Let's celebrate what enrollers do every day. By asking a few questions, they intuitively connect on a personal level and help employees find and appreciate the greatest areas of need for themselves and eligible family members. They provide product information. They walk through the process of fulfilling enrollment with people. They show people how to log in if elections are recorded online. Whether they meet with employees in a group or personal environment, they are right much more often than wrong in recommending benefit packages and helping people fulfill their needs accurately during the process.

Enrollers are the people who get up at 4 in the morning to be on time for meetings. They work three shifts in hospitals and other businesses with multiple shifts. They often travel daily to meet a schedule covering several locations. They battle flight delays, uncooperative employers and poor locations for building a positive experience.

I will never forget a call from one of our enrollers when she was asked by a hospital to conduct meetings in a small basement room next to the morgue. Of course, she turned lemons into lemonade by using the dire environment to remind potential enrollees of their mortality, and got very good participation.

And every day, at every location or sitting in a call center, they deliver. They help employees, they represent employers, brokers and carriers, and they deliver the human-to-human communications people respect and desire.

This is not a Luddite rant against enrollment technology. Rather, it's a celebration of the role enrollers play. Enrollers are a trusted resource for employers and employees alike. Some work in person, some in call centers. But all are the forgotten resource behind most successful enrollment campaigns. Let's celebrate their achievements; let's remember the forgotten enrollers.