By conducting post-enrollment surveys, companies can optimize their open enrollment processes, ensuring that employees make more informed decisions, which in turn reduces benefit waste and improves both employee satisfaction and the company's ROI.
Each year, U.S. companies spend an average of nearly $16,000 per employee on healthcare benefits, according to Mercer’s “National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans”. As the largest benefit expense, healthcare plays a crucial role in the overall employee experience. However, companies routinely waste between $1,000 and $2,000 per employee on benefits that are either underused or not valued by their workforce. A significant portion of this waste can be traced back to the open enrollment process, when employees make poorly informed decisions about their benefits.
A post-enrollment survey offers an efficient and low-cost way for organizations to understand how the open enrollment process went from the employee's perspective. These surveys aren’t about measuring ongoing preferences or selecting new benefits. Instead, they focus on evaluating the clarity of communication, ease of decision-making, and overall employee satisfaction during the enrollment process. For just a few dollars per employee, companies can gain invaluable insights that, if acted upon, can drastically improve future enrollment outcomes and reduce unnecessary benefit costs.
Why Post-Enrollment Feedback is Essential
Employees often find open enrollment overwhelming and confusing, resulting in poor decisions that can lead to dissatisfaction, higher healthcare costs, or underutilized benefits. Post-enrollment surveys help employers pinpoint areas where employees struggled, providing critical data that can be used to refine the process for the next cycle.
Understanding the Challenges in Open Enrollment
Open enrollment is a crucial moment for both employees and employers. Employees must evaluate complex benefit options—often with limited time and information—while employers hope their offerings will be appreciated and utilized effectively. When open enrollment communication falls short, the consequences are far-reaching:
Poor Decision-Making: Employees often lack the necessary knowledge to choose the best health plan or other benefits. According to studies, many workers pick plans that do not align with their healthcare needs, leading to higher out-of-pocket costs or underutilized services.
Confusion and Misunderstanding: Even well-structured benefit plans can be confusing. Jargon-filled materials, inadequate access to support, and a lack of clear guidance can leave employees unsure of their choices, which contributes to the waste of funds on unwanted benefits.
Lost Engagement Opportunities: Open enrollment represents one of the few times when employees actively engage with their benefits. When this engagement is negative or confusing, it reflects poorly on the organization, potentially affecting morale and overall trust in the employer.
A quick post-enrollment survey is an efficient way to identify these problems. By asking employees to reflect on their experience shortly after the enrollment period, companies can gather fresh insights into what worked, what didn’t, and how future enrollments can be improved.
Key Benefits of Post-Enrollment Surveys
The return on investment from post-enrollment surveys can be substantial. Below are some of the most significant benefits organizations can expect:
Improved Communication and Clarity: By understanding where employees struggled during the enrollment process, companies can tailor their communication strategies for the next cycle. For instance, if a majority of employees report confusion about certain benefit options, HR teams can simplify the language or offer additional resources.
Higher Employee Satisfaction: Employees who feel supported and well-informed during open enrollment are more likely to appreciate their benefits and the overall value the company provides. This can lead to increased retention, engagement, and morale.
Cost Savings: Reducing confusion during enrollment directly impacts the company’s bottom line. When employees select the right benefits for their needs, they are more likely to utilize them effectively, reducing unnecessary claims and excess spending on underutilized services.
Actionable Insights for Future Cycles: Surveys can reveal trends and recurring issues, allowing companies to make data-driven adjustments year over year. This continuous improvement approach helps ensure that the enrollment process becomes smoother and more effective over time.
Best Practices for Implementing Post-Enrollment Surveys
A well-structured post-enrollment survey should be concise, clear, and focused on the key aspects of the enrollment process. Here are some best practices for ensuring you get the most useful feedback:
Ask the Right Questions: Focus on questions that explore the clarity of benefit materials, the ease of navigating the enrollment platform, and the availability of support resources. Examples include:
- How satisfied were you with the information provided about your benefits options?
- Did you find the enrollment platform easy to use?
- Were you able to access the support you needed to make informed decisions?
Keep it Short and Simple: Employees are more likely to complete a survey if it takes only a few minutes. Aim for no more than 10 questions, with most being multiple-choice or rating scale questions, and one open-ended question.
Timing is Key: Conduct the survey within one week after the enrollment period ends, while the experience is still fresh in employees’ minds. Ideally, employees should be asked to complete the survey at the time of completing enrollment.
Analyze and Act on Feedback: Collecting feedback is only the first step. Companies need to thoroughly analyze the results and take actionable steps to address any issues. Sharing high-level findings with employees and explaining how their feedback will be used to improve the process can further enhance engagement, and will help participation rates the next time you ask for employee feedback.
Understand Performance with Norms: Simply knowing that 60% of employees feel confused during open enrollment might seem concerning. But understanding that the industry norm is 40% confusion makes this insight far more valuable, showing exactly where improvements are needed. Norms allow you to benchmark your results against similar companies, helping you see whether you're ahead of the curve or need to make adjustments. This data-driven perspective is key to making informed decisions that lead to real improvements in your open enrollment process.
Case Study: A Fortune 500 Company's Post-Enrollment Success
Consider the example of a Fortune 500 company that implemented post-enrollment surveys after noticing an increasing number of employees making suboptimal healthcare choices. Over two years, the company used the feedback gathered from the surveys to streamline its communication materials, offer targeted webinars, and redesign its enrollment platform.
As a result:
Employee satisfaction with the enrollment process increased by 25%, as measured by the survey.
Cost savings of nearly $500 per employee per year were realized, largely due to employees selecting healthcare plans that better fit their needs, reducing the number of claims and unnecessary expenses.
Engagement with benefit resources increased by 30%, as employees took advantage of newly introduced tools designed to aid their decision-making.
This case study highlights the tangible financial and operational benefits of using post-enrollment surveys to refine the enrollment process and align employee choices with their actual needs.
Conclusion: A Low-Cost Solution with High Rewards
For just a few dollars per employee, post-enrollment surveys provide an efficient way to gain crucial insights into the effectiveness of the open enrollment process. By identifying pain points and areas for improvement, companies can dramatically reduce wasted benefit expenditures, enhance employee satisfaction, and ensure a better return on their benefits investment.
Organizations that take employee feedback seriously and use it to make meaningful changes to their enrollment processes stand to benefit in both the short and long term. Now is the time to invest in this simple, cost-effective solution that can lead to substantial improvements in both employee experience and financial outcomes.
Is your company ready to make the most of its benefits spend? Start by implementing a post-enrollment survey today, and discover how small adjustments can lead to significant improvements in both cost savings and employee satisfaction.
At HRbrain, we take the hassle out of post-enrollment surveys by handling everything for you. We’ll conduct the surveys, analyze the results, and provide valuable insights, including benchmarks that show how your company performs compared to industry norms. With our expertise, you’ll have the data you need to improve your open enrollment process and reduce benefit waste. Learn more about how we can help.
