The cost of missing open enrollment: $500+
November 18, 2009 by Christian SchappelPosted in: Communication, Health care, In this week's e-newsletter - benefits, Incentives, Latest News & Views, Management, Money, Pay and benefits
One way to boost open enrollment participation: Tell workers it’ll cost them $500 to $2,500 if they fail to participate.
The vast majority of HR managers say missing open enrollment has a big impact on employees’ wallets, according to a recent CareerBuilder.com survey.
How big of an impact?
- 34% of HR managers say missing open enrollment costs employees at least $500 a year in out-of-pocket expenses (for things like medical care and school tuition, which could’ve been covered by their employer)
- 20% say it costs employees more than $1,000, and
- 10% say it costs workers more than $2,500.
That’s distressing news when you consider that half of hiring managers say more than 10% of their workforce misses annual open enrollment deadlines.
In addition, 25% of workers admit they don’t pay attention to benefits changes, figuring their benefits will roll over — or because they feel the whole process is too confusing.
Employees don’t realize what they’re missing
Another big reason employees don’t participate: They don’t realize everything their employer is offering.
When asked which benefits employees aren’t taking advantage of, HR managers said:
- Wellness benefits (45%)
- Flexible healthcare spending (43%)
- Tuition Reimbursement (38)
- Banking programs (25%), and
- Discounts on personal entertainment (24%) and technology (22%).
Tags: careerbuilder.com, HR, open enrollment, Tuition Reimbursement, wellness
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November 19th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I had 11 open enrollment meetings this year…. 6 am to accommodate 3rd shift getting off work, 8 pm at night to accommodate 3rd shift coming on, and various and numerous times throughout varying days of the week…and still had employees who “couldn’t make it”. We can only do so much to educate. Employees have to take some responsibility for their own benefits and knowledge of those benefits.
I strongly suggested to my employees that they should come to one meeting (and offered to allow them to bring their spouses who sometimes are the “decision” maker in the family) and only had one spouse come (did receive a lot of phone calls). I know in March, once EOBs start arriving, I will have a lot of “but I didn’t know” comments. I cannot take responsbility for that.
November 19th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
AMEN to that, Jackie. I know from whence you are coming. Not to mention the ones who make a conscious and “educated” decision to go with one plan or the other and then a few weeks later decide that they really want the other plan.
November 19th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
The bosses’ wives are the worst. The CEO’s wife called me in a panic, totally clueless about the health insurance. I told her I had sent her husband a detailed e-mail with everything they needed to know (since he never attends the meetings). Her response was, “Oh yeah, he forwarded that to me but I didn’t read it.” Since we have a brand-new, complicated 2-card plan this year, it would have been nice had one of them paid at least a little bit of attention.
December 3rd, 2009 at 4:50 pm
I agree with Randi. Executives are the worst. We made changes to the FSA plan last year. We had meetings, sent out at least three e-mails, did a separte benefits newsletter, articles in two issues of the regular company newsletter, posters, and had a benefits fair where employees could ask questions about benefits changes. No one missed the message except the CEO. Six months later when he went to submit a bunch of FSA receipts and they were denied, it was my fault for not making him aware of the changes. We had 750 other employees in the company, none of whom complained that they were unaware. So, when this year’s open enrollment came around I had to fill out the paperwork for him and leave it on his desk to sign. Seriously! Execs are the worst!
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:20 am
Many of the people in my office work in China- we only had 1 call to accomodate them, but, they could have stayed up until 11pm their time to take part in several other calls. A few people said they were travelling (in transit) and could not call in for any of the calls.
So far I haven’t emailed the forms to those people who did not make the effort to call in. Can I get in trouble for that? They have been emailing me this week but I have not been responding–a few people won’t get back until after the enrollment window is over. Should I swallow my pride and just send them the forms? Or teach them a lesson. I don’t want to get in trouble.