Making them aware of how valuable a benefits package really is and how it all fits together starts long before enrollment time because, as Greg Morano says, "The value of a benefit plan is only as valuable as the employee perceives it to be."

Morano, CEO of Univers Workplace Benefits in Hammonton, N.J., says brokers and benefits managers need to develop a great campaign around open enrollment. "Get them excited about it," he says. "Make the materials fun to read and consistent. Stay away from mundane brochures."

He advocates branding the benefits plan as something that comes directly from the employer. Make every communication consistent; make sure employees know the benefits package is there for them, that it has value beyond health coverage.

Those materials need to arrive in employees' mailboxes, in their e-mail inboxes and at their desks. They need to know as much as possible about the plans if they are to be expected to make wise decisions about their coverage.

Denise Foster, a principal with Seattle-based Milliman agrees, especially if things are going to be different than the year before. "You've got to prime the pump, get them ready," Foster says. "Give them some context. Show them how any changes are hooked up with the larger business strategies. What are the reasons?"

Companies like Milliman provide professionally produced educational materials that let employees know their employer is offering something more than the standard flyers and brochures. They don't have time for another general piece of mail or electronic message. "Employees spot off-the-shelf stuff a mile away," Foster says. "They are bombarded with so much these days that if they don't see the information as tailored to their needs — personally relevant and meaningful — they'll disregard it."

Something brokers, employers and benefits managers should think about as they put together the educational information for employees is this: Will it help them understand why? No matter how slick the materials, if employees don't understand why, they are going to have lots of concerns about the new plan, and they will undoubtedly have many questions during the next phase, which can lead to long meetings and apathetic responses.

During enrollment

Everyone involved wants enrollment to be a simple, quick, employee-friendly experience. Gathering as much information before the enrollment and using it to create materials with a high degree of relevancy is the best way to ensure that happens. Even the best-designed and executed pre-enrollment plan can fall apart if an employee group is offered just one way to enroll. Morano says it is vital to have a multi-enrollment methodology if participation rates are to soar.

The work force is more diverse today, and not just in terms of gender and ethnicity. More employees than ever are working remotely, telecommuting from the same city or from across the country. Even companies involved in traditional industries like long-haul trucking and many kinds of sales have employees scattered about, which makes face-to-face enrollments difficult.

To meet the needs of every employee, Morano suggests using face-to-face meetings, the Web and the telephone. "The call center," Morano says, "wraps around the others." Even in this era of sophisticated communications and technology, people still want the option of talking to a live human being and having their questions answered.

When the Internet is one of the options, the right tools make all the difference, Foster says. Too many times during enrollments there is a lack of decision-making tools available to employees. A website should have the capability to help workers decide between the two or three or four plans that are being offered. "One thing we have continually used is a high-level summary that compares plan features," Foster says. "Employees can see side-by-side the big-picture features they want." Things like co-pays and deductibles for office and emergency room visits, surgical coverage, pregnancy coverage, physical therapy benefits; whatever is important to an employee can be compared across plans with the help of an online tool.

The online comparison tool is a nice feature, but it better not be the only thing that knows how the plans measure up to each other. The professionals handling the enrollments must know their stuff. They have to be more educated than the employees, and they should know both the intricacies of an employer's old plan and the new plan options.

Morano says Univers's enrollment counselors are all W-2 employees, and they have to pass professional training programs. Plus, the company uses an online monitoring system to track how the process is moving. It's up to each employer to decide what he is comfortable with, but knowing whether enrollers are commission- or salary-based and how much training they have had can make a difference in some cases, so it is information clients should have so they have confidence in the enrollment phase of the process. Once the enrollments are done — via phone, Internet and face-to-face meetings — the broker's, benefits manager's or enrollment company's work is not done. And any mistakes that are made will still be attributed to the employer by an employee, so to continue making the company look like a hero to its workers, the post-enrollment phase must be handled with care.

After the enrollment

"Post-enrollment: it's all about the data," Morano says. "It's collection and delivery. If that doesn't go well, you've got an unhappy client." Even though this is part of the post-enrollment phase, it needs to be handled pre-enrollment.

The data flow should be tested in advance, according to Morano, and then again after the enrollment but before the final data dump. Test the flow of information back to the employer and out to the carriers. A gaffe at this stage of the game can sink all the good work done up to this point. Employees don't care whose fault it is that their insurance coverage didn't kick in on time, they just want it taken care of. Foster suggests giving employees something immediately following the enrollment to let them know what they have, some kind of summary view of everything they were offered, what they chose and a reminder about those things that can be changed. It goes back to making them understand the value of everything they signed up for so they see the package as something of great value.

"Many employers successfully use total compensation statements to remind employees of all that the company offers, as well as the dollar value associated with the benefits and contributed by the company," Foster says. "Otherwise, many don't appreciate what they have or how much the employer is paying toward their benefits." Some insurance professionals and benefits managers send employees tips on how to use the plan most effectively.

Foster says even small things like reminding them — maybe via an e-mail message — where important forms are located can improve their perception of a plan's value. And it makes it appear as if the employer cares more about its employees than they may have thought. Things like this can be done throughout the year without a great amount of effort but can receive a large amount of appreciation. Later in the year, in the early fall if open enrollment is toward the bottom of the calendar, employees should receive a total benefits statement that reminds them of their coverage and gets them thinking about their options for the following year. That's a good way to wrap up the previous year and begin the following year's enrollment process.