With employee benefits representing a significant amount of organizational budgets, employers are looking to drive employee engagement and retention by ensuring that employees understand the large array of options available. Yet, despite the importance of their decisions, many employees still struggle to understand their options and do not spend much time making their benefits elections. It seems like it’s an uphill battle to get employees to slow down and take the time to truly understand the value of the benefits they’re being offered.

HR leaders have a choice when it comes to the challenge of benefits communication. To do things the same because they’ve always done it that way, or to take a chance, innovate, and think of new ways to communicate. As EBN stated, “When it comes to benefits, historical means of communication no longer cut it.” And we couldn’t agree more. Here are a few ways to up the ante of employee engagement:

1. Give employees a helping hand. A powerful recommendation engine like MyChoice can help employees easily find the right package of coverage to fit their unique needs. By answering just a few jargon-free questions, employees can find plans that work together to provide coverage designed to fit their financial, emotional, and physical situation.

2. Make info entertaining and engaging. Our clients have recently seen success integrating custom video content from GuideSpark directly within the enrollment experience, to educate and engage with employees when they need it most. Not only can this help employees make an informed decision, but it can also help them use their benefits wisely.

3. Automate your communication. Help remind employees of actions they need to take at time when they need to take action. For example, set up intervals of communication that remind an employee that they need to provide dependent verification documentation to complete their enrollment. This can save you significant amounts of time answering common questions from employees.

4. Measure your engagement efforts. For example, compare GuideSpark video analytics with plan movement analytics to show how communication can influence enrollment. Data gives you power to take action.

THE ONE THING: Don't copy-paste your annual enrollment strategy from the year before. Progress comes from change, and now is the time to try something new!