Employees Don’t Understand Benefits: 6 Fixes for Open Enrollment

More than 80% of your employees don’t understand benefits. And that’s an issue as open enrollment season bears down.

They need to understand what they have, what they need and what they could have.

That means HR pros and their teams want to up their education game so employees understand benefits today to make better decisions during open enrollment — and throughout the year so they use and engage with what’s available and ideal for them.

Why They Don’t Understand Benefits

On average, about 85% of employees are confused by their benefits, according to a Hubspot study. Anecdotally, 15% of them know this much: where their card is!

Many don’t understand their benefits. Some don’t care enough to learn more. In fact, more than 90% of employees say they typically select the same plan from the prior year, according to a survey by Voya Financial.

But don’t fret too much. Employees are willing to do more than throw their hands in the air and hope for the best.

In another study by Voya Financial, nearly 60% of “American workers spent more time reviewing their benefits offered by their employer during the fall open enrollment period,” says Rob Grubka, president of Voya Employee Benefits. “This is good news suggesting that many employees did not simply hit the ‘default button’ during open enrollment and likely signed up for additional workplace benefits. The challenge now … especially among younger workers, like millennials … is providing ongoing support and education to help employees understand how to maximize their new benefit selections to address their holistic financial wellness needs.”

Knowing that most employees don’t fully understand where they stand with benefits, you’ll want to help them learn more.

Conveying Complex Information

Think of benefits information as complex information. Yes, easy for you to understand. But employees don’t always understand the terminology, concepts and applications. So use these best practices for conveying complex information during open enrollment.

1. Start with Intrigue

People will try harder to understand information – complex or simple – when they’re interested in it from the get-go. So get them intrigued before you start to break down the complex information.

A couple of tactics:

Give them the WIFM (What’s In It For Me). Tease your audience with how information will benefit them in the end. For instance, “You want to know how you can save 25% on your health insurance costs this year, right?”

Set up the suspense. Instead of scary suspense, give employees a sunny suspense. For instance, “A third of your colleagues saved 25% on their healthcare costs last year. You should be able to do it this year.”

2. Simplify (Again and Again)

Most people think they’ve simplified their message to the barest bones. Meanwhile they’re still steps away from people actually understanding it.

Communication expert Bruce Lambert gives this advice: “Simplify far beyond when you think you’ve simplified enough.”

One way – and this is an old tool we use in journalism – is to break it down like you’re explaining it to your grandmother. Of course, she’s smart and sassy. So she likely only needs the most basic version to grasp the concept.

3. Focus on the Problem

When you need to communicate complex information, focus on the problem it solves rather than on describing what the solution does or how something works.

For instance, avoid getting into how employees can change elections so their benefits plan costs less. Instead, focus on the problem – perhaps, high deductibles – and how two changes during enrollment can lessen those.

4. Divide and Conquer

When your audience must know the background or broader information – details you need to include beyond the problem – break it into two categories. Then drop a few items in each so they can recognize the difference and more easily digest the information.

For instance, in the case of healthcare benefits, you might break them down to Me & We. You could say, “‘Me’ is the care you pay for – such as deductible, co-pay and express clinic care. ‘We’ is the care your insurance pays for – such as costs beyond copay and deductible, annual well visits, emergency care.”

5. Compare the Unfamiliar to the Familiar

When people can see the correlation between something they’re familiar with and something that’s foreign to them, the foreign becomes familiar.

When possible, compare something complex to something that touches their everyday lives.

For instance, employees might not understand all the codes associated with the care they receive – the codes that healthcare providers use to diagnose and bill, which show up on the Explanation of Benefits (EOBs). But they likely see the codes associated with produce and deli items in the supermarket. So you might say, “Healthcare codes, like supermarket codes, are a universal language that allow everyone from healthcare providers to insurers to help you manage your well-being.”

6. Practice

Communicating complex information doesn’t come naturally, Lambert warns.

First, you’ll want to memorize key phrases – those that break down the complex information into its most essential parts. That way, you’ll always know what to say and can lean into those if people seem confused.

Finally, when you know you’ll need to convey complex information – especially during open enrollment – practice in front of the mirror, on video and with friends until it’s second nature.