During open enrollment, embrace voluntary benefits as the 'opening act'

When talking about benefit plans at open enrollment with employer clients or employees, I always encourage broker-adviser partners to think of it in terms of attending their favorite performer's concert. 

Let's say you just bought tickets to Metallica, Jay-Z or Elton John. You're spending top dollar and time to see the main event, the headliner. But the party starts with the opening act. The same can be said about benefits enrollment. 

I made this analogy recently, during a spirited webchat series sponsored by BCS Financial Corporation alongside host Ed Ligonde, EVP of Nielsen Benefits Group (and my weekly podcast co-host), Charlotte Santa Cruz of Santa Cruz Insurance Group, and Dan McNeill, director of ancillary products and distribution strategy for BCS Financial. We all weighed in with ideas for raising the bar on employee engagement at open enrollment. 

As night follows day, every employer and employee wants to learn about health insurance offerings. It's their No. 1 concern. And as someone who specializes in what I like to call "enhanced" benefits, which the rest of the industry describes as "voluntary," I get that — and it's totally fine. Supplemental medical, hospital indemnity, accident, critical illness, disability, life, prepaid legal or anything else that's in the mix are always the opening act. But the learning curve is steeper for these benefits, which can be glossed over at open-enrollment gatherings. 

Read more: Ready to liven up client benefits? Suggest a shopping spree

With that in mind, why would you ever talk about health insurance first? You'll run out of time for any discussion on enhanced benefits, and then by the end of the presentation they become an afterthought. "Not to worry!" so the script goes. "We can just talk about it next year, right? I know it's already been a three-hour meeting." This is pretty much how every meeting goes with employers and employees.

So why not switch it up? Just flip the script and start with the opening act, which is vital and fun. I don't care what you talk about. The point is to do it first while your audience is fresh. I promise you, by the end of that, they're not going to cancel the meeting and say, "we ran out of time to talk about health insurance, so we'll just skip that." And if you have to schedule a follow-up meeting just for medical, no problem. You pay top dollar and time is important. You take your time to go see your favorite show. So schedule the opening act as voluntary benefits, which is not so exciting, but then you never run out of time.

Once the lineup of this annual rite has been pinned down, the next task is figuring out how the content of this event will be explained — just like musicians will put careful thought into their lyrics. As much as I want to "sell" accident, critical illness, hospital and whatever other plan, I don't ever mention that on message communications. I'll talk about medical if it's a medical enrollment. I'll also talk about student loan repayment. I'll talk about identity theft. I'll talk about pharmacy carve-out. I'll talk about something that is more worthy of engagement that people actually would care about. 

I promise you, I've beta tested it for years. If I send a text message to a bunch of employees and say, "Hey, we have a great accident plan!" Doesn't matter. Employees are not going to click the button because nobody cares about an accident or critical illness plan.

Read more: Ask an Adviser: When does it make sense to use an enrollment firm?

But what they do care about, particularly these days, is pet insurance, lifestyle and experience-based benefits that are topical. You should do it off-cycle when you can, though it depends on the effective date for medical. If I'm meeting an employer for the first time in February, March, April, May or June, for example, I am darn sure going to push for an off-cycle enrollment for multiple reasons. A lot of times, they're putting in a new benefit enrollment platform. 

It will be extremely helpful to boost the enrollment as far as engagement and will get people acclimated with the system. They're going to get used to it. They'll be able to log in and get ready for the main event at the end of the year, which will be medical. And — oh my gosh — the participation skyrockets on accident, critical illness, hospital, etc. 

Another way we can add significant value to a client's mission is by either budgeting in for employer-funded enhanced benefits or reallocating money that they may be wasting elsewhere.

For example, a company with more than 200 employees that's potentially squandering $100,000 on benefits that nobody knows about or values could pocket $40,000, then take the other $60,000 and earmark $25 per employee per month to go on a benefits shopping spree. From my experience, the average employee will at least match whatever their employer gives them. How many of us want sticky business that stays on the books? It's mighty difficult for an employer to pay for a shopping spree for a year or two and then take it away. 

By devoting enough time and energy to the opening act of enhanced benefits, we will do a much better job of helping our clients make enrollment an event to remember.