6 Communications Tips to Improve Open Enrollment
Getting employees informed about open enrollment can prove to be challenging for HR professionals. However, there are specific steps HR professionals can take to improve their internal communications and engage with employees to ensure they’re ready to sign up for their benefits. Fall is here, and you’re ready to kick off your open enrollment. But if employees don’t know what you’re offering, how will they sign up? Effective communications is one of the biggest challenges that HR faces, and it is often overlooked until it’s too late. Here are six ways you can improve internal communications so employees engage when you need them to, and at the same time, and give them a two-way channel for feedback and questions. Also Read: Employees Are Looking for More: How to Meet Heightened Benefits Expectations
TIP #1 - CREATE AN INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGY
You need a game plan to reach your employees. Look into last year’s results and review what worked and what did not. Then, set clear objectives and goals. Consider these questions: •
• •
Which groups of employees may be the hardest to reach and the most disengaged? Maybe it’s your unwired workforce or frontline employees. Or maybe it’s your remote teams. What communications channels do they use most often to get company news or find HR resources? What worked and what didn’t last year? Where can you improve?
TIP #2 - KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE Study the demographics of your employees so you know who you’re communicating with. Do you have a large group of millennials? New employees from a recent acquisition? By learning who your employees are, you’ll understand their needs and focus on the right groups. Then you’ll invest in the best types of content on the right channels and vehicles to improve engagement.
TIP #3 - KEEP IT SIMPLE Keep initial HR open enrollment communications simple. With your first open enrollment message, don’t weigh employees down with long, detailed descriptions of every single benefit offered. Don’t try to overeducate your employees about everything your organization has to offer on one massive communication. Consider a series of shorter, yet engaging messages. Then you can create a good experience and establish trust before there is a barrage of information thrown at an unwitting crowd. Once initial information is shared, employees should then be educated about coverage and benefits offered, such flexible spending accounts for unplanned hospital stays and other unknown emergency needs, as they will be more likely to complete their enrollment. Always use simple, clear, and concise messaging so employees can readily understand the benefits being offered.
TIP #4 UTILIZE PERSONALIZED COMMUNICATIONS Every person is different, so it makes sense that all people learn or retain information in different ways. By providing a multi-channel communications approach, you stand the best chance of reaching the most employees. Use a variety of channels and vehicles for your communications, such as email, intranet, branded apps, and short, mobile-friendly videos. Then, personalize the
messaging to improve engagement. Segment and target different employee groups and send them open enrollment details that are relevant to them from the ease of a single publishing platform.
TIP #5 DON’T OVERSEND COMMUNICATIONS If you are sending nonstop messages about open enrollment, employees may just be deleting all of them. Send your messages intelligently with workforce communications campaigns that send HR communications to specific employee groups. Then, once an employee has signed up or taken a specific action, the communications should stop. While employees who haven’t signed up will continue to get the right messages until they take the right actions. With this automated and streamlined approach, employees will only receive relevant information at the right time and place.
TIP #6 ASK FOR FEEDBACK Measuring your communications performance is essential to continuously improve your HR communications. Pulse surveys help employees feel that their needs have been heard by decision makers. Then, combine that qualitative data with quantitative data from your internal communications outputs to measure engagement and effectiveness. Gather all the insights and form action plans for your next initiative. Also Read: Four Employee Benefits Trends to Watch in 2019
Invest in your employees with quality workforce communications Your employees are your organization’s biggest asset. By improving communications during open enrollment and beyond, HR departments will build a strong relationship with their workforce. And in turn, employees with engage with and be more productive in their organization.