Open enrollment is stressful. Between fielding employee questions, running communication campaigns and ensuring you meet deadlines, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Remember that your benefits administration platform is here to help you breeze through OE and hit your goals. We’ve rounded up the most important tools and resources to utilize this open enrollment season to save you time and make things easier.

A successful open enrollment starts with thorough planning. This is easier said than done during the busiest time of year, so it’s always smart to use all the resources you have at your disposal. Now is the perfect time to start planning with our Open Enrollment Planning Playbook to help you set your goals, prepare for execution and know what to measure once it’s over. If you already have your overall strategy set, our communications cheat sheet can help you stay on track. We’ve broken everything down to before, during and after OE so you know exactly what to say and when to send it.

Last year, mobile access increased by 67% during open enrollment. As you plan out your communications strategy, consider including text messaging to reach more of your employee population and put key enrollment information in the palm of their hand. These campaigns can include details such as OE start dates and deadlines, incomplete enrollment reminders, educational content and even general workplace updates. When you send out text message OE notifications, be sure to include instructions on how to enroll via mobile as well. The more convenient you make open enrollment, the less you’ll be scrambling as deadlines approach. Check out this blog for more great text messaging campaign examples.

Even with the most airtight enrollment plan in place, your employees will still have questions. To make sure these questions don’t become an annual drain on your time, keep links to key educational content handy. Include content such as our video library in your initial communications plan, but also keep those links on-hand for employees who miss it or can’t find the email to go back to.

Better yet, anticipate and answer employees’ questions before they even have them! With prescriptive decision support tools, you’ll receive fewer employee questions while also maximizing the value employees get from their benefits.

It’s important to share benefits information and educational resources in your pre-enrollment communications. However, most employee questions don’t pop up until they are in the middle of the shopping experience. PlanSource DecisionIQ allows you to embed key educational resources right within the employee enrollment workflows. Additionally, it provides AI-powered recommendations to help your employees choose the benefits that best fit their needs. Not only do decision support tools save you time, but they increase employee satisfaction with their benefits as well. Learn more about how you can improve employees’ benefit understanding with decision support tools in our free, on-demand webinar.

While incomplete enrollment reminders are likely already apart of your communication strategy, let your ben admin system be a secondary reminder as well. Best-in-class platforms should offer an ‘abandon cart’ notifiers that you can customize and schedule. We recommend thinking about turning features like this on now, so you don’t forget as the open enrollment start date gets closer.

Start thinking about dependent verification now, so it’s less of a pain-point in the height of post-enrollment tasks. The tools and features that make things easier after enrollment are just as important as those you use during OE. So, as you plan and prepare, consider adding an automated verification tool, like our own DependentIQ, to make this process even easier.

Be sure to look for a tool that offers ongoing, real-time dependent verification, not just a one-time audit, so you can continue to save time and money long after OE season is over — an average of $3,500 annually per ineligible dependent removed, in fact! Check out our Dependent Verification Savings Calculator to see your potential savings in real time or our on-demand webinar to see DependentIQ in action!

If you’re looking for more tips on how you can achieve a successful OE, download our complete ‘OE Playbook’ planning guide or schedule a product demo with our team today!