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What benefits are adding value to your organization’s employee experience, and which are not? Which benefits are being utilized to their full potential, and which have you had the same questions asked about over and over again? Of those programs, do you need to cut them or just provide better education for your employees – or perhaps, yourself?
Open Enrollment is a tough time for everyone as the amount of paperwork and questions seem to be piling up. Here are some concepts and highlighted resources that can help you and your team navigate these big decisions by making sure you have all the information you and your employees need and getting the entire organization on the same page when it comes to tackling the issues surrounding employee benefits.
Align Employees and Management through Education
Employee Benefits are difficult enough without misunderstandings between management and employees on what each party needs and wants, and what their benefits package provides.
Open Enrollment meetings may seem like a great time to ensure this alignment happens, but often it’s just the conversation starter. Throughout the year, keep reminding employees of what you’re providing them with and ensure it fits their wants and needs. Many employee benefit programs provide access to a wide variety of resources either through their vendors or created by the program administrators and brokers to help employers and employees get on the same page. Without understanding and alignment, programs go underutilized, key personnel feel underappreciated or ignored, and lines of communication go stagnant.
Without understanding and alignment, programs go underutilized, key personnel feel underappreciated or ignored, and lines of communication go stagnant.
Resource Highlight: HSA Day Live Broadcast – October 15, 2019
HSA Day is a national awareness day established to help start the conversation about Health Savings Accounts and the value that they can provide employees and employers alike. WEX is sponsoring a live broadcast by speaker Jean Chatzky (Financial Editor of NBC’s Today Show) where she will address the myths and magic behind HSAs. The information in this broadcast is not just for HR directors or executives though; your employees will get just as much out of this learning opportunity as you will.
Register and get more info here: www.HSAday.com
Manage the Broker Relationship
Your broker is supposed to be your strongest ally when navigating Open Enrollment and developing a program that best fits your needs. Your broker may think they know exactly what you need, but when was the last time that they asked you what is going on in your organization and discussed what solutions that they could help implement to solve them? Do they want to get involved in more than just the renewal meeting?
Resource Highlight: 5 Questions to Ask Your Broker Prior to Renewal
How can you expect to get the best advice if you don’t ask the right questions? In this blog post, we cover some of the key questions you should be asking your broker and how they should approach answering them. If you find yourself without satisfactory answers, maybe it is time to find someone else to partner with in advising and implementing your benefits program.
Support your HR Department
Open Enrollment season is known by HR departments as one of the most stressful and work intensive times of year. Mounds of paperwork, concerns about compliance, countless checks for information accuracy, and answering repetitive employee questions are just some of the pressure points that they are feeling. Supporting HR is paramount in this period, as without it, HR teams are left feeling underappreciated, misunderstood, and eventually will burn out. If you have yet to thank your HR personnel or ask them how management can make their job easier during Open Enrollment, now is the time.
Resource Highlight: HR Burn Out
HR Burnout is a major issue facing employers today. Check out this EHRC blog post called “The Reality of HR Burnout” and share it with your HR staff to see if any of these thoughts on how to relieve the pressure they are under resonate with them. You may discover that they are facing similar problems to the ones addressed in the post, and it is time to implement some solutions!
If after reading this, you still feel overwhelmed and you want the help of an experienced broker committed to innovation and fighting for what is best for the client first, contact us. We would love to serve you!
