Throughout 2020, we’ve been sharing advice to help you boost your Open Enrollment success this year. With the all-virtual Open Enrollment a near-certainty at this point, you’ve likely had to pivot at least some of your in-person benefits meetings to some form of virtual comms.
For many HR teams, this will mean an increase in emails, texts, virtual bulletin boards, and even social media. A lot of text, right? In order to boost the efficacy of all that writing, we’ve talked about ways to engage your audience, communicating the right way for each generation, and how to build an overall communication strategy for Open Enrollment. You have the information you want to share… now, how are you going to build your communications?
First, prioritize your information.
There’s a lot you want to tell your employees. You’ve worked hard to build a benefits menu which offers them great choices and perks to make their life better. But you also know that no matter how hard you try to create excitement, some people just aren’t going to engage with their benefits.
These are the people you need to write for first. They need a few hard facts, and they’re not going to wade through the rest of the information to find them.
What does everyone need in order to make their Open Enrollment successful? This is the information which goes front and center.
What updates will affect everyone?
These priority benefits updates will include: any new benefit offerings for the upcoming year, additional plan options and policy changes, and the important dates and deadlines everyone has to meet in order to successfully enroll — especially if your plans don’t support automatic enrollment.
Lead your basic communication messages with this information. This way, even if your employees never scroll down, or stick around for the full message, they’ve at least seen the most important messaging about to keep the benefits they already have, or key updates to core plan benefits.
Key ways to send out priority information.
Since this information is important to every single member of your team, you can go the extra mile to make sure they receive it.
Text messages should be used sparingly to prevent fatiguing your audience, but in this case, it’s the perfect medium — learn more about texting and Human Resources at this post. A text message alert sent out before, during, and in the final week of Open Enrollment will impart a sense of urgency to those who haven’t yet enrolled.
Emails are part of every strategy, but emails get lost in clutter, and HR emails in particular tend to be ignored. Schedule several priority emails before, during, and in the final week of Open Enrollment which include a strong call to action in the subject line, opening sentence, and closing line of the email. These priorities should be short, sweet, and to the point — you can work on engagement and building interest in perks like voluntary benefits in other emails.
Bulletin board notices, virtual bulletin board posts, social media posts, and other forms of communication should include a similar mix of priority information for all, and more engaging messages about your benefits program for those interested. Schedule your priority information first, then fill in the other weeks in your calendar with your engagement and in-depth benefits messaging.
Need some help?
Design a fresh and fun new communication strategy for Open Enrollment! Our selection of digital communications packages include templates to brand and easily identify your Open Enrollment comms. Take a look and contact us for more information on how WBD can streamline your benefits admin and communications.