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Plan now for next year's open enrollment success

Open enrollment. These two little words can cause anxiety for even the most intrepid HR professional. But you can conquer your concerns about annual benefits enrollment by using what you learned from this year's experience to create next year's plan. Consider the following tips to break free of open enrollment anxieties and strengthen the services you provide to employees.

Challenges and burdens
"Open enrollment is undoubtedly a challenging time for even the most sophisticated organizations," says Patty Conner, Ceridian manager of Health & Welfare Account Management. "These challenges are very real. During a few hectic weeks, HR is expected to educate the workforce, communicate with carriers and respond to employee questions of every kind."

You may remember all this quite vividly -- because it hasn't been that long since you went through it. "That means you're primed to take action," says Conner. "Now is the time to create a project plan -- while the memories of the enrollment experience are still fresh."

Pre-planning for open enrollment
"Take action that can make a real difference for your entire organization," Conner suggests. "Create a project plan and stick to it." She advises that everyone involved in the open enrollment experience attend a recap meeting to discuss what went well -- and what didn't. "Be honest with yourselves. What worked? What needs improvement? Document your findings and provide recommendations as a group."

Conner recommends opening up the conversation to include the specifics of benefit plan designs. "Include discussions about administrative resources," Conner says. "It's a great time to talk about the real costs of open enrollment, and to examine potential costs savings that might be achieved by cosourced or outsourced enrollment administration."

Budgeting is core to the pre-planning process. "HR can help crystallize meaningful strategies for saving money," Conner says. "These meetings are a real chance to talk about the realities of your organization's budget limits, competitive benefit plan options, cost sharing and how to manage the considerations of employee morale."

And don't forget post-enrollment and year-end activity. Conner says, "HR professionals have a lot on their plates. In addition to managing employee questions and enrollment plan strategies, HR is usually responsible for verifying that carriers have properly loaded data, that all the ID cards are going out with the correct ID numbers, and that every single payroll benefit deduction is absolutely correct. Honest appraisal of time and effort devoted to these considerations can yield new insights about ways to save money and make your process more efficient."

Help employees make better decisions
"In my experience, those who work in HR take their responsibilities very seriously," says Conner. They know how important it is for HR to provide employees with the time and the knowledge they need to understand their options.

"It's worth the effort to provide employees with a comprehensive communication plan and tools that are superior in every way," Conner adds. "The best decision support tools are specific to that individual employee's eligibility, making it easy to choose which plan is best for their budget. Choose support tools that let employees compare plans, rates and out-of-pocket costs. For the employer, the results are tangible."

A clever way to save
The vast majority of organizations employ an October/November time frame for annual benefits enrollment that has a January 1 effective date. But Conner asks, "Is this really the best time?"

"Let's face it," she says, "many companies find that the October/November time frame is a particularly difficult time organizationally. Resources are already stretched to the limit, and focus is particularly hard to maintain as everyone -- employees and HR staff alike -- are pulled in different directions. Consider moving open enrollment to an off-cycle period -- perhaps create an April 1 or July 1 effective date. You'll have a better opportunity to communicate with your employees. They have more time to discuss coverage options with their families. And you might be surprised to learn that off-cycle enrollment can be accomplished at a lower cost."

Using what you learned from this year's open enrollment experience is a smart way to address your concerns for next year. Use all the resources available to you -- including strategic planning, employee decision-making tools and Ceridian's wealth of resources -- to break free of open enrollment anxieties.

Want to learn more about creating a project plan for next year's open enrollment? Check out the recorded Web forum, Best practices in open enrollment.

To learn more about how Ceridian's Health and Welfare solutions can help your organization, contact your Ceridian representative.