Open enrollment is over. First, pat yourself on the back for doing a great job during a stressful time. Secondly, it’s time to reflect on what we’ve learned throughout 2023 open enrollment. In this blog, we’ll provide insights on the benefits engagement data we’ve collected from our digital benefits communications solution, LearnYour Benefits. Use these insights to improve your benefits communications in 2023.
Continue benefits communications throughout 2023
Even though employees have already signed up for benefits, many don’t understand what they’ve chosen. 55% of employees wish they had more information about their benefits throughout the year. Ongoing promotion of benefits helps employees:
– Understand how to use their benefits
– Make optimal benefits decisions year-round
– Feel supported by their employers
Educating employees about their benefits year-round means you don’t have to cram so much information into open enrollment. Employees tend to learn better with short bursts of learning. This year-round approach eases the “congestion” of being approached by employees throughout the year, as questions arise, if they don’t understand their benefits.
Implementing a year-round benefits messaging plan is possible through a digital solution, like LearnYour Benefits.
3 trends we saw during 2023 open enrollment
Open enrollment trend predictions are great, but we’ll never know how employees interacted with their benefits information until after the fact. Here are the data trends we saw during 2023 open enrollment, and what the key takeaways are.
1. Sessions are higher, up 30%.
Employees prefer to learn in short, information-packed bursts. When employees looked at their benefits education site, they only spent an average of 3.58 minutes on it. These short learning bursts were also seen in 2021, when employees spent an average of 3.50 minutes learning.
Although sessions remained brief in 2022, employees were looking at their benefits education site more often. Overall, sessions were up 30%, which tells us employees are increasingly interested in their benefits.
Another reason employees engage more with benefits education sites is because we’ve prioritized mobile accessibility. Not every employee has a computer, and mobile phones are more convenient to check on-the-go. Overall, 50% of employees prefer benefits information to be available on an online portal.
Takeaways for 2023:
– Make content available online
– Create focused digital experiences that can be consumed in small bites
2. Top video in 2022: “Benefits terms”
The top video in 2022 was “Benefits Terms,” a video that explains basic benefits terminology. Clearly, employees are struggling to understand confusing benefits jargon. Since it’s impossible to avoid benefits terms altogether, it’s necessary to clearly explain these terms before you can expect an employee to understand them.
Benefits terms aren’t used every day; they’re like a new language that employees need to learn before they can understand more in-depth information. When you use benefits jargon without explaining it, employees can’t fully understand what they’re learning.
Takeaways for 2023:
– Promote foundational building block videos that explain benefits terms and benefits as a whole.
– Simplify benefits communications so employees can understand them.
3. Customization is key.
Clients with the most sessions as a multiple of employee quantity were those with customized designs, specialized videos, and personalized communications. This implies that employees appreciate on-brand customized benefits content.
Employees prefer to see content that is relevant to them. Navigating through unnecessary, unneeded information distracts employees and causes frustration.
Takeaways for 2023:
– Add helpful information, resources, and links into templated videos
– Use content recommendation tools
– Create and upload your own branded videos
– Send relevant emails promoting benefit offerings
Start collecting your own benefits communications data
We make collecting data easy at LearnYour Benefits. Our digital solution tracks how employees are using their benefits education experience. This up-to-the-minute data is available to you 24/7, and will help you document and improve your benefits communications programs.
When you know what benefits communications are working, you can continually improve your messaging strategy. Plus, LearnYour Benefits greatly reduces your year-round benefits communications workload, while significantly increasing benefits awareness and adoption among employees.
Thanks to our proprietary desktop and mobile capabilities, we offer scalable pricing and solutions for small to midsize employers, midsize to large enterprises, brokers, associations, and benefits product companies.
Our next-level approach helps you succeed because:
– We’re highly flexible and customizable for all your benefits communications needs.
– Our service teams and intuitive admin tools make customization effortless.
– Our video-focused approach increases the effectiveness of your benefits communications.
– Any size organization can now use top-tier technology to boost benefits adoption and create a strong ROI.
– Enterprises benefit from precise messaging thanks to our customization tools.
– Brokers and associations can use our platform to cut their open enrollment communications efforts while also attracting, retaining, and growing their practice.
Schedule a demo today to learn more about LearnYour Benefits.
