Open enrollment is right around the corner and it’s time to start planning. Rather than recycling old communication plans and OE strategies, let recent stats and trends shape your approach to providing the best enrollment experience for your employees.

The rising cost of healthcare isn’t anything new, but it’s still a concern. In fact, 60% of employers say it’s one of their top concerns. As you prepare for OE and build out your strategy, you want to think about how you can combat these high costs. Consider offering HDHPs and HSAs as well as conducting a dependent verification audit to help manage your benefits spend.

Without an audit, companies end up covering employees and dependents on their benefits plans that they shouldn’t. This can be costly, and most companies don’t have the time or internal resources to figure out who’s really eligible and who should be removed. Dependent verification audits should be a core part of your post-OE strategy to prevent this and save $3,500 annually per ineligible dependent removed.

Dependent verification should be a key part of your post-OE plans. However, auditing dependents manually is time-consuming and tedious. With DependentIQ, you can instantly audit and verify all current dependents as well as instant ongoing verification as well. Incorporating DependentIQ will not only simplify this process but allow HR more time to focus on other things during this busy time.

As you could probably guess, medical, dental, vision and life were the most popular benefits offered this year. However, this OE, consider adding more value to your benefits offering to help you retain and attract talent. Many companies are gaining a competitive edge by offering as many as 15 different types of benefits to their overall package. As people crave a higher sense of security, a diverse benefits package has become something many applicants look for in a company.

If you’re considering revamping your benefits offerings this year, you aren’t alone. This can look different for each company including more voluntary benefits, HDHP and HSAs or even implementing new benefits technology. You can still make these changes as you begin preparing for open enrollment to give your company a competitive edge.

As many companies make changes to their benefits and diversify their plans, many are recognizing the importance of voluntary benefits. Not only do they create a sense of security among employees, but they help decrease burnout and increase productivity. Learn how these benefits – including mental health, infertility, legal support, genomic testing and cancer support – can help you exceed employee expectations in our panel webinar with Maven Clinic, Boon Health, Genomic Life and MetLife Legal Plans.

2020 was filled with changes and distractions that made engaging employees in their benefits a challenge, and it seems that 2021 is shaping up to be the same. With this in mind, it’s time to revamp employee communications to make sure you are reaching all 4 generations in today’s workforce. Consider including video, virtual benefit fairs, text messaging or social media to drive engagement and not get lost in the noise.

With more and more employees working remote, we knew mobile usage during OE would increase in 2020. However, this growth was unprecedented and mobile users experienced a 39% faster enrollment as well as increased convenience. As you plan your OE strategy, it is important to ensure your benefits administration platform is mobile friendly to make enrollment as accessible as possible. Additionally, we recommend including a text message campaign as a part of your communications plan to reach a wider range of employees.

It’s no secret that benefits are confusing and if you are feeling the pressure to educate your employees, you aren’t alone. To help prepare your employees for enrollment, consider creating a detailed communications plan. Arm them with infographics, resource libraries and educational videos to ensure they have what they need to learn about their benefits options regardless of their preferred learning style.

As we mentioned above, increasing HDHPs and HSAs is a great strategy to combat rising healthcare costs, but employees will never choose them without understanding what they are. Enter decision support tools, like our own DecisionIQ. Personalized plan recommendations within the shopping experience can increase voluntary plan participation, increase engagement, save HR time and save you money. If you aren’t already using a decision support tool, it’s not too late to look into adding one in time for OE.

Open enrollment is easily one of the busiest times of year for HR teams. This makes automation the key to freeing up their valuable time to focus on strategizing. PlanSource offers a wide array of products and services to do just that including custom communications, DecisionIQ, DependentIQ, HSA administration and more. Click here to see a demo today.