Articles
January 20, 2023
With the dust settling on annual enrollment, we can all breathe a small sigh of relief. It’s time-consuming, challenging, and maybe even a bit stressful for your whole HR team. Hopefully, your benefits administrator helped simplify things. But if you had trouble, take the advice of 90s Britpop band, Oasis, and “don’t look back in anger.” Instead, look back and learn.
Find out how to improve annual enrollment, so it’s even better next year. Here are a few simple questions you and your HR team can ask.
#1
How was employee participation in annual enrollment?
One of the first metrics to look at when you review annual enrollment is employee participation. Look at how many employees enrolled in benefits as well as which options they chose. Bonus points if you can put your hands on multiple years of data to spot trends.
High enrollment means employees find the benefits program valuable, but any benefits with low enrollment might indicate a communication issue about their value. Or it could mean there’s a mismatch with your employee population.
#2
Are employee benefits costs and usage balanced?
Comparing program costs to benefits use is a helpful way to measure the effectiveness of your benefits program. It can show you areas where the program may be over- or underutilized. It can also provide insight into how to make your benefits program more cost-effective.
However, keep in mind that cost isn’t the only factor in determining the success of your benefits program – employee satisfaction is also key.
#3
What feedback did employees provide?
Gathering and analyzing employee feedback is a great way to measure the success of your annual enrollment. Post-enrollment surveys can provide a lot of insight into employees’ needs, preferences, and any challenges they may have faced throughout the enrollment process.
Collecting employee feedback also fosters a culture of engagement. When employees have a voice in the process, it can help improve job satisfaction and loyalty.
#4
How many employees used the benefits
decision support tool?
Tools like bswift’s Ask Emma™ can guide employees in their benefits choices. If your ben admin platform offers a decision support assistant, it’s important to review its usage. If use was low, consider promoting it more for the following enrollment period.
You can highlight the tool in your benefits communications, host an employee webinar or training, or promote the tool on your company intranet. You may also consider calling out your decision support tool in the onboarding process. This ensures new hires are aware of it and can take advantage of it when making their benefits selections.
#5
Did employees contact your benefits service center?
If your ben admin provider has a benefits service center that your organization uses, reach out to them for your service center usage data. They may also provide insight into what typical usage should look like for an organization like yours.
If service center call or chat volume was abnormally high from your employee population, there could be a communication issue. There may be tools or features within your platform—including a resource library or decision support tool—to help reduce confusion. If service center volume was low but calls or emails to your HR team were high, you’ll want to find better ways to direct enrollees to the service center.
#6
How many employees logged in during annual enrollment to review their benefits and make changes?
If your company has a passive enrollment, check on how many platform logins you had. If logins were low, reevaluate your communications and engagement strategy. After all, the goal is to have your employees log in and at least review their benefits, even if they choose to maintain the same options.
Ultimately, your aim is to ensure everyone has the opportunity to make informed decisions and take full advantage of their benefits. Your employee benefits communication strategy should be active year-round. That way, employees are familiar with their benefits and in the habit of thinking about them once annual enrollment rolls around.
Ben admin bottom line:
Measure what matters
A ben admin provider with strong analytics and reporting capabilities can help improve your annual enrollment process. You can identify trends and track the success of your enrollment campaign.
The bswift Dashboard and Reporting tool gives you a full analytics suite. You get real-time reporting, detailed analytics, tailored reports, benchmarking, and alerts. It’s everything you need to refine your benefits strategy year-to-year.
Ready to take annual enrollment to the next level?
Find out how bswift helps you develop and execute
your benefits strategy.
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