The benefits your company provides to employees are an important piece of their company commitment. It is benefits that get them through some of life’s most challenging times. COVID-19 has made benefits more important than ever. But it has made enrollments more challenging because onsite enrollments are likely off the table. Some employers may be offering virtual open enrollment and if you’re one of them, communications may be a bit more challenging this year.
Preparation for benefits enrollment this year is going to be different. How you communicate your benefits and the ins and outs of enrollment must be carefully considered. Preparing to deliver the messaging about how benefits are changing and how open enrollment will be different will require working out strategy months in advance.
If employees are working virtually, it may not be a good idea to use posters and fliers. If nobody is in the office to see posted fliers, then the information will be lost and employees will be confused about the when and how for this year’s enrollment. Virtual open enrollment will be new to many employers and their employees who are more accustomed to in-person meetings. Planning can help ease them through this transition.
Create content that delivers a clear message regarding any new benefits available to employees, and have a plan for how you’re going to distribute that content. Posting messages on the company intranet, through email, during video conferences, webinars, and social media are just a few channels where you can reach your employees by virtual means. Another key area to reach out to employees is through text messaging.
No matter how many of these channels you utilize, it’s important that you track the effectiveness of how they work. Get feedback from employees and see what knowledge they are gaining regarding virtual open enrollment, and which avenue they were more likely to gather this information. Knowing this information will help to improve your information distribution strategy.
You can even use software to help you gauge engagement. If you post videos, track the viewing stats, click-throughs, and how long employees spend watching the content. What devices are they most likely to view content on? You can gather this information through your web site’s stats. Are they more likely to view it on their phones, or through their computers? Knowing this can help in how you design your messages.
