Quick-to-read HR news & insights
From recruiting and retention to company culture and the latest in HR tech, HR Brew delivers up-to-date industry news and tips to help HR pros stay nimble in today’s fast-changing business environment.
With open enrollment in full swing, a familiar question may be on your mind: How can I better help employees make one of their biggest decisions of the year?
Most employees (55%) said they don’t understand the options available to them, according to a recent MetLife report. That’s especially true for Gen Z (60%) and millennial (64%) workers. Regardless of generation, 60% of employees wish their companies did a better job informing them about their enrollment options.
HR pros can help ease the “analysis paralysis,” Missy Plohr-Memming, SVP and head of national accounts at MetLife, told HR Brew.
“Employees live with such uncertainty. Uncertainty has never been higher than the environment we’re living in right now, and that really manifests itself in the HR space around benefits, and particularly around this open enrollment season,” she said.
Plohr-Memming, and Julia D’Amico, VP of benefits at HR platform Justworks, shared with HR Brew how people pros can make the open enrollment process easier for employees.
Encourage self-reflection. Urge employees to critically evaluate their lifestyles, Plohr-Memming said. They should ask themselves: How much did I spend on healthcare last year? Am I active? What’s my financial situation?
When employees ask themselves these questions—or, better yet, when their benefits software asks them these questions and provides enrollment recommendations based on their responses—Plohr-Memming said, employees will be able to make better decisions.
“[Open enrollment is] much more than just medical and pharmacy. It’s about it being that all inclusive, holistic look at you as a person, at their employee as a person, one by one by one,” she said.
Communication goes both ways. When there’s “friction and confusion,” D’Amico said employees may “throw their hands up and say, ‘You know what, I’ll just pick this plan. It seems like the cheapest one.’” To help employees feel more comfortable asking about open enrollment, she recommended HR pros set up an avenue for them to submit questions anonymously.
Communication around open enrollment shouldn’t just be up to HR. Frontline managers should also be benefits promoters, advocating for reviewing offerings early and asking questions, Plohr-Memming said. And better communication about benefits can have a waterfall of positive effects for people leaders. She pointed to a MetLife study that found when employees feel like their companies care about them, they’re 130% more loyal, and 120% more productive.
“Let’s be honest, HR professionals and firms, in general, are really struggling with attraction and retention, that productivity number and that loyalty number is the real ROI of benefit communications,” she said.