What are your goals for this year’s Open Enrollment? What do you hope to achieve? The key to a successful Open Enrollment is establishing a clear goal. Here are some common Open Enrollment goals to consider:

• Introduce a new program in our benefits portfolio to all employees.
• Make all employees more aware of the different benefits programs that are available to them.
• Boost employee participation levels for certain benefits programs.
• Target certain employees who have yet to enroll in certain benefits programs to convince them to try them out.

After you've established your Open Enrollment goals, the next step is to analyze and understand your audience. Find out as much as you can about your employees in terms of their needs for education and preferences for how to be reached. Your employees are your "target audience" for your Open Enrollment marketing campaign.

A few questions to consider:

• How many employees currently participate in your benefits programs? Consider developing messages that specifically address your “veterans” (employees who are already enrolled in a program) and different messages for your “rookies” (employees who have yet to try a program).
• What is the percentage of participants versus eligible employees? This figure is your participation rate, against which you can track progress each year.
• Do you have employees who have enrolled in your benefits programs one year, but didn’t re-enroll the following year? Do you know why?
• Have they enrolled in similar benefits programs at previous jobs? Ask them what they liked or did not like about those programs and how likely they are to re-enroll.
• Where do your employees work? In one office at their desks all day? Or are they in the lab, at the jobsite, or on the road? Where is a good place to reach them? In a formal meeting? Informally in the lunchroom? Online?
• How do your employees access information about their company benefits? In a printed handbook or on the web? From an email, a flyer, a video, or a lunchtime brownbag session?

Create groups of employees that share common characteristics. Avoid a "one size fits all" approach, which invariably leaves some people out. By grouping employees according to specific criteria, you can create messages that resonate with each group, connect with each group using their preferred medium, and motivate them to enroll by addressing their specific needs and interests.

It’s important to audit and evaluate what’s worked in your past Open Enrollment efforts, and what hasn’t worked.

A few questions to consider:

• What lessons have you learned over the years that can help more employees take advantage of your benefits programs this year?
• What kinds of communications and activities have resulted in increased employee participation? Did some generate a lot of interest and enthusiasm while others fell flat?
• What do past results tell you about your employee population?
• Has your employee population changed over the past few years? Is it time to try new communication medium, like web-based, mobile, or video (instead of the traditional flyers and benefits fairs), to reach a new employee population that includes more Millenials?

The outcome of this auditing exercise may surprise you. You may find that you need more of certain engagement tactic and less of another. You may find that you need more and more frequent communications to your employees. You may find that you need fewer communications, but you need to connect with employees through different channels. Your time and resource are limited, so you want to focus on only those tactics that get great results.

Let’s face it. Open Enrollment can be a confusing, stressful time for your employees. They have many choices to make. They have to grapple with big life issues—health and healthcare, how best to care for family members, and how to pay for it all. This is a time of potentially difficult kitchen table discussions about personal finances. These can range from quick, back-of-the-envelope estimates to detailed family budget reviews.

During this complex time, keep your messaging simple. Information about your benefits programs is important, but don’t overload your employees with details. Most employees base their enrollment decisions on answers to four basic questions:

1. What is it?
2. Why do I want it? What’s in it for me?
3. How does it work?
4. How do I sign up?

Most employees are pressed for time. Emphasize that enrolling in your benefits programs is quick and easy. Call out the ways your benefits programs are convenient and easy to use.
All employees want to save money. Focus on “pocketbook” messaging. Emphasize the savings your employees can enjoy by enrolling in your benefits programs.

Not everyone researches their benefits choices in the same way. Offer your employees choices on how to absorb information, and extend your messages to more employees by exploring a variety of communications channels to deliver your benefits program information.
Communication channels may include:

• Email
• Your company Intranet
• takecarewageworks.com
• Videos
• Webinars
• Printed collateral, including flyers and posters
• Your company benefits handbook
• Virtual and physical benefit fairs
• Conference calls and recorded voicemail messages
• Live meetings, workshops, lunchtime brownbag sessions

Don’t limit yourself to just one communication channel. Mix it up. Include a combination of traditional and digital communication vehicles. For example:

• Make printed collateral readily available at your workplace, but email links to virtual benefits fairs where employees can browse benefits information with their families on their home computer or tablets.
• Tack a poster to your break room bulletin board that includes a URL to your company Intranet page where employees can learn more about a specific benefit program.
• Send an email to your employees inviting them to join a recorded webinar or live meeting about your benefits programs.

When you use a variety of channels and create a regular cadence to your communications, you reach a greater number of employees and motivate more employees to enroll.

To create an Open Enrollment employee engagement campaign, you’ll need to determine:

1. Who you will target? Which groups of employees will you address?
2. How will you reach your target audiences? Which communications channels will you use?
3. How often will you communicate with each group throughout your Open Enrollment period? Twice a month? Weekly? Every day for a week until Open Enrollment closes?
4. Which messages will pique the interest of each group? Which messages will encourage them to learn more and sign up? What do they need to know about timing?
5. How can your employees sign up? Be sure you have a clear call to action. Make the enrollment process simple and straightforward.
6. Who can your employees contact when they have questions?

Finally, be sure to track the results of each campaign so you know which tactics work best for an even more successful Open Enrollment next year.