Annual open enrollment usually takes place during the “end-of-year crunch.” It’s stressful, both professionally and personally, with the holidays further shortening the ability to reach out to employees, most are left to rush through their benefit selection, adjustments and sign-up process.
Understanding
Companies with busy year-ends prosper with an off-cycle personal communications campaign. It relieves some of the stress revolving around open enrollment. Team members can focus on understanding personal needs that relate to company provided and supplemental benefits. In conjunction with boosting benefit and/or program understanding employee appreciation is often increased because their leader includes a timely organization related message.
Engagement
Off-cycle personal communication provides a better experience for the entire team with a positive, even dramatic effect on increasing benefit understanding. Employee comments are often eye opening from a common, “now I see how I can use that,” to, “wow I didn’t know we had a benefit that can help us in that way.” An off-cycle experience enables team members to focus on how their company provided benefits and programs fulfill their needs. Engagement increases in many ways.
Too often forgotten in our digital age, this one-on-one communications method, proven with over 500,000 employees, consumes very little time for busy HR teams and it’s conducted during a less busy time of year. It’s completely customized and cost free when offering a voluntary benefit. The entire team increases engagement with better understanding and appreciation.
