Creating a Better Employee Experience During Open Enrollment
A global organization with 100,000+ employees across multiple business units struggled to effectively manage the annual benefits open enrollment process.
Challenge
Employees found it difficult to navigate paper and online processes, compare options, and get questions answered. As the open enrollment window closed, benefit administrators found themselves chasing 30% of eligible employees.
Senior leadership recognized a need to improve the employee experience while also showcasing the world class benefits being offered. Optia Group was asked to identify options to quickly improve the enrollment process while also developing a framework to support ongoing M&A activity.
Approach
In order to improve the employee experience during open enrollment, the Optia Group team:
- Evaluated open enrollment processes and identified twelve areas for improvement
- Implemented a repeatable project framework to support the open enrollment process, including annual plan design adjustments
- Mentored a cross-functional project team to help advance their project execution skills
- Managed a robust mixed media communication plan with over 50 unique campaigns targeted to a range of employee populations
- Improved employee understanding of benefits and overall enrollment satisfaction
- Reduced manual work, unforeseen issues, and overtime for the benefits administration team
Outcome
After implementing the newly designed project framework, the organization was able to enroll 91% of their employees in an open enrollment window that was shorter than previous years.
This organization continues to see the return on investment achieved by implementing a reusable process based on strong project management rigor, and discipline to adjust these processes year after year, as benefits needs change.
