. With average annual premiums expected to rise above $15,000 for family coverage and inch towards $1,000 a month for single-person plans, employees should know that the $300 that they contribute each month to cover a spouse and three kids is less than 25 percent of the actual total premium.

You can use regional sources for plan-comparison information or find data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics or non-profit organizations. I find the Kaiser Family Foundation health benefits information very easy to navigate. They even include slides that you can download, including one that shows the average annual worker premium contributions since 1999. Share this one if your employee spend is at or less than $4,100 for a family. Finally, be prepared to explain your rates if they are above average, using local data if you can find it.

Step 4. Check Your Information -- and Then Check It Again
I once opened a big box of dental plan descriptions the day before our open enrollment meetings. The description of the coverage was correct, but the employer name on the top belonged to a different company. It took some scrambling to hunt down the correct booklets in time.

Yet names on the top of forms are not the only things to check. You also need to double-check (and probably triple-check) premium and employee contribution rates.

One time I stood in an open enrollment meeting for a new client where I had just introduced the updated employee handbook, and a broker representative put up slides about health plan choices. I didn't think the employee premium participation info looked right. It wasn't -- it was way too low.

No one was happy when we announced the correction. The next year I got directly involved in the company's benefits communications.

Also be sure to review online information and open enrollment screens to be sure they're consistent, easy to understand, and include any special information your company requires. 

Apple picking will always be more fun than open enrollment. But you can still take steps to avoid getting rotten results.

---

Rebecca Mazin uses her experience and talent as a consultant, writer and management trainer to create usable solutions for employers to meet increasingly complicated human resources challenges. She is the author of The Employee Benefits Answer Book; An Indispensable Guide for Managers and Business Owners and co-author of The HR Answer Book; An Indispensable Guide for Managers and Human Resources Professionals. Follow Rebecca on Twitter @thehranswer.