Open enrollment checklist for HR professionals

Open enrollment checklist for HR professionals

Selecting the right benefits solution is one of the most significant financial decisions companies make every year. As open enrollment quickly approaches, it’s important to get a head start on your planning. With an experienced benefits broker by your side, you can navigate this complex season with ease–and find the best solutions for your business, budget, and employees’ needs.

From start to finish, a benefits broker can streamline your open enrollment process and manage every aspect of renewal season so you don’t have to. They take all the work off your plate and support you at every step, so you can keep your focus on what you do best–providing an exceptional experience for your employees.

Here are all the ways an experienced benefits broker can help you pull off a seamless, stress-free, and successful renewal season this year.

Pre-enrollment audit for an error-free renewal season

As you start planning for open enrollment, we strongly encourage using our automation audit tool to quickly help you find and fix any employee data issues before your renewal season begins. 

99% of the companies we’ve worked with have uncovered employee data errors thanks to our innovative audit tool. Some of the most common billing discrepancies we’ve found include: inaccurate plan provisions with HRIS systems, incorrect rates and eligibility dates, inactive employees still enrolled and current employees enrolled by mistake.

Uncovering and correcting these data errors has even saved some of our clients over $200,000! If you’re interested in automating your audit process, discover how we can help you get started.

Pre-enrollment meetings and support

As any experienced HR pro will tell you–the open enrollment process starts long before the actual enrollment period begins. If you’re working with a benefits broker, they should create a workback schedule for your team with all the upcoming details mapped out so everyone’s on the same page and knows exactly what to expect for important dates coming up. A great broker will also provide you with a step-by-step guide on how to best prepare for the year ahead. 

Portfolio review and renewal strategy

Typically a broker will start scheduling pre-enrollment meetings 5-6 months before your renewal season begins. However, the timing for these meetings will vary, based on your company’s size and needs, or if you’re looking to change funding options or carriers.

During these meetings, you and your broker will evaluate your benefits portfolio and its annual performance–including what worked well, how your employees used their benefits, any gaps in use, and recommended changes for the new year.

Evaluating these needs early on helps you reduce confusion and frustration throughout the process and ensures you have everything needed to understand your options and make the best informed decision.

After reviewing your current portfolio, you’ll look at your renewal options and work with your broker to create a strategy that’s tailored to meet the evolving needs of your company and employees in the upcoming year.

Guiding questions brokers may ask

• What are your business goals for next year?
• How can we best align your business goals with the benefits you offer?
• Are your employees satisfied with the benefits available today?
• Are employees engaged with your benefits? 
• If given a blank slate for benefits, what would your ideal package look like? 
• How important is it that you offer comparable benefits to competitors?

Need help answering these questions? We’ve created a customizable template for an employee benefits survey that’ll help you ask the right questions, get the answers you need, and create a supportive environment that drives business growth.

Renewal strategy broker discussion topics

Here’s some helpful topics to consider discussing with your broker if you’re looking to make changes or updates to your current benefit offerings. 

• Additional or new plans to consider
• Most popular benefits: Mental health, wellness, etc.
• New benefits trending for upcoming year
• How you benchmark relative to competitors
• Alternative funding options
• Funding accounts: HSAs, FSAs, HRAs
• How competitive your benefits are or should be
• Cross-generational ancillary benefits options
• Innovative tech and how it encourages benefits use
• Marketplace trends to consider

Develop a clear, effective communications plan

When it comes to open enrollment, the sooner you help your employees prepare, the better! Your broker will help you create a clear, effective communications plan to ensure everyone has the information, resources, and support they need leading up to open enrollment.

Define your business goals, needs, and objectives

As a first step, work with your broker to outline the key objectives that’ll guide your communications plan and keep your messaging focused and impactful. 

Key topics to consider:

• Learnings from last year, any improvements
• This year’s open enrollment goals
• Metrics that’ll be used to define success
• Metrics that’ll be used to evaluate the employee experience
• Any major benefit, plan, or carrier changes 
• A detailed list of important dates, communication channels, authors, presenters, etc.

To effectively reach your employees where they’re at, make sure your plan covers a range of communication channels, including direct mail, email, phone calls, texts, mobile apps, and print materials. As the saying goes, “Knowledge is power”—and in this case, that power leads to a smoother enrollment process and greater outcomes for your team and employees.

With the right information, employees can make informed plan decisions–elevating their overall satisfaction and experience. It can also boost employee retention and best of all–significantly reduce the last-minute questions, phone calls, and emails your team typically handles during open enrollment and beyond.

Employee education made fun and personal

We get it–learning about benefits can be confusing, daunting, and sometimes downright boring for employees. To help make open enrollment education more fun and interesting, Nava brokers love to create interactive games or quizzes with prizes, to mix in alongside the traditional TL;DR videos, emails, and other standard educational materials sent out. 

Curious to learn more? Ask your broker if they can help create something similar for you this year.

For a more personalized approach, ask your broker to provide office hours, where employees can book 10-minute blocks of time and ask questions or get help with plan selecting. Brokers are experts at breaking down the complex nuances of benefits in a conversational way that makes sense for everyone and they have a wealth of knowledge to share!

Another way to make education more personal, is to review open enrollment during a company all-hands meeting or town hall. Make sure you record the meeting so anyone who’s absent or needs a refresher can easily watch it on demand at any time.

You can also have leadership give an open enrollment presentation. Their focus helps to create focus for employees and sends a signal that this is an important topic to pay attention to.

Beyond pre-enrollment needs, brokers can also help you design post-enrollment education to help employees know how to access, use, and understand their benefits. Brokers will typically provide ongoing employee education throughout the year by organizing creative events on a range of topics to keep your workforce informed and empowered about their benefits.

Finalizing your open enrollment process

Now that your renewal strategy is confirmed and ready to go, it’s time to select your open enrollment dates and commit. (You’ve got this!)

Your broker will review all the necessary forms, paperwork, plan details, and employee information to ensure everything is correct and completed accurately. They’ll also double check to make sure all compliance and legal requirements are being met. 

After confirming your open enrollment materials, strategy, and BenAdmin needs are finalized, your broker will send you the plan summaries and rates, COBRA packets, eligibility processing, and all other needed paperwork to make sure your open enrollment season is a complete success.

Plan selections made easy in the Nava Benefits App

When you partner with a Nava broker, you also gain access to the Nava Benefits App. Designed to help employees navigate, understand, and select their benefits with ease, the app features innovative tools that can streamline open enrollment for both your team and employees.

The app’s decision support tool offers employees personalized plan recommendations based on their historical data and unique needs. It doesn’t tell them which plan to choose, but it does help them compare options and estimate potential costs so they can make informed decisions. Additionally, the app includes healthcare navigation services so employees can easily find the in-network providers in their area.

Beyond simplifying open enrollment, the Nava Benefits App can also reduce your team’s administrative workload throughout the year. The app gives employees the personalized guidance and resources they need to manage their benefits independently. For additional support, our Benefits Advocates are readily available to answer time-sensitive questions and resolve claims–further lightening your team’s workload and saving time.

Year-round broker support

But a broker’s expert guidance doesn’t end with open enrollment. A broker should act as an extension of your team, helping you at every stage of the renewal process–and throughout the rest of the year–so you can keep your focus on what truly matters: enhancing your employees' experience and satisfaction.

Reach out today to learn about how a Nava Benefits broker can streamline your HR processes and ease your workload during open enrollment–and offer year-round support as a trusted extension of your team. Our expert team is here to help.

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