Open Enrollment for New Employees

OPTIMIZE YOUR PRE-BOARDING PROCESS

The key to easing new employees on board, lies in giving them the materials and information they need ahead of time.

Whether it’s by sharing an information sheet, or onboarding them through a learning management system (LMS), there are many ways that companies can speed up employee benefits education while keeping costs to a minimum.

By having an effective pre-boarding process, employers can answer basic employee questions like:

• Why do I need coverage?
• What are my options?
• How many of my family members can benefit from my plan?
• How can I save the most money this year?
• How much is this going to take out of my paycheck?

Answering these questions beforehand empowers new hires to learn outside office hours and allows them to make highly-specific questions during enrollment meetings that will help them choose the perfect plan for themselves and their families.

MAKE THE MOST OUT OF REMOTE ONBOARDING

Video Conferencing tools like Zoom and Microsoft Teams can ease the scheduling problems that arise during open enrollment.

Indeed, instead of getting bogged down by traffic or traveling restrictions, online onboarding allows your benefits advisors to explain all the coverage options that your new employees have available to them anytime, anywhere.

Moreover, new employees – who could otherwise feel anxious among a crowd – can feel comfortable asking questions to benefit advisors from the relative anonymity of a chat.

Remote onboarding has its drawbacks as well – such as requiring more documentation – but with more employees working from home than ever, remote onboarding offers a great way of educating new hires with minimal effort and redundancy.



OPEN MULTIPLE CHANNELS FOR FEEDBACK

Benefits education isn’t an overnight process. Your employees are unlikely to understand what are the new ACA changes for 2023 or what coverage suits them best on the first try.

Worse yet, some workers may overestimate their knowledge and not ask the questions they need on time. So unless you want your new hires to finish the enrollment process with more questions than answers you need to create a full feedback loop.

Regularly checking with your new staff and asking them for feedback will help you benefits advisor clear any doubt they have before moving forward.

There are many tools you can use to gather your employees’ opinions – such as surveys, quizzes, apps, etc. Using these tools to open multiple communication channels will ensure your employees can share ideas that you can use to improve your onboarding process on the fly.

USE DIFFERENT FORMATS TO PRESENT BENEFITS INFORMATION

Outside of the HR department, benefits still remain an unfamiliar subject for most workers. However, one way you can speed up your new employees insurance education is by using different media to present the information they need.

While some people might learn fast reading, others might get stuck in the first paragraph. Not everybody is the same but you can ensure that all of your new employees learn at the same pace by giving them multiple sources of information – printed manuals, interactive apps, etc.

Creating these materials requires much time and effort – two things that are scarce during the open enrollment period. One way to solve this issue efficiently is creating highly-customized videos that your employees can easily digest, and this is a service that many insurance brokers offer.

Whether it’s designing your employee benefits package or taking charge of your new employees onboarding education, having hands-on benefits advisors is the key to a smooth onboarding process. So if you are still struggling on your own, contact us today.