What is the best method for enrolling voluntary products? We started discussing this in last month’s article. We believe there are four inputs that must be considered when selecting the best enrollment method:

• The product(s) being enrolled
• The dynamics of the account
• What working conditions you can get from the employer
• The enrollment platform needed

We’ve talked about the first two of these inputs and will now address the last two.

If you’ve answered the questions in part one, you probably have a sense of which enrollment would work best. But let’s add the important issue of working conditions. Start by answering these questions:

• What type of access to employees will the employer allow?
• Will the employer require employees to attend meetings?
• What types of enrollment materials will you have?
• Are the materials customized to the employee or just generic?
• What type of pre-communications will the employer allow?

Using a new example, let’s say we have two products. One product is simple and familiar and one is unfamiliar. The employees in the account do not have access to computers, but we have personalized employee enrollment kits and the employer will allow us to distribute pre-enrollment materials. You can’t plan for an Internet enrollment, but mandatory group meetings or one-on-one meetings would both work.

The final input is related to the enrollment platform. The following questions are relevant here:

• Are all the products from a single carrier, or are multiple carriers included?
• Is the enrollment a general open enrollment where both core and voluntary products will be offered, or is it voluntary only?
• Will the carriers with products be able to accept electronic feeds?

Not all platforms allow multiple carriers’ products to be enrolled, so if you are enrolling multiple companies, you’ll need to choose a platform that does. Or if the carriers don’t accept electronic feeds, you should use paper.