The Essential 2024 Open Enrollment Checklist for Lean HR Teams

With today’s emphasis on health and well-being and how indispensable healthcare has become, employers must offer their people a comprehensive, desirable benefits package. It’s not just expected; it also has positive effects on how employees view their employers. Moreover, it’s a critical element in attracting and retaining talent — an especially important issue today for small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs). 

Benefits administration can be complex and time-intensive for many reasons. Aside with constantly changing regulations, organizations typically offer multiple benefits, which can require significant resources. In addition, data must be updated and sent to individual carriers separately (which can require manual entry), employee communications and training on available benefits must be distributed, and ongoing reporting needs to be done throughout the year.  

Many leaner HR teams are already challenged by limited resources and having to wear multiple hats. There is a clear opportunity for these professionals to automate and streamline manual processes and use technology to gain visibility into key benefit metrics — all of which can help reduce benefit costs and free up time and resources so they can focus on growing their businesses.

Why do you need a benefits open enrollment checklist? 

Even if you’re a veteran of open enrollment season, using a checklist can be incredibly beneficial — especially for smaller HR teams. It helps organize and streamline the many tasks involved, from evaluating benefits to communicating with employees, ensuring nothing is overlooked. This organization leads to a more efficient process overall. 

Additionally, a checklist can help you plan and execute a detailed communication strategy, which is essential for keeping employees well-informed about their options and deadlines. By reducing employee frustration and confusion, you can significantly enhance satisfaction with your benefits enrollment process. 

A checklist also helps ensure that all legal and regulatory requirements are met, helping you stay compliant. And by reviewing and updating the checklist based on feedback and past experiences, you can continuously improve your company’s open enrollment process year over year.

Benefits Open Enrollment Checklist for SMB HR Professionals

Planning and preparation

• Review current benefits

  • Assess the effectiveness of existing benefits
  • Identify areas for improvement or additions

• Set a budget

  • Determine your overall benefits budget
  • Allocate funds to different benefit categories

• Create a timeline

  • Establish key dates and deadlines for communication, enrollment, and benefits changes

• Choose a benefits administration platform

  • Select a user-friendly system that meets your company’s needs

     

Employee communication

• Develop a communication plan

  • Determine the best channels (email, company intranet, companywide meetings)
  • Create clear and concise messaging that’s easily understandable for all employees

• Provide educational materials

  • Offer resources such as FAQs, webinars, or one-on-one discussions

• Address employee concerns

  • Be prepared to answer questions and address concerns

     

Enrollment process

• Offer multiple enrollment options

  • Provide online, mobile, or in-person enrollment
  • Ensure a smooth and accessible process

• Verify eligibility

  • Confirm eligibility for all benefits based on company policies and legal requirements

• Collect necessary documentation

  • Gather required paperwork from employees

  • Check to ensure accuracy and completeness

     

Benefits administration

• Update employee records

  • Accurately update employee information and benefit selections
  • Maintain accurate records for compliance and administration

• Enroll employees in benefits

  • Process enrollments and ensure timely enrollment in benefits

• Manage benefits changes

  • Handle changes in benefits, such as additions, deletions, or changes in coverage

     

Compliance and legal considerations

• Review legal requirements

  • Stay informed about federal and state laws related to benefits
  • Ensure compliance with regulations like COBRA, HIPAA, and ERISA

• Obtain necessary documentation

  • Collect and maintain required documentation for compliance purposes

• Address data privacy

  • Protect employee personal information and comply with data privacy laws

     

Post-enrollment tasks

• Send enrollment confirmations

  • Notify employees of their selected benefits and enrollment status
  • Provide contact information for questions or issues

• Manage benefits administration

  • Ensure timely and accurate payment of premiums
  • Address any benefit-related issues or questions

• Evaluate the process

  • Gather feedback from employees and review the open enrollment process
  • Identify areas for improvement in future enrollments

How HR and payroll software streamlines open enrollment for SMBs

It’s clear that open enrollment is a time-consuming and complex process for small to mid-sized businesses. So now that you’ve reviewed the open enrollment checklist, it’s time to dig into how you can make this annual chore even easier. 

At the top of the list is leveraging the right HR and payroll software solution, which can help you significantly streamline the process, reduce errors, and improve employee satisfaction.

• Centralized benefits administration

  One of the key benefits of HR and payroll software is its ability to centralize benefits administration. By storing all employee information, benefits selections, and eligibility criteria in a single database, HR professionals can easily access and manage this data. Automated processes further streamline the process by reducing manual data entry and minimizing errors. This ensures that employee information is always accurate and up to date.

• Employee self-service portal

  An employee self-service portal is another valuable feature of HR and payroll software. It allows employees to view their benefits options, make changes, and enroll online. This not only reduces the administrative burden on HR staff but also improves employee satisfaction by providing a convenient and user-friendly experience.

• Automated communications

  HR and payroll software can also automate many of the communication tasks associated with open enrollment. This includes sending personalized messages to employees based on their specific needs and benefits. By automating communications, HR professionals can save time and ensure that all employees receive consistent and accurate information.

• Compliance management

  Staying compliant with ever-changing regulations is a challenge for many SMBs. An HR solution can help by tracking regulatory changes and providing timely notifications for compliance deadlines. Additionally, the software can maintain an audit trail of benefits administration activities, which is essential for compliance purposes.

• Reporting and analytics

  Data-driven insights are vital for making informed decisions about benefits programs. HR and payroll software can provide valuable reports and analytics on employee benefits usage, trends, and costs. This information can be used to identify areas for cost savings and optimization, as well as to benchmark against industry standards. In addition, many solutions allow you to conduct employee surveys to help determine which types of benefits employees find the most valuable, allowing you to plan a benefits mix that works best for everyone.

HR and payroll software can be a valuable tool for SMBs looking to streamline their open enrollment process. By centralizing benefits administration, providing employee self-service, automating communications, managing compliance, and offering data-driven insights, these solutions can help HR professionals save time, reduce errors, and improve employee satisfaction.

Conclusion

In today’s competitive business landscape, offering a comprehensive benefits package is essential for attracting and retaining top talent. However, managing benefits administration can be a complex and time-consuming task, especially for leaner HR teams. By leveraging a benefits open enrollment checklist and the right HR and payroll software such as UKG Ready, your small to mid-sized business can streamline processes, reduce errors, and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements. The result? A more efficient and employee-friendly open enrollment experience and a stronger bottom line.

Learn how UKG Ready Benefits streamlines and automates complex administrative processes so you can realize your benefits strategy more quickly — and easily deliver your benefits information to the appropriate insurance carriers, financial partners, and COBRA administrators.