Level Up: 10 More Tips to Drive Your Communication Strategy Forward
You’ve revamped your benefits guide, polished your benefits presentation, and written some awesome open enrollment emails. That should be enough, right?
In the past, that may have been the case. But with fewer employees working in the office, and with many of us dealing with countless other stressors outside of work, brokers have to go above and beyond their usual communication tactics to reach every employee and ensure they enroll in the benefits they need.This next set of tips builds on the great work you’ve already done to help your benefits communication strategy better meet the needs of a dispersed, diverse, and digital workforce. First, we’ll provide some hints for a successful virtual open enrollment process. Then, we’ll look at communication tactics from three benefits leaders that haven’t been afraid to try new things to reach out to employees.
Nail the Virtual Open Enrollment Process
We get it: It’s hard to beat the in-person open enrollment fair, what with the free snacks and the swag and the giveaways and the one-on-one conversations. Pivoting to a virtual strategy for open enrollment can be quite an undertaking, especially when employees and benefits consultants alike are so used to an in-person event. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to make a smooth transition to a virtual process.
21. Write a cheat sheet. In the absence of in-person conversations or office fliers, create a short and sweet document that you can send to employees (including paper mailers for anyone hard to reach by email). This cheat sheet should provide links or QR codes to your most important benefits resources – including your benefits guide and benefits presentation – as well as a list of any major benefits changes and general tips. This will give employees a go-to resources when they begin the enrollment process.
22. Hold virtual office hours. Take advantage of your video conferencing or collaboration software to host “office hours” when employees can ask general questions or get benefits advice. Be sure to hold several sessions during open enrollment. Pick different dates and times to accommodate for various employee segments – shift workers, part-time employees, working parents, employees in different time zones, etc. Consider offering sign-ups for one-on-one sessions in case employees (and their families) have questions they’d rather not cover in a group.
23. Record your benefits presentation as a webinar. A cheat sheet and office hours may be enough to get many employees through open enrollment, but some people retain information better when they hear it. Doing your benefits presentation as a live webinar, and then recording it for later, will help these employees get the information they need. Remember to leave time for questions – and make sure to follow up with anyone who asked a question but wasn’t able to get an answer in the allotted time.
24. Consider online open enrollment software. Your broker team awesome, but it can’t be everywhere, all at once, all the time. Online open enrollment software can walk employees through the process, outline their options, and answer their questions. Software like ALEX is available 24/7, so employees can access benefits information outside normal working hours while discussing important healthcare questions with their families.
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