Open enrollment is a chance for your organization to demonstrate how you value your employees by offering benefits that can make a real difference in their lives.

But benefits are often confusing, and a complicated selection process can discourage employees from taking full advantage of all the services you offer — which can lead them to undervalue their total compensation package. Plus, answering enrollment questions and tracking participation can eat up a lot of HR’s time.

Use the following checklist to plan a smooth open enrollment experience for both employees and HR.

Design a Rewarding Employee Experience

1. Offer the Benefits Employees Actually Want.

No one benefits if the services you offer are not the services employees need or want. Before designing benefits packages, invite employee feedback on the benefits you already offer and check utilization data.

• How? With Paylocity’s Employee Voice, you can send automated surveys and track employee satisfaction over time.

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Learn More: The 14 Best Employee Benefits to Dazzle Your Talent

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2. Add Flexibility.

Financial wellness is as critical for your employees as physical and mental wellness. A flexible benefits experience integrates easily with complementary programs, like health savings accounts (HSAs) and flexible spending accounts (FSAs), among others. 

• How? Deliver a unified experience to participants with easy access to plans and funds with a single login.

3. Give Employees Decision Support.

While employees want choices, selecting the right plan for themselves and their families can feel overwhelming. With a self-guided app, employees can make decisions based on their preferences and unique situations to ensure their benefits meet their specific needs.

• How? Powered by AI, Paylocity’s Benefits Decision Support generates estimated out-of-pocket costs, cost comparisons, and recommendations for medical, HSA, and FSA plans.

4.  Provide 24/7 access.

Employee self service lets employees manage their enrollments, check spending account balances, and file claims when it’s convenient for them — without HR involvement.

• How? With a user-friendly mobile app, employees can get critical deadline and coverage information, access insurance cards, and check the status of their benefits.

5. Verify and Confirm Elections.

Elections are typically binding for the upcoming year, so employees should double-check their choices align with their needs and preferences. Once confirmed, employees must submit their elections before the deadline, as late submissions may result in a loss of coverage or benefits.

• How? Paylocity’s simple step-by-step enrollment experience, equipped with tooltips and cost breakdowns, makes benefit selection simple and transparent.

Reduce HR Admin Time and Stress

6. Communicate Early and Often.

During open enrollment, there’s no such thing as overcommunication. Send an announcement at least one month before the start of the open enrollment period that includes key dates and highlights changes from the previous year. Then, stay in touch throughout the process.

• How? With a communication platform like Paylocity’s Community, you can schedule reminders and set up an “Ask HR” group to answer frequently asked questions.

7. Train your HR Team.

Benefits can be confusing for HR professionals, too! Review plans with your team to make sure they know what’s new and walk through any changes to the enrollment process.

• How? A learning management system (LMS) makes it easier to create custom trainings, including video tutorials, and track course completions.

8. Stay Compliant.

There are a host of federal and state laws that govern employer-offered benefits and health coverage, like the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to name a few.

• How? Your benefits technology should provide eligibility notifications, help you manage ACA efficiently, and automatically generate and send Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) files to carriers.

9. Leverage an Integrated HCM System.

A comprehensive HR and payroll solution improves eligibility tracking and payroll deduction accuracy, minimizing errors by reducing manual data entry.

• How? Paylocity also offers hundreds of third-party integrations that facilitate transactions with carriers and prevent wasted payments.

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Learn More: HR 101: What Are HRIS Integrations?

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10. Use data to measure impact.

Track open enrollment progress to boost participation as needed. Then, dig into your data to analyze benefits utilization, contribution amounts, and other data points to make decisions about the benefits you offer.  

• How? Share data insights with leadership to evaluate your success this year and start planning for next year.

Paylocity Simplifies Benefits Administration

Our complete and customizable HCM platform streamlines open enrollment and ongoing benefits administration, making it easy to automate workflows and navigate compliance while providing employees a simple, intuitive experience. Learn more.