The 7-Point Checklist for Open Enrollment Comms That Actually Get Read

You leave your benefits renewal meeting, and there’s so much you need to communicate to your employees. Rate increases, plan changes, and so much more. You start crafting an email with all the details, everything they could possibly need to know as they make their way through open enrollment. You hit send at 4:45 pm on Friday and head into your weekend feeling good that it’s off your to-do list before next week.

But your email is a flop. No one read it, and if they did, they definitely didn’t understand it.

So what went wrong? That email landed in your employee’s inbox while they were wrapping up their week. When they opened it, they were hit with so much detail and benefits jargon they panic closed it and promised themselves they’d open it later. Spoiler alert: by Monday it was buried in their emails, and it was never opened again.

So, let’s spare you the heartache of flopped emails, and give you seven tips to create a great open enrollment comms plan.

7 Tips for a Great Open Enrollment Communication Plan

1. What changed should be clear. Don’t just post the new plan rates. Post how the cost is changing for employees. As HR, we live and breathe these plans, but our employees only think about them once each year. Assume they don’t remember the details of the current plans and specifically call out what’s different in a way that’s easy to digest. Create tables and graphics. The good news is that with AI tools, these types of visuals are quick and easy to make.

2. Simply explain why there's a change. This doesn’t need to be a novel, just 1-2 sentences that help employees understand why this change needed to happen. Provide enough context to build trust, not enough to require a benefits degree.
3. Clarify what they need to act upon. A call to action should be clear and simple. Think of one sentence that answers the question ‘what do I need to do’. If there's no action needed, make sure you say that so that employees aren’t left trying to decipher their takeaways.
4. Make deadlines clear. Focus on making sure the dates they need to do something are clear and not buried in an attachment.
5. Ensure they know where to go for help. Benefits can be complicated, so give your team a clear contact or resource for questions. Not just ‘reach out to HR’ but a clear email address or Teams channel they can go to for their question. 
   

   You’ve nailed the content, but there are two more steps: 

6. When you send your communications matters. Remember that Friday afternoon email? Not great timing. Your employees just didn’t have the time to focus on it. Instead, think about the natural rhythms of your business and pick a time where employees are less rushed. For most Monday-Friday teams, this is a Tuesday or Wednesday morning.
7. It's not just one and done. Your benefits changes will need more than a single email to get the job done. Instead, build in a multi-channel communications plan that meets employees where they’re at. Think of a combination of emails, real-time announcements, and Slack/Teams posts that are timed around key moments where we need employees to take action or be notified. Different channels shouldn’t just be a copy and paste of the same message; tailor your material to each channel. For example, use Teams for short/sweet nudges with links leading to your detailed comms.

As you build your communications plan this open enrollment season, use this list as a checklist to make sure that you make this the smoothest open enrollment season yet. And if you want a look at how ZayZoon ran this playbook at top speed, keep reading.

Living this in real-time at ZayZoon

We had to run this playbook at ZayZoon with almost no runway. A vendor-driven change, entirely outside our control, meant that with just two weeks' notice, we had to go to market for an entirely new benefits plan, which left exactly five days for our employees’ open enrollment window.

After a few deep breaths to calm the initial panic, we built a comms plan using the checklist above as our gut check on all our comms. Our first notices were almost immediate. Before we had a finalized plan or pricing, we gave our employees a heads-up that a benefits plan change was coming quickly and we were going to need their help to get through it together. While we didn’t have all the plan details, we shared the why behind the change, what we knew, and clearly communicated what we didn't yet know.

Once plan design and pricing were locked, our comms laid out the cost and coverage impact and explained the reasoning behind it. Both employees and HR had been worried about cost increases, and so we shared the steps we had taken to keep them as low as possible, and were honest where some plans still had small increases.

Next came the actual open enrollment window. Five days did not leave any wiggle room for stragglers, so in addition to our written comms, we threw a virtual benefits party. What does one do at a benefits party? Well, we sent each attendee lunch, since food always gets people to come. We had our benefits broker join the party for a live Q&A. Then we left the room open, pumped the tunes, and gave people time to fill out forms with help still on hand.

Everyone got through open enrollment in five days, and the employee reaction surprised us (although it shouldn't, since the team at ZayZoon is great). Employees were understanding, patient, and clearly rallying as a team.

What stood out afterward wasn't that we actually pulled it off; it was that the checklist held up even when in the most chaotic of changes. With no time to overthink, the comms plan leaned really hard on the basics: what changed, why, what to do, and by when. Turns out that's all people actually needed.

It also started a new habit for us. We'd kept our initial comms focused on the core changes and not all the extra perks our new carrier offers. Once things settled, we started a monthly "benefits tidbit." It’s a quick Slack post about a perk most people didn’t even realize they have (like wearable discounts, access to wellness services, and more). It allows us to communicate all the extra value in our benefits plan without trying to cram it into one announcement. It also keeps our team engaged with our benefits offering for a longer period of time, not just during the limited window of open enrollment.

Five days is an extreme case, and I would love to have a bit more time in the future. But it did prove to be a useful test: if this checklist can carry us through a forced, no-notice benefits switch, it'll carry you through a normal renewal season too. Feel free to borrow it for your next one.