What Makes Employees Worried During Open Enrollment?

Open enrollment, most daunting yet important time of the year, is just on its way to knock the doors. You might be fully prepared for the yearly challenge in order to provide appropriate benefits to your employees during the enrollment period. But, are your employees as excited and engaged in the process as you are?

This is actually a point of concern as studies depict that more than half of the employees find one or the other part of the process, challenging, which ultimately leads to their disengagement towards the whole process.

But the real catch lies in the fact that what is really troubling your employees and killing their interest?

Let’s take a look on this!

1. “I can’t remember the options I chose last year! They have vanished from my mind! “

This might be a possibility that most employees don’t remember their last year’s policy and what aspects it covered. Thus, benefits professionals are required to provide employees with their benefits summary so that they can easily review what they chose the last time and determine what changes are required as per the current circumstances and needs. Make sure that they understand and review all health care service costs included in spousal and dependent coverage so that appropriate decisions can be made.

2. “I can’t choose one, there are so many options! Don’t know which one to choose!”

It’s a great thing that benefits industry provides numerous options for employees, but it often backfires by making employee confused and perplexed. The process of arriving at the best option is time-consuming and makes employees doubtful at the end. They often regret on their choices later. So, they choose the safest path and continue with their existing policies, leaving behind something that could have been of more value to them.

3. “This meeting mania is making me irked! I don’t know what to attend! Just tell me what I need to know”

Usually, when open enrollment period is about to start, several meetings are conducted with brokers and HRs to make employees understand the basics of open enrollment and what benefits options they have for the coming year. To some employees, this seems alright, but most of the employees get fed up with these meetings which often become repetitive, confusing and conflicting eating up most of the time. Apart from communicating basics, focus more on one-to-one meetings where employees can discuss their concerns easily. This will help you provide better suggestions to them.

4. “Choosing a benefits policy is like giving a tough exam for me!”

Several employees think that the amount of information they receive through their employer or broker is not enough to make a decision and often suspend them in the middle with no certain step to make. Sometimes, due to lack of knowledge and proper guidance, they end up choosing an inappropriate plan and continue with it throughout the year until the next enrollment season. Thus, administrators must try keeping things more transparent and welcome employee queries and make them comfortable.

5. “I don’t like filling forms! I have already done a lot!”

Open enrollment includes a lot of paperwork with various forms to be filled in by the employees. The task becomes more complex when some forms require spouse’s signature too. Thus, it is important that employees are properly guided and explained the importance to fill those forms so that they don’t perceive them useless. Alternatively, the best option to make this hectic task easier is by adopting a benefits administration solution. This will eliminate the need of filling duplicate information and will streamline the processes too.

6. “These forms are all online. Is it safe to share my information here?”

Most of the employees may not be so technically sound enough to navigate through the benefits enrollment process easily. Moreover, their lack of trust in online information sharing resists them in utilizing what is most important for them. Employers are required to help such employees and let them know its benefits. Also, ensure them that their information will be kept confidential and will not be missed at any cost. This will help you win their trust.

7. “What is PPACA? How does it affect my benefits selection decision?”

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is extremely confusing for both employers as well as employees. Many do not even have the complete idea of its basics like how does it function and its effect on the coverage. Employers are required to clear their doubts by taking assistance from benefits laws experts and share the same knowledge with their employees too. This will help in understanding potential impacts of the law on insurance coverage, employee eligibility and costs entailed.

9. “Wish my math was that good! I can’t make these complex calculations!”

Costs computation for the selected benefits is often hard to understand, especially if the plan covers spouse and children as well. The solution is being that the HR professionals must communicate with their employees and clearly tell them how much they need to pay and what all will be covered. Also, let them know of the taxes and laws included. Apart from basic information, they must also be explained about their take home salary and the total amount of deducted salary. Explain all the things in a plain language without any confusion involved.

8. “No more, please! I can’t stand anymore against your benefits jargon bombardment!”

Terms like deductibles, copay, and voluntary benefits are still unclear to many employees as they rarely use them, but can be of much benefit if used with the benefits policy. Providing proper information on the same can help in making employees more confident and satisfied with their coverage. Also, using simple language can make the overall experience far better for the employees and their family members.

10. “What? Are you serious? You should have informed me earlier!”

Miscommunication can be very costly and often lead to incorrect results. Health Care Reforms and related provisions keep changing and it’s extremely hard for the employees to keep track of those changes and their effects, all by themselves. So, it must be the responsibility of the HR managers to communicate the changes as and when they occur to their employees and how the changes will affect them in their benefits enrollment.

Summing It Up:

When employees are frustrated and disengaged towards their benefits, there are increased chances of them ending up with a coverage that is not enough to fulfill their present needs or no coverage at all. Thus, finding a solution to these employee concerns must be on an employer’s priority list, to achieve a happy and satisfied workforce. Above are few common queries and challenges faced by employees during open enrollment.