If you're like most HR professionals who manage the open enrollment (OE) process, the fourth quarter will be your busiest time of year. You may even be breathing a sigh of relief because you won't start planning for it for weeks.

The trouble is, you think you have time, so you keep putting off little things until suddenly it's September, and you're thrust into crisis mode, desperately trying to play catch-up for all things OE.

Despite what your calendar says, the best time for OE preparedness is now. Here are the six most important things to do to prepare for a successful open enrollment:

1. Use insights from last year's process to start preplanning 

Think back to the OE process last year: What went well that you want to replicate and repeat? What went wrong, and how will you prevent it this year? Based on those learnings, create a checklist of things you can do now in your preplanning phase. Those changes and improvements will drastically enhance this year's experience. Remember, there's no such thing as starting too early. Getting into the planning groove now will help you move your OE process along.

2. Consider your method(s) of communication 

Instead of assuming that email will be your sole communication method, think about a range of options beyond it and gather the info needed to implement them: Zoom webinars, employees' home addresses to mail out postcards and their cell phone numbers so you can send text messages, recorded videos that can reside on your company intranet or be delivered within another communication format, and FAQ documents to answer the same questions employees ask every year. (Bonus: you can reuse and repurpose these!)