Worksite Smarter.
This enrollment season: Challenge or opportunity?

Posted on: September 20, 2022

It’s open enrollment season for many companies and it comes at a time when we are facing economic challenges, such as high inflation and the rising cost of consumer goods—putting pressure on employees’ wallets. As a result, many benefits producers and employers have concerns that this enrollment season may have participation challenges. This means we all need to step up and do what we can for employees, helping to ensure they do not miss out on valuable group voluntary benefits.

And here’s why…

Now, more than ever, working Americans and their employers need you. That’s because you are part of something bigger — helping your clients not only attract and retain top talent through benefits, but to help their employees become financially stable. According to LIMRA research, only 57% of employees feel they understand their life insurance benefits at work and prefer a combination of communication approaches to learn more.¹ Increasing the availability of educational resources helps, but it’s not enough to just passively provide more information—we need to do more to help them recognize the lifelong value of insurance.

Working Americans may be feeling the need to tighten their budgets, cut back on spending and find ways to keep more of their hard-earned money in their pockets. One area where workers may seek to cut costs is with their group voluntary benefits. But when it comes to benefits at the workplace, a $1 saved this year, may equate to higher premiums tomorrow or even jeopardize the well-being of those that count on them today if left uninsured. This is especially true when it comes to more robust protection products such as group whole life insurance where the cost of coverage is time or age-based, and generally provide lower rates the sooner you enroll. It’s also the type of protection known for its reliability, permanency, predictability (premium), and reduced market sensitivity.

One way to help educate and promote the value is to explore the ways your clients communicate with their employees. Consider a multi-channel strategy to spread the word because employees like to digest their content through different resources. An effective communication plan promotes group voluntary benefits through as many accessible touch points as possible. Another opportunity is to utilize segmentation and personalization of messaging (i.e. emails) wherever possible. However, these are just two recommendations to help your clients improve engagement and participation.

Earlier this year, MassMutual Worksite conducted a webinar, Worksite Optimized. How to engage employees and drive enrollment, with insightful tips on how to improve the enrollment experience with key questions you should be asking your clients to help ensure successful enrollment. We’ve received positive feedback about the discussion. If you missed this webinar or would like a refresher, I encourage you to watch the on-demand replay.

As a final point, enrollment communications should not be a once-a-year event. We need to communicate the value of group voluntary benefits to employees throughout the year. Given continued economic uncertainty, this is especially true as we enter into 2023.

I wish you great success this enrollment season!