Open Enrollment Strategies for a Dispersed Workforce

With so many employees still working from home this enrollment season, it’s harder for companies to engage with workers about their benefits programs. Companies can’t benefit from informal channels like word of mouth. Email isn’t ideal for communicating complex topics, and with 62% of a worker’s inbox being rated as unimportant, according to SaneBox, benefits messages can get lost in the noise. 

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Alternative Reimbursement: You Can’t Pay Less For Healthcare Unless You Pay Less For Healthcare

Thursday, June 10, 2021, 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM ET

The only way to pay LESS for healthcare is to pay LESS for healthcare. This simple statement sounds obvious but is ignored by most employers as reflected in their health benefits. For years, we have depended on the carriers to negotiate the price we pay for healthcare, having a more direct and transparent reimbursement (provider compensation model) is the key to immediately lowering your health benefits cost.

In a post-COVID world, even zero change in employees’ healthcare costs will likely still result in them spending a greater percentage of their income on healthcare. Why? Most household incomes are down so the focus shouldn’t be on maintaining the status quo, but on fighting to reduce overall costs and expenditures.

RSVP

Meeting the needs of a dispersed workforce is a challenge, but here are some ways you can help employers make sure everyone is on the same page. 

  • Get the C-suite on board. Executives are increasingly seeing their health care spend as a strategic investment, according to a report by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services. Treat health care strategy like any other business growth strategy. Establish strategic goals, and use data to identify the most efficient parts of an employer’s health plan and what needs to be addressed.
  • Gather feedback. Putting the information out there doesn’t mean people are taking it in. People learn and process information differently. Formalize a process to understand what workers have absorbed and what needs to be revisited. 

Build relationships with workers. Communicating benefits throughout the year helps build a relationship between workers and the people who have the right answers about benefits. A year-round communication strategy has a 79% success rate, IFEBP found.