![3 Things HR can do for an employee [or people]-centric open enrollment](https://wp.app.gbsbenefits.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/3-steps-open-enrollment-scaled-2560x1280.jpg "3 Things HR can do for an employee [or people]-centric open enrollment")
1. Timelines and Planning: Start planning several months in advance to make big difference in the success of your online open enrollment.
- A few months before your open enrollment, audit your system and carrier bills to verify that all records are up-to-date. Any pending items in the system should also be resolved.
- When possible, make final decisions about your plan renewal and rate contributions 4-6 weeks in advance of hosting your open enrollment. This allows the GBS Online Team time to gather the necessary documentation, build the system, test for accuracy, and make updates.
2. Communication Strategy and System Review: Use the online enrollment platform as a communication tool that will help answer employee questions.
- Review the system before opening it up to employees for open enrollment. Be sure to let GBS know if anything needs to be updated or corrected.
- Reduce your workload by adding language to the enrollment screens that can help answer commonly asked questions, or clarify potentially confusing benefits. Be sure to do this at least a few days before your open enrollment, so that the GBS Team has time to make updates.
3. Require All Employees to Complete Open Enrollment: Open enrollment is an annual opportunity for employees to update records and make any necessary changes in the system.
- Requiring open enrollment for everyone keeps employee demographic and dependent information up-to-date. Throughout the year employees move, get married, get divorced or have a baby, but they don’t always remember to notify you.
- Contributions that are listed for HSA, FSA, and Dependent Care enrollments will not rollover into the new plan year. If employees would like to continue contributing to those accounts, they need to log in and re-enroll each year.
- Communicate clear timelines to employees and make sure everyone has completed their open enrollment in the system before sending enrollment files to the carriers. This will provide carriers with the most accurate information and in turn, your carrier bills will be more accurate.
